A HANDBOOK TO THE POETRY OF RUDYARD KIPLING CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE PR4857.D9T"""'"'"'"""-"'"'^ * '° "'^ poetry of Rudyard Kipl *iniu™''°°'* 3 1924 013 494 210 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013494210 A HANDBOOK TO THE POETRY OF RUDYARD KIPLING A HANDBOOK TO THE POETRY OF RUDYARD KIPLING BY RALPH DURAND HODDER & STOUGHTON LONDON (S^ First Published in 11)14 DEDICATION TO HENRY JOHN STALLEY {'UNCLE JOHN') FOR MANY YEARS ASSISTANT MASTER OF THE RELIGIOUS, ROYAL AND ANCIENT FOUNDATION OF CHRIST'S HOSPITAL It used to be the custom in the East when a man had committed a capital offence to execute not only the criminal but also the man who had been entrusted with the criminal's education. We in the West are not so logical. We do not punish the tutor for the pupil's misdeeds, and, on the other hand, those of us who escape the gallows are apt to forget to what extent our escape is due to the men who educated us. I wonder how many of the thousands of ' Old Blues ' who have passed through your class-room realise how great is the debt they owe you. Most of us knew you first as the dread Pluto of the Detention School. Without the care that in that capacity you lavished on us we should probably all be worse men than we are. That point of view, however, did not occur to us at the time, and it was not until in fear and dread we entered your class-room that we began to learn to love you. When we first came to you, not as defaulters but as pupils, we believed that the science of Geography consisted of nothing more than an endless string of meaningless and unpronounceable names. You taught us that the world was a very wonderful and fascinating place, and made us yearn for the time when we should be able to go forth and have a look at it for ourselves. DEDICATION We came to you holding the belief that the science of History was nothing more than ' William-the-Conqueror-ten-sixty-six- William-the- Second-ten-eighty-seven,' multipHed by dreariness to an indefinite degree. Under the magic of your wand we saw Norman knight and Saxon footman fight to the death on Senlac Hill ; we heard the thunder of Spanish guns echo along the Sussex shore ; we mingled with the crowd in Whitehall, and, with a clearer focus than our forefathers could have used, saw how much there was of good and how much of base both in the king who died there and in the men who killed him. You taught us directly the measure of the privileges and responsibilities bequeathed to us by those who lived and fought and died for England. Indirectly you taught us that know- ledge has a value more precious than its power to win marks in school and money in after life. Soon after I began work on this book, I re-read the lines, addressed by Rudyard Kipling to one of his former masters : ' ' Let us now praise famous men — Afen of little showing— For their work continueth. And their work continueth. Broad and deep continueth, Greater than their knowing ! The words immediately called you to my mind. For that reason I dedicate this book to you, not in payment of the debt I owe you— I have not wealth enough for that—but in acknowledgment of it. RALPH DURAND. vf INTRODUCTION This book is offered to the public in the hope that it will prove of service to those to whom Mr, Rudyard Kipling's poems are a constant source of delight. Rudyard Kipling has made Extended observation of the ways and works of man, From the Four-mile Radius roughly to the plains of Hindustan, with excursions into prehistoric times, ships' engine- rooms, Freemasonry, and other subjects. His poems consequently abound in precise technicalities, archaic words, and slang expressions enough to justify a glossary of the terms that he uses. An engineer does not need to refer to a dictionary for a definition of the understands what exactly word slip ; a soldier perhaps are slingers; a Biblical student may know all that is now guessed as to the whereabouts oi Javan, and a classical scholar needs no information as to the difference between a thranite and a thalamite. But the general reader who wishes to understand these terms must search for them in dictionaries and other works of reference, and may possibly find his search fruitless. When doubt arose as to whether expressions VII INTRODUCTION were too well known to need explanation, it was decided, for the benefit of the foreign reader, to err on the side of giving too much rather than too little information. A mere glossary of the obscure expressions which he uses would, however, leave the student of Rudyard Kipling's poems but half satisfied. For this reason no apology is needed for embodying in this book short biographical notices, such as those on ' Eddi of Man- hood