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A Choice of Kipling's Verse

February 07, 2023

A Choice of Kipling's Verse, made by T. S. Eliot, with an essay on Rudyard Kipling is a book first published in December 1941 (by Faber and Faber in UK, and by Charles Scribner's Sons in U.S.A.). It is in two parts. The first part is an essay by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), in which he discusses the nature and stature of British poet Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). The second part consists of Eliot's selection from Kipling's poems.

A Choice of Kipling's Verse was republished in 1963.[1]

Critical reception

A Choice of Kipling's Verse rapidly attracted critical attention, both supportive and hostile, on both sides of the Atlantic.

W. J. Turner said that "Mr. Eliot's essay is an admirable example of the finest type of criticism. He succeeds in making us look at his subject's work with freshly opened eyes and he is at once sober, illuminating and sound".[2]

George Orwell naturally took the opportunity to write an extended political essay, which incidentally included his own appraisal of Kipling as man and poet. Orwell condemned Kipling for his imperialism, but defended him from charges of fascism which had recently been raised against him. He disliked Kipling's use of the vernacular. He summed up Kipling as a "good bad poet", where a "good bad poem is a graceful monument to the obvious."[3]

Mulk Raj Anand believed that Eliot had over-praised Kipling's critical thought.[4][5]: 109 

A pseudonymous reviewer in New English Weekly wrote, "Mr. Eliot offers an important defense of Kipling's imperialism".[6][5]: 109 

English poet Norman Nicholson asserted his right as one of the presumed intended audience to comment, and gave his own opinion on Kipling.[specify][7]

Marjorie Farber praised Eliot for his "valuable distinction between ballad-makers and poetry-makers", and for his clearing away some of the prejudices against Kipling; but regretted his failure to acknowledge Kipling's "pleasure in hating".[8]

Louise Bogan wrote, "It is [...] strange to see [Eliot] bending the subtle resources of his intelligence in a hopeless cause" (i.e. that of rehabilitating Kipling).[9]

William Rose Benét wrote (ambiguously), "[Eliot] is not a genius, like Kipling, but his is a subtle and interesting mind".[10]

Lionel Trilling placed Kipling's book in a larger, political and literary context in The Nation (in copyright, and not readable online, but readable in his The Liberal Imagination).[11] His summary response:

Kipling, then, must be taken as a poet. Taken so, he will scarcely rank very high, although much must be said in his praise. ... you can read through the bulky Inclusive Edition of his verse, on which Mr. Eliot's selection is based, and be neither wearied, in part because you will not have been involved, nor uninterested, because Kipling was a man of great gifts...but when you have done you will be less inclined to condemn than to pity.

W. H. Auden wrote a two-page review for The New Republic (in copyright, and not readable online),[12] which Mildred Martin has summarized as "Little on Eliot, chiefly in praise of Kipling".[5]: 112–113 

Carl T. Naumburg called Eliot's choice of poems "a scholarly and intelligently chosen anthology" and "an altogether excellent selection"; and said that "it is obvious that the essay not the anthology is of importance", and that the essay "will always be regarded as a work of outstanding importance in the field of Kiplingiana".[13]

In 2008, Roger Kimball described Eliot's essay as "partly, but only partly, an effort at rehabilitation". "[H]is essay turns on a distinction between 'verse' – at which Kipling is said to excel – and 'poetry,' which, says Eliot, he approaches but rarely and then only by accident." Kimball summarised the essay as "sensitive, intelligent, and a subtle masterpiece of deflation", and also said that "Eliot wants to preserve a place for Kipling, but he also wants to put him in his place – not, we are meant to understand, the same (and higher) place occupied by Eliot himself".[14]

The book

Eliot's essay

Eliot's essay occupies 32 pages, and is dated 26 September 1941.[1]: 36  It is divided into two sections. (Numerical superscripts in the following summary refer to page numbers in the 1963 edition.[1])

Eliot doubted whether anyone could make the most of two such different forms of expression as poetry and imaginative prose. He asserted that for Kipling neither form could be judged individually, and that he was the inventor of a mixed form.5 He called Kipling a ballad-maker, someone whose poems could be understood at first hearing, so that his poems had to be defended against the charge of excessive lucidity, not that of obscurity; and against the charge of being jingles.6,9 He singled out "Danny Deever" as remarkable in both technique and content.11-12 He contrasted the dramatic monologues "McAndrew's Hymn" and "The 'Mary Gloster'", which he considered to belong together.13-14 He noted the "important influence of Biblical imagery and the Authorised Version language upon [Kipling's] writing", and suggested that Kipling was both a great epigram writer and (on the strength of "Recessional") a great hymn writer.16

Eliot found it impossible to fit Kipling's poems into one or another distinct class. The later poems are more diverse than the early. Neither "development" nor "experimentation" seems the right description. The critical tools which Eliot was accustomed to use did not seem to work.16-17 He said that "most of us" (i.e. poets) were interested in form for its own sake, and with musical structure in poetry, leaving any deeper meaning to emerge from a lower level; in contrast to Kipling, whose poems were designed to elicit the same response from all readers.18 Eliot defended himself against the hypothetical charge that he had been briefed in the cause of some hopelessly second-rate writer. He asserted that Kipling "knew something of the things which are underneath, and of the things which are beyond the frontier". He next said, "I have not explained Kipling's verse nor the permanent effect it can have on you. It will help if I can keep him out of the wrong pigeon-holes".19-20 He then quoted in full one poem, "The Fabulists" (1914-1918),(ws) [Note 1] which he said showed Kipling's integrity of purpose and which he thought would have more effect in the essay than in the body of the book.21-22

Eliot opened the second part of his essay by restating his original proposition: that Kipling's prose and verse have to be considered together; while calling him "the most inscrutable of authors" and "a writer impossible wholly to understand and quite impossible to believe".22 He wondered whether Kipling's world-view had been shaped by his upbringing in India under the British Raj - and argued that one of his defining features was his acceptance of all faiths and beliefs, as exemplified in his novel Kim.23-24 He compared Kipling to Dryden, another English writer who put politics into verse: "[T]he two men had much in common. Both were masters of phrase, both employed rather simple rhythms with adroit variations. [...] [T]hey were both classical rather than romantic poets".25-26 For both men, wisdom was more important than inspiration, and the world about them than their own feelings. Nevertheless, Eliot did not wish to overstress the likeness, and recognised the differences.26

Kipling thought his verse and prose as both being for a public purpose. Eliot warned against taking Kipling out of his time, and against exaggerating the importance of a particular piece or phrase which a reader might dislike. He considered that Edward Shanks had missed the point when he called the poem "Loot" (ws) "detestable". In Kipling's military poems, he had tried to describe the soldier (serving or discharged, both unappreciated at home), and not to idealise him. He was exasperated both by sentimentalism and by depreciation and neglect.26-27

Eliot attributed Kipling's development to the time he had spent in India; on travel and in America; and finally settled in Sussex. Kipling had a firm belief in the British Empire and what he thought it should be, while recognising its faults. He was more interested in individuals than in man in the mass. Eliot found Kipling in some way alien, as if from another planet. People who are too clever are distrusted. He compared Kipling with another outsider, the 19th century British politician Benjamin Disraeli.27-28

Kipling had the misfortune of early success, so that critics judged him by his early work and did not revise their opinions to take account of the later.28 He had been called both a Tory (for his content) and a journalist (for his style); in neither case as a compliment. Eliot disagreed, except insofar as those terms could be considered honourable. He dismissed the charge that Kipling believed in racial superiority. Rather, he believed that the British had a natural aptitude to rule and to rule well. He admired people from all races; as can be seen from Kim, which Eliot called "his maturest work on India, and his greatest book". A problem with Kipling was that he expressed unpopular ideas in a popular style. So saying, Eliot concluded his discussion of Kipling's early imperialism. Kipling was not doctrinaire and did not have a programme; for which Eliot rated him favourably over H. G. Wells.29-30

Kipling's middle years are marked by "the development of the imperial imagination into the historical imagination", to which his settling in Sussex must have contributed. He was humble enough to submit to his surroundings, and had the fresh vision of a stranger. There is more than one kind of "historical imagination". One gives life to abstractions, and the larger picture. Another implies a whole civilisation from a single individual. Kipling's imagination was of the second kind.30-31 The historical imagination can convey the vast extent of time, or the nearness of the past, or both. Eliot pointed to Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies as doing both. Kipling was a different kind of regional writer from Thomas Hardy; and not just in that Kipling was chronicling a Sussex he wished to preserve and Hardy the decay of a Dorset he had known from boyhood. Kipling did not write about Sussex because he had run out of foreign and imperial material or because the public demand for it had passed, nor because he was a chameleon who took his colour from his surroundings. He was "discovering and reclaiming a lost inheritance".32-33 The most important thing in Kipling's Sussex stories was his vision of "the people of the soil"; not in a Christian but more in a pagan sense, not as a programme for agrarian reform, but as a counterbalance to materialism and industrialism. Eliot noted the contrast in "The Wish House" (a short story in the 1926 collection Debits and Credits) between its supernatural elements and its sordid realism; he found both it and its two accompanying poems "hard and obscure". Kipling had become more than a mere story teller, and more than the man who had felt it his duty to tell his countrymen things they refused to see. He must have known that his own fame and reputation would get in the way of all but a few people understanding his late parables and the skill with which they were constructed; both in his time and afterwards.33-34

Kipling wrote "verse" rather than "poetry" (two terms which Eliot acknowledged he was using loosely). He handled a wide variety of stanza and metre with perfect competence, but produced no revolution in form. The musical interest of his verse - taken as a whole - is subordinated to its meaning, and that differentiates it from poetry. Doing otherwise would have interfered with his intention. Eliot did not imply a value judgment. Kipling did not write verse because he could not write poetry; he wrote verse because it does something which poetry cannot do. He was a great verse writer. Eliot chose not to name any other famous poets who might be called great verse writers; but declared that Kipling's position in that latter class was not only high but unique.34-36

Eliot concluded by saying that if his essay assisted the reader to approach Kipling with a fresh mind, it would have served its purpose.36

Eliot's selection of poems

Eliot did not attempt to define a critical consensus on the merits of any of Kipling's poems. He chose not to include anything which he considered juvenilia.[1]: 7  His selection expresses the personal opinion of one major poet on another, and deserves attention for that reason.

The titles in the following list are those used by Eliot. They sometimes differ in minor ways from those chosen by Kipling. Dates are included only where Eliot included them. As superscripts: (ws) links to the text in Wikisource of a poem which has no Wikipedia article; [Poem] links to a reputable online source for the text of a poem not in Wikisource; (na) means that no reputable source has been found.