End,' on ' Gholam Hyder, the Red Chief,' and on ' her that fell at Simon's Town in service on our foes,' or for including references to the rite of johar, the myth concerning ' Upsaras,' or the original propounder of the question ' Is not Calno like Carchemish?' And this book would certainly be incomplete without an explanation of the personal interest that attaches to ' The Rhyme of the Three Captains.' My notes follow the order of the poems as they appear in the various volumes in which they have been collected, from Departmental Ditties to Songs from Books. The last pages are devoted to a few poems that appeared originally in Mr. Kipling's prose works but have not yet been collected into volume form. An alphabetical list of titles and a general index will be found at the end of the volume. RALPH DURAND. vin TiITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED FROM DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES AND OTHER VERSES' PAGE ARMY HEADQUARTERS .... I A LEGEND OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE I PUBLIC WASTE 2 WHAT HAPPENED 3 THE MAN WHO COULD WRITE . 5 MUNICIPAL S A CODE OF MORALS .... 5 THE LAST DEPARTMENT 6 TO THE UNKNOWN GODDESS . 6 THE RUPAIYAT OF OMAR KAL'VIN 7 DIVIDED DESTINIES .... 8 THE MASQUE OF PLENTY 8 THE SONG OF THE WOMEN 9 THE BALLAD OF FISHER'S BOARDING-HOUSE II AS THE BELL CLINKS .... 13 THE GRAVE OF THE HUNDRED HEAD 12 WHAT THE PEOPLE SAID 13 ONE VICEROY RESIGNS .... 14 A TALE OF TWO CITIES .... ix TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED PAGE GIFFEN'S DEBT 17 IN SPRING TIME 18 THE GALLEY SLAVE 18 FROM ' BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS AND ' TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED »THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST THE LAST SUTTEE .... THE BALLAD OF THE KING'S MERCY THE BALLAD OF THE KING'S JEST . WITH SCINDIA TO DELHI THE DOVE OF DACCA THE BALLAD OF BOH DA THONE THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER CATTLE THIEF THE RHYME OF THE THREE CAPTAINS THE BALLAD OF THE ' CLAMPHERDOWN THE BALLAD OF THE 'BOTLIVAR' THE SACRIFICE OF ER-HEB THE GIFT OF THE SEA . EVARRA AND HIS GODS . THE CONUNDRUM OF THE WORKSHOPS THE LEGENDS OF EVIL . ITHE ENGLISH FLAG 'CLEARED' AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT . TOMLINSON THE LONG TRAIL .... FROM 'THE SEVEN SEAS' TO THE CITY OF BOMBAY A SONG OF THE ENGLISH The Coastwise Lights The Song of the Dead The Deep-Sea Cables XI TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED The Song of the Sons 78 The Song of the Cities 78 England's Answer 80 THE FIRST CHANTEY 80 THE LAST CHANTEY 81 THE MERCHANTMEN 83 M'ANDREW'S HYMN 87 THE MIRACLES 96 THE NATIVE-BORN . 96 THE KING . 98 THE RHYME OF THE THREE SEALERS 100 THE DERELICT 108 THE SONG OF THE BANJO 109 THE LINER SHE'S A LADY 112 MULHOLLAND'S CONTRACT 112 ANCHOR SONG "3 THE LOST LEGION . 118 THE SEA-WIFE 123 HYMN BEFORE ACTION . 123 TO THE TRUE ROMANCE 123 THE FLOWERS 124 THE LAST RHYME OF TRUE THOMAS 125 IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE . 128 THE STORY OF UNG 131 THE THREE-DECKER 132 THE AMERICAN 13s THE 'MARY GLOSTER' . 13s SESTINA OF THE TRAMP-ROYAL 138 xii . TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED WHEN 'OMER SMOTE 'IS BLOOMIN' LYRE 138 'BACK TO THE ARMY AGAIN' . 139 'BIRDS OF PREY' MARCH 142 'SOLDIER AND SAILOR TOO' . 144 SAPPERS 146 THAT DAY 147 'the men that fought at minden' 147 cholera camp .... 149 the mother-lodge ISO 'follow me 'ome' 152 tthe sergeant's weddin' 153 the jacket .... 153 the 'eathen .... 155 the shut-eye sentry . 157 FROM 'THE FIVE NATIONS' BEFORE A MIDNIGHT BREAKS IN STORM 159 THE SEA AND THE HILLS 159 161 THE BELL BUOY . CRUISERS 161 DESTROYERS 162 WHITE HORSES 164 THE SECOND VOYAGE 165 166 THE DYKES . THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ 167 167 THE BROKEN MEN . THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN 168 xiii TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED FACE THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR 169 TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED PAGE THE PARTING OF THE COLUMNS 211 TWO KOPJES . 211 BOOTS .... 213 THE MARRIED MAN 213 LICHTENBERG 214 STELLENBOSH 214 HALF-BALLAD OF WATERYAL 216 PIET .... 216 'WILFUL-MISSING' . 219 UBIQUE 220 RECESSIONAL 221 FROM 'SONGS FROM BOOKS PUCK'S SONG 223 A THREE-PART SONG 225 THE RUN OF THE DOWNS 226 BROOKLAND ROAD 226 SIR RICHARD'S SONG 227 A TREE SONG 227 A CHARM 228 CHAPTER HEADINGS : PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS Heading to In the House of Suddhoo— ' ' A stone's throw out on either hand 229 Heading to Cupid's Arrows— 'Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide' 229 COLD IRON .....