This list is complete

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d The dates are those of the Great War of 1914-18.
  2. ^ A sestina is a fixed verse form dating from the 12th century. Kipling's "tramp-royal" is a tramp or vagrant.
  3. ^ A translation of 7 of the 158 stanzas of "Hymn to Liberty" (1823) by Dionýsios Solomós.
  4. ^ The Garden of Gethsemane was where Christ prayed, and His disciples slept, before His arrest, trial and crucifixion. Eliot said that he did not think that he understood the poem.[1]: 16 
  5. ^ Bolivar is a fictional ship, perhaps named after Simón Bolívar El Libertador.
  6. ^ A chantey is a sailors' work song.
  7. ^ "Ave Imperatrix!" is Latin for "Hail, Empress!"; in context, Victoria, Queen and Empress.
  8. ^ The poem "Our Lady of the Snows" is subtitled "Canadian Preferential Tariff, 1897". This appears to relate to an element of the Canadian budget of 1897 called "British preference", which was intended to grant lower duties on imports into Canada from the United Kingdom and from some of its colonies – only. The intention failed at first, because it conflicted with obligations by the United Kingdom to other countries under existing treaties. The United Kingdom was persuaded to denounce those treaties at the 1897 Colonial Conference, allowing the Canadian intention to take effect.[15]
  9. ^ "Our Lady of the Snows" is a title of the Virgin Mary, but its meaning in this poem is for the reader to decide.
  10. ^ The Irish Guards were, and are, a regiment of foot guards in the British Army.
  11. ^ Kipling's poem "Sussex" was, allegedly, the inspiration for the song "Sussex by the Sea".
  12. ^ Gehazi was a Biblical figure cursed by the prophet Elisha with leprosy for abusing his power. Eliot said that the poem was inspired by the Marconi scandals.[1]: 15–16 
  13. ^ ""Et Dona Ferentes" is from the proverbial phrase Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes ("Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"), and alludes to the Trojan Horse.
  14. ^ "The Holy War" is preceded by a quotation from The Holy War by John Bunyan (1628-1688); and is, at least on its surface, about him.
  15. ^ Mesopotamia was a historical region situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in modern days roughly corresponding to most of Iraq plus Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, Southeastern Turkey, and regions along the Turkish-Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders.
  16. ^ A dyke is an earthen defence against waters; see levee.
  17. ^ Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), famous not only as a diarist but also for his part in turning the Royal Navy into a professional fighting organisation.
  18. ^ 'Omer is the ancient Greek epic poet Homer. "Bloomin'" is a euphemism for the British expletive intensifier "bloody". A lyre is a string instrument something like a small harp, dating back to at least Greek antiquity.
  19. ^ "True Thomas" is Thomas the Rhymer.
  20. ^ In Christian tradition, Martha is a symbol of the active, and her sister Mary of the contemplative, life. See Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary.
  21. ^ "Bobs" was an affectionate nickname for Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (1832-1914). He had been a successful army officer in British India, and in 1895 was made Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Ireland. In 1897, he had published his memoirs, Forty-one Years in India: from Subaltern to Commander-in-chief. In 1899 (i.e. after the date of the poem), he was given overall command of the British forces in South Africa during the Second Boer War.
  22. ^ "Screw-gun" was a nickname of the RML 2.5-inch Mountain Gun, which could be broken down into four parts for easier transport in rough country.
  23. ^ "Belts" is about the use of belts as impromptu weapons in hand-to-hand fighting, especially during inter-unit military brawls.
  24. ^ "The Widow" was Queen Victoria.
  25. ^ For Private Ortheris, see Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris.
  26. ^ A "soldier and sailor too" is a Royal Marine.
  27. ^ A "sapper" is a soldier in the Royal Engineers.
  28. ^ Battle of Minden (1759), during the Seven Years' War, in which an Anglo-German army decisively defeated a French army .
  29. ^ Stellenbosch is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), it was a British military base. Officers who had failed to distinguish themselves in battle were posted there.
  30. ^ "Piet" was a British nickname for a Boer soldier, from the common Afrikaans given name.
  31. ^ The North and South Downs are rolling chalk hills in southeastern England.
  32. ^ The "Chapter Headings" are the introductory verses to some of the short stories in Kipling's 1888 collection Plain Tales from the Hills.(ws)
  33. ^ Ashlar is finely dressed masonry.
  34. ^ "Non nobis Domine" ("Not unto us, O Lord") is a mediaeval Latin hymn used as a prayer of thanksgiving and expression of humility.
  35. ^ After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, he was exiled to the British-controlled island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic; where, in 1821, he died.
  36. ^ The Bandar-log are a tribe of monkeys in Kipling's The Jungle Book.
  37. ^ The translation is (according to Kipling) of Book V, Ode 3 by the Roman poet Horace. Both Kipling and Eliot may, if not must, have known that Horace wrote only four books of odes.
  38. ^ Har Dyal is a character in the short story "Beyond the Pale" in Kipling's 1888 collection Plain Tales from the Hills.
  39. ^ Mowgli is the fictional protagonist of Kipling's The Jungle Book stories.
  40. ^ The Battle of Edgehill (1642) was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was indecisive.
  41. ^ The navigable part of the River Medway flows through the English county of Kent and empties into the Thames Estuary. It was once an important depot of the Royal Navy. It was successfully raided in 1667 by the Dutch fleet under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.
  42. ^ "Gertrude's Prayer" is from the short story "Dayspring Mishandled" in Kipling's 1932 collection Limits and Renewals.

Poems

  1. ^ "The Long Trail". Kipling Society. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  2. ^ "The Holy War". Kipling Society. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  3. ^ "France". Kipling Society. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  4. ^ "Mesopotamia 1917". Kipling Society. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  5. ^ "The Veterans". bartleby.com. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  6. ^ "The Craftsman". bartleby.com. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  7. ^ "'When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre...'". Kipling Society. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  8. ^ "The Run of the Downs". Kipling Society. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  9. ^ "My New-cut Ashlar". Kipling Society. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  10. ^ "Non Nobis, Domine!". LiederNet. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  11. ^ Jones, R. T., ed. (1994). "The Waster". The Works of Rudyard Kipling. Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 9781853264054.
  12. ^ "A St Helena Lullaby". Kipling Society. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  13. ^ "A Translation". Kipling Society. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  14. ^ "The Land". Kipling Society. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  15. ^ "The Queen's Men". Kipling Society. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  16. ^ "The Trade". Kipling Society. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  17. ^ "Song of the Galley-slaves". Kipling Society. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  18. ^ "Norman and Saxon". Kipling Society. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  19. ^ "Edgehill Fight". Kipling Society. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  20. ^ "The Dutch in the Medway". Kipling Society. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  21. ^ "Gertrude's Prayer". Kipling Society. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  22. ^ "The Storm Cone". Kipling Society. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  23. ^ "The Appeal". Kipling Society. Retrieved 13 May 2017.

References

  • Martin, Mildred (20 March 2012) [1972]. A Half-century of Eliot Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles in English, 1916-1965. Bucknell University Press. ISBN 978-0838778081. The source used to locate, and to quote from, several of the early reviews of A Choice of Kipling's Verse cited in this article.
  1. ^ a b c d e f Eliot, T. S. (1963) [December 1941]. A Choice of Kipling's Verse Made by T. S. Eliot. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-07007-7.
  2. ^ Turner, W. J. (2 January 1942). "A New View of Kipling". The Spectator. p. 16. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  3. ^ Orwell, George (February 1942). "Rudyard Kipling". Horizon. No. 5. pp. 111–125. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  4. ^ Anand, Mulk Raj (March 1942). "Mr. Eliot's Kipling". Life and Letters and the London Mercury and Bookman. No. 32. pp. 167–170.
  5. ^ a b c Martin, Mildred (20 March 2012) [1972]. A Half-century of Eliot Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles in English, 1916-1965. Bucknell University Press. ISBN 978-0838778081. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  6. ^ Gens (7 May 1942). "Views and Reviews: Eliot on Kipling". New English Weekly. No. 21. pp. 25–26.
  7. ^ Nicholson, Norman (1 June 1942). "Book Review: A Choice of Kipling's Verse". Theology. 44 (264): 377–380. doi:10.1177/0040571X4204426416. S2CID 172088182.
  8. ^ Farber, Marjorie (26 September 1942). "The Apostle of an Empire". New York Times Book Review. pp. 1, 22.
  9. ^ Bogan, Louise (2 October 1943). "Review of A Choice of Kipling's Verse". The New Yorker. pp. 76–77.
  10. ^ Benét, William Rose (9 October 1943). "Phoenix Nest". Saturday Review. p. 20.
  11. ^ Trilling, Lionel (16 October 1943). "Mr. Eliot's Kipling". The Nation. pp. 436–441.
  12. ^ Auden, W. H. (25 October 1943). "The Poet of the Encirclement". The New Republic. pp. 579–580.
  13. ^ Naumburg, Carl T. (6 November 1943). "A Packing of Kiplingiana". Saturday Review.
  14. ^ Kimball, Roger (April 2008). "Rudyard Kipling unburdened". The New Criterion. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  15. ^ Taylor, K. W. (1948). "History of Tariffs in Canada". In Wallace, W. Stewart (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Canada. Vol. VI. Toronto: University Associates of Canada. pp. 102–108.

Further reading

  • Eliot, T. S. "Excerpts from 'Rudyard Kipling'". tseliot.com. Retrieved 23 June 2017. Selected passages from Eliot's essay.

February 07, 2023
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A Choice of Kipling s Verse made by T S Eliot with an essay on Rudyard Kipling is a book first published in December 1941 by Faber and Faber in UK and by Charles Scribner s Sons in U S A It is in two parts The first part is an essay by American born British poet T S Eliot 1888 1965 in which he discusses the nature and stature of British poet Rudyard Kipling 1865 1936 The second part consists of Eliot s selection from Kipling s poems A Choice of Kipling s Verse was republished in 1963 1 Contents 1 Critical reception 2 The book 2 1 Eliot s essay 2 2 Eliot s selection of poems 3 Notes 4 Poems 5 References 6 Further readingCritical reception EditA Choice of Kipling s Verse rapidly attracted critical attention both supportive and hostile on both sides of the Atlantic W J Turner said that Mr Eliot s essay is an admirable example of the finest type of criticism He succeeds in making us look at his subject s work with freshly opened eyes and he is at once sober illuminating and sound 2 George Orwell naturally took the opportunity to write an extended political essay which incidentally included his own appraisal of Kipling as man and poet Orwell condemned Kipling for his imperialism but defended him from charges of fascism which had recently been raised against him He disliked Kipling s use of the vernacular He summed up Kipling as a good bad poet where a good bad poem is a graceful monument to the obvious 3 Mulk Raj Anand believed that Eliot had over praised Kipling s critical thought 4 5 109 A pseudonymous reviewer in New English Weekly wrote Mr Eliot offers an important defense of Kipling s imperialism 6 5 109 English poet Norman Nicholson asserted his right as one of the presumed intended audience to comment and gave his own opinion on Kipling specify 7 Marjorie Farber praised Eliot for his valuable distinction between ballad makers and poetry makers and for his clearing away some of the prejudices against Kipling but regretted his failure to acknowledge Kipling s pleasure in hating 8 Louise Bogan wrote It is strange to see Eliot bending the subtle resources of his intelligence in a hopeless cause i e that of rehabilitating Kipling 9 William Rose Benet wrote ambiguously Eliot is not a genius like Kipling but his is a subtle and interesting mind 10 Lionel Trilling placed Kipling s book in a larger political and literary context in The Nation in copyright and not readable online but readable in his The Liberal Imagination 11 His summary response Kipling then must be taken as a poet Taken so he will scarcely rank very high although much must be said in his praise you can read through the bulky Inclusive Edition of his verse on which Mr Eliot s selection is based and be neither wearied in part because you will not have been involved nor uninterested because Kipling was a man of great gifts but when you have done you will be less inclined to condemn than to pity W H Auden wrote a two page review for The New Republic in copyright and not readable online 12 which Mildred Martin has summarized as Little on Eliot chiefly in praise of Kipling 5 112 113 Carl T Naumburg called Eliot s choice of poems a scholarly and intelligently chosen anthology and an altogether excellent selection and said that it is obvious that the essay not the anthology is of importance and that the essay will always be regarded as a work of outstanding importance in the field of Kiplingiana 13 In 2008 Roger Kimball described Eliot s essay as partly but only partly an effort at rehabilitation H is essay turns on a distinction between verse at which Kipling is said to excel and poetry which says Eliot he approaches but rarely and then only by accident Kimball summarised the essay as sensitive intelligent and a subtle masterpiece of deflation and also said that Eliot wants to preserve a place for Kipling but he also wants to put him in his place not we are meant to understand the same and higher place occupied by Eliot himself 14 The book EditEliot s essay Edit Eliot s essay occupies 32 pages and is dated 26 September 1941 1 36 It is divided into two sections Numerical superscripts in the following summary refer to page numbers in the 1963 edition 1 Eliot doubted whether anyone could make the most of two such different forms of expression as poetry and imaginative prose He asserted that for Kipling neither form could be judged individually and that he was the inventor of a mixed form 5 He called Kipling a ballad maker someone whose poems could be understood at first hearing so that his poems had to be defended against the charge of excessive lucidity not that of obscurity and against the charge of being jingles 6 9 He singled out Danny Deever as remarkable in both technique and content 11 12 He contrasted the dramatic monologues McAndrew s Hymn and The Mary Gloster which he considered to belong together 13 14 He noted the important influence of Biblical imagery and the Authorised Version language upon Kipling s writing and suggested that Kipling was both a great epigram writer and on the strength of Recessional a great hymn writer 16Eliot found it impossible to fit Kipling s poems into one or another distinct class The later poems are more diverse than the early Neither development nor experimentation seems the right description The critical tools which Eliot was accustomed to use did not seem to work 16 17 He said that most of us i e poets were interested in form for its own sake and with musical structure in poetry leaving any deeper meaning to emerge from a lower level in contrast to Kipling whose poems were designed to elicit the same response from all readers 18 Eliot defended himself against the hypothetical charge that he had been briefed in the cause of some hopelessly second rate writer He asserted that Kipling knew something of the things which are underneath and of the things which are beyond the frontier He next said I have not explained Kipling s verse nor the permanent effect it can have on you It will help if I can keep him out of the wrong pigeon holes 19 20 He then quoted in full one poem The Fabulists 1914 1918 ws Note 1 which he said showed Kipling s integrity of purpose and which he thought would have more effect in the essay than in the body of the book 21 22Eliot opened the second part of his essay by restating his original proposition that Kipling s prose and verse have to be considered together while calling him the most inscrutable of authors and a writer impossible wholly to understand and quite impossible to believe 22 He wondered whether Kipling s world view had been shaped by his upbringing in India under the British Raj and argued that one of his defining features was his acceptance of all faiths and beliefs as exemplified in his novel Kim 23 24 He compared Kipling to Dryden another English writer who put politics into verse T he two men had much in common Both were masters of phrase both employed rather simple rhythms with adroit variations T hey were both classical rather than romantic poets 25 26 For both men wisdom was more important than inspiration and the world about them than their own feelings Nevertheless Eliot did not wish to overstress the likeness and recognised the differences 26Kipling thought his verse and prose as both being for a public purpose Eliot warned against taking Kipling out of his time and against exaggerating the importance of a particular piece or phrase which a reader might dislike He considered that Edward Shanks had missed the point when he called the poem Loot ws detestable In Kipling s military poems he had tried to describe the soldier serving or discharged both unappreciated at home and not to idealise him He was exasperated both by sentimentalism and by depreciation and neglect 26 27Eliot attributed Kipling s development to the time he had spent in India on travel and in America and finally settled in Sussex Kipling had a firm belief in the British Empire and what he thought it should be while recognising its faults He was more interested in individuals than in man in the mass Eliot found Kipling in some way alien as if from another planet People who are too clever are distrusted He compared Kipling with another outsider the 19th century British politician Benjamin Disraeli 27 28Kipling had the misfortune of early success so that critics judged him by his early work and did not revise their opinions to take account of the later 28 He had been called both a Tory for his content and a journalist for his style in neither case as a compliment Eliot disagreed except insofar as those terms could be considered honourable He dismissed the charge that Kipling believed in racial superiority Rather he believed that the British had a natural aptitude to rule and to rule well He admired people from all races as can be seen from Kim which Eliot called his maturest work on India and his greatest book A problem with Kipling was that he expressed unpopular ideas in a popular style So saying Eliot concluded his discussion of Kipling s early imperialism Kipling was not doctrinaire and did not have a programme for which Eliot rated him favourably over H G Wells 29 30Kipling s middle years are marked by the development of the imperial imagination into the historical imagination to which his settling in Sussex must have contributed He was humble enough to submit to his surroundings and had the fresh vision of a stranger There is more than one kind of historical imagination One gives life to abstractions and the larger picture Another implies a whole civilisation from a single individual Kipling s imagination was of the second kind 30 31 The historical imagination can convey the vast extent of time or the nearness of the past or both Eliot pointed to Puck of Pook s Hill and Rewards and Fairies as doing both Kipling was a different kind of regional writer from Thomas Hardy and not just in that Kipling was chronicling a Sussex he wished to preserve and Hardy the decay of a Dorset he had known from boyhood Kipling did not write about Sussex because he had run out of foreign and imperial material or because the public demand for it had passed nor because he was a chameleon who took his colour from his surroundings He was discovering and reclaiming a lost inheritance 32 33 The most important thing in Kipling s Sussex stories was his vision of the people of the soil not in a Christian but more in a pagan sense not as a programme for agrarian reform but as a counterbalance to materialism and industrialism Eliot noted the contrast in The Wish House a short story in the 1926 collection Debits and Credits between its supernatural elements and its sordid realism he found both it and its two accompanying poems hard and obscure Kipling had become more than a mere story teller and more than the man who had felt it his duty to tell his countrymen things they refused to see He must have known that his own fame and reputation would get in the way of all but a few people understanding his late parables and the skill with which they were constructed both in his time and afterwards 33 34Kipling wrote verse rather than poetry two terms which Eliot acknowledged he was using loosely He handled a wide variety of stanza and metre with perfect competence but produced no revolution in form The musical interest of his verse taken as a whole is subordinated to its meaning and that differentiates it from poetry Doing otherwise would have interfered with his intention Eliot did not imply a value judgment Kipling did not write verse because he could not write poetry he wrote verse because it does something which poetry cannot do He was a great verse writer Eliot chose not to name any other famous poets who might be called great verse writers but declared that Kipling s position in that latter class was not only high but unique 34 36Eliot concluded by saying that if his essay assisted the reader to approach Kipling with a fresh mind it would have served its purpose 36 Eliot s selection of poems Edit Eliot did not attempt to define a critical consensus on the merits of any of Kipling s poems He chose not to include anything which he considered juvenilia 1 7 His selection expresses the personal opinion of one major poet on another and deserves attention for that reason The titles in the following list are those used by Eliot They sometimes differ in minor ways from those chosen by Kipling Dates are included only where Eliot included them As superscripts ws links to the text in Wikisource of a poem which has no Wikipedia article Poem links to a reputable online source for the text of a poem not in Wikisource na means that no reputable source has been found This list is complete L Envoi Departmental Ditties ws Dedication from Barrack Room Ballads ws Sestina of the Tramp Royal 1896 ws Note 2 The Greek National Anthem 1918 ws Note 3 The Broken Men 1902 ws Gethsemane 1914 18 ws Note 1 Note 4 The Song of the Banjo 1894 ws The Pro Consuls ws McAndrew s Hymn 1893 The Mary Gloster 1894 The Ballad of the Bolivar 1890 ws Note 5 A Song in Storm 1914 18 The Last Chantey 1892 ws Note 6 The Long Trail Poem 1 Ave Imperatrix ws Note 7 A Song of the English 1893 ws The Gipsy Trail ws Our Lady of the Snows 1897 ws Note 8 Note 9 The Irish Guards 1918 ws Note 10 The Settler 1903 ws Sussex 1902 ws Note 11 The Vampire 1897 ws When Earth s Last Picture Is Painted 1892 ws The Ballad of East and West 1889 Gehazi 1915 ws Note 12 Et Dona Ferentes 1896 ws Note 13 The Holy War 1917 Poem 2 Note 14 France 1913 Poem 3 The Bell Buoy 1896 Mesopotamia 1917 Poem 4 Note 15 The Islanders 1902 ws The Veterans Poem 5 The Dykes 1902 ws Note 16 The White Man s Burden 1899 Hymn Before Action 1896 ws Recessional 1897 For All We Have and Are 1914 ws The Benefactors ws The Craftsman Poem 6 Samuel Pepys 1933 na Note 17 When Omer Smote Is Bloomin Lyre Poem 7 Note 18 Tomlinson 1891 ws The Last Rhyme of True Thomas 1893 ws Note 19 The Sons of Martha 1907 ws Note 20 Epitaphs of the War 1914 18 ws Note 1 Bobs 1898 ws Note 21 Danny Deever Tommy Fuzzy Wuzzy Screw Guns ws Note 22 Gunga Din The Widow at Windsor Belts ws Note 23 The Young British Soldier ws Mandalay Troopin ws The Widow s Party ws Note 24 Gentlemen Rankers Private Ortheris s Song ws My girl she gave me the go onst Note 25 Shillin a Day ws Back to the Army Again ws Birds of Prey March ws Soldier an Sailor Too ws Note 26 Sappers ws Note 27 That Day ws The Men that Fought at Minden ws Note 28 The Ladies ws Follow Me Ome ws The Sergeant s Weddin ws The Eathen ws For to Admire ws The Absent Minded Beggar Chant Pagan ws Boots The Married Man ws Stellenbosch ws Note 29 Piet ws Note 30 Ubique The Return ws Cities and Thrones and Powers ws The Recall ws Puck s Song The Way Through the Woods ws A Three Part Song The Run of the Downs Poem 8 Note 31 Sir Richard s Song A D 1066 A Tree Song A D 1200 A Charm ws Chapter Headings Note 32 Cold Iron ws My New Cut Ashlar Poem 9 Note 33 Non Nobis Domine Poem 10 Note 34 The Waster 1930 Poem 11 Harp Song of the Dane Women A St Helena Lullaby Poem 12 Note 35 Road Song of the Bandar Log ws Note 36 A British Roman Song A D 406 A Pict Song The Law of the Jungle MacDonough s Song ws The Heritage ws Song of the Fifth River The Children s Song ws If A Translation Poem 13 Note 37 The Land Poem 14 The Queen s Men Poem 15 Mine Sweepers 1914 18 The Love Song of Har Dyal ws Note 38 Mowgli s Song Against People ws Note 39 The Trade 1914 18 Poem 16 Note 1 The Runes on Weland s Sword 1906 Song of the Galley Slaves Poem 17 The Roman Centurion s Song ws Dane Geld A D 980 1016 Norman and Saxon A D 1100 Poem 18 Edgehill Fight Poem 19 Note 40 The Dutch in the Medway 1664 72 Poem 20 Note 41 The Secret of the Machines ws Gertrude s Prayer Poem 21 Note 42 The Gods of the Copybook Headings 1919 The Storm Cone 1932 Poem 22 The Appeal Poem 23 Notes Edit a b c d The dates are those of the Great War of 1914 18 A sestina is a fixed verse form dating from the 12th century Kipling s tramp royal is a tramp or vagrant A translation of 7 of the 158 stanzas of Hymn to Liberty 1823 by Dionysios Solomos The Garden of Gethsemane was where Christ prayed and His disciples slept before His arrest trial and crucifixion Eliot said that he did not think that he understood the poem 1 16 Bolivar is a fictional ship perhaps named after Simon Bolivar El Libertador A chantey is a sailors work song Ave Imperatrix is Latin for Hail Empress in context Victoria Queen and Empress The poem Our Lady of the Snows is subtitled Canadian Preferential Tariff 1897 This appears to relate to an element of the Canadian budget of 1897 called British preference which was intended to grant lower duties on imports into Canada from the United Kingdom and from some of its colonies only The intention failed at first because it conflicted with obligations by the United Kingdom to other countries under existing treaties The United Kingdom was persuaded to denounce those treaties at the 1897 Colonial Conference allowing the Canadian intention to take effect 15 Our Lady of the Snows is a title of the Virgin Mary but its meaning in this poem is for the reader to decide The Irish Guards were and are a regiment of foot guards in the British Army Kipling s poem Sussex was allegedly the inspiration for the song Sussex by the Sea Gehazi was a Biblical figure cursed by the prophet Elisha with leprosy for abusing his power Eliot said that the poem was inspired by the Marconi scandals 1 15 16 Et Dona Ferentes is from the proverbial phrase Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes Beware of Greeks bearing gifts and alludes to the Trojan Horse The Holy War is preceded by a quotation from The Holy War by John Bunyan 1628 1688 and is at least on its surface about him Mesopotamia was a historical region situated within the Tigris Euphrates river system in modern days roughly corresponding to most of Iraq plus Kuwait the eastern parts of Syria Southeastern Turkey and regions along the Turkish Syrian and Iran Iraq borders A dyke is an earthen defence against waters see levee Samuel Pepys 1633 1703 famous not only as a diarist but also for his part in turning the Royal Navy into a professional fighting organisation Omer is the ancient Greek epic poet Homer Bloomin is a euphemism for the British expletive intensifier bloody A lyre is a string instrument something like a small harp dating back to at least Greek antiquity True Thomas is Thomas the Rhymer In Christian tradition Martha is a symbol of the active and her sister Mary of the contemplative life See Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary Bobs was an affectionate nickname for Frederick Roberts 1st Earl Roberts 1832 1914 He had been a successful army officer in British India and in 1895 was made Commander in Chief of British forces in Ireland In 1897 he had published his memoirs Forty one Years in India from Subaltern to Commander in chief In 1899 i e after the date of the poem he was given overall command of the British forces in South Africa during the Second Boer War Screw gun was a nickname of the RML 2 5 inch Mountain Gun which could be broken down into four parts for easier transport in rough country Belts is about the use of belts as impromptu weapons in hand to hand fighting especially during inter unit military brawls The Widow was Queen Victoria For Private Ortheris see Learoyd Mulvaney and Ortheris A soldier and sailor too is a Royal Marine A sapper is a soldier in the Royal Engineers Battle of Minden 1759 during the Seven Years War in which an Anglo German army decisively defeated a French army Stellenbosch is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa During the Second Boer War 1899 1902 it was a British military base Officers who had failed to distinguish themselves in battle were posted there Piet was a British nickname for a Boer soldier from the common Afrikaans given name The North and South Downs are rolling chalk hills in southeastern England The Chapter Headings are the introductory verses to some of the short stories in Kipling s 1888 collection Plain Tales from the Hills ws Ashlar is finely dressed masonry Non nobis Domine Not unto us O Lord is a mediaeval Latin hymn used as a prayer of thanksgiving and expression of humility After Napoleon s final defeat in 1815 he was exiled to the British controlled island of St Helena in the south Atlantic where in 1821 he died The Bandar log are a tribe of monkeys in Kipling s The Jungle Book The translation is according to Kipling of Book V Ode 3 by the Roman poet Horace Both Kipling and Eliot may if not must have known that Horace wrote only four books of odes Har Dyal is a character in the short story Beyond the Pale in Kipling s 1888 collection Plain Tales from the Hills Mowgli is the fictional protagonist of Kipling s The Jungle Book stories The Battle of Edgehill 1642 was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War It was indecisive The navigable part of the River Medway flows through the English county of Kent and empties into the Thames Estuary It was once an important depot of the Royal Navy It was successfully raided in 1667 by the Dutch fleet under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter Gertrude s Prayer is from the short story Dayspring Mishandled in Kipling s 1932 collection Limits and Renewals Poems Edit The Long Trail Kipling Society Retrieved 11 May 2017 The Holy War Kipling Society Retrieved 23 April 2017 France Kipling Society Retrieved 11 May 2017 Mesopotamia 1917 Kipling Society Retrieved 28 April 2017 The Veterans bartleby com Retrieved 28 April 2017 The Craftsman bartleby com Retrieved 28 April 2017 When Omer smote is bloomin lyre Kipling Society Retrieved 29 April 2017 The Run of the Downs Kipling Society Retrieved 30 April 2017 My New cut Ashlar Kipling Society Retrieved 29 April 2017 Non Nobis Domine LiederNet Retrieved 17 June 2017 Jones R T ed 1994 The Waster The Works of Rudyard Kipling Wordsworth Editions ISBN 9781853264054 A St Helena Lullaby Kipling Society Retrieved 29 April 2017 A Translation Kipling Society Retrieved 17 May 2017 The Land Kipling Society Retrieved 12 May 2017 The Queen s Men Kipling Society Retrieved 12 May 2017 The Trade Kipling Society Retrieved 13 May 2017 Song of the Galley slaves Kipling Society Retrieved 12 May 2017 Norman and Saxon Kipling Society Retrieved 13 May 2017 Edgehill Fight Kipling Society Retrieved 29 April 2017 The Dutch in the Medway Kipling Society Retrieved 29 April 2017 Gertrude s Prayer Kipling Society Retrieved 12 May 2017 The Storm Cone Kipling Society Retrieved 30 April 2017 The Appeal Kipling Society Retrieved 13 May 2017 References EditMartin Mildred 20 March 2012 1972 A Half century of Eliot Criticism An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles in English 1916 1965 Bucknell University Press ISBN 978 0838778081 The source used to locate and to quote from several of the early reviews of A Choice of Kipling s Verse cited in this article a b c d e f Eliot T S 1963 December 1941 A Choice of Kipling s Verse Made by T S Eliot London Faber and Faber ISBN 978 0 571 07007 7 Turner W J 2 January 1942 A New View of Kipling The Spectator p 16 Retrieved 23 June 2017 Orwell George February 1942 Rudyard Kipling Horizon No 5 pp 111 125 Retrieved 22 April 2017 Anand Mulk Raj March 1942 Mr Eliot s Kipling Life and Letters and the London Mercury and Bookman No 32 pp 167 170 a b c Martin Mildred 20 March 2012 1972 A Half century of Eliot Criticism An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles in English 1916 1965 Bucknell University Press ISBN 978 0838778081 Retrieved 3 April 2022 Gens 7 May 1942 Views and Reviews Eliot on Kipling New English Weekly No 21 pp 25 26 Nicholson Norman 1 June 1942 Book Review A Choice of Kipling s Verse Theology 44 264 377 380 doi 10 1177 0040571X4204426416 S2CID 172088182 Farber Marjorie 26 September 1942 The Apostle of an Empire New York Times Book Review pp 1 22 Bogan Louise 2 October 1943 Review of A Choice of Kipling s Verse The New Yorker pp 76 77 Benet William Rose 9 October 1943 Phoenix Nest Saturday Review p 20 Trilling Lionel 16 October 1943 Mr Eliot s Kipling The Nation pp 436 441 Auden W H 25 October 1943 The Poet of the Encirclement The New Republic pp 579 580 Naumburg Carl T 6 November 1943 A Packing of Kiplingiana Saturday Review Kimball Roger April 2008 Rudyard Kipling unburdened The New Criterion Retrieved 23 June 2017 Taylor K W 1948 History of Tariffs in Canada In Wallace W Stewart ed The Encyclopedia of Canada Vol VI Toronto University Associates of Canada pp 102 108 Further reading EditEliot T S Excerpts from Rudyard Kipling tseliot com Retrieved 23 June 2017 Selected passages from Eliot s essay Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title A Choice of Kipling 27s Verse amp oldid 1137435058, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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