The Poetry Of Rudyard Kipling Vol.1: "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."

By Rudyard Kipling

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. Here we look at the works of Rudyard Kipling; that great Victorian, that great writer of Empire, that great man; from ‘The Jungle Book’ to ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ to a great and voluminous poet with works of the calibre of ‘If’ and ‘On The Road To Mandalay’ a man at the top of his craft and always aware of his affect on the minds of us mere mortals. With our almost religious zeal to categorise and pigeon hole everything it should come as little surprise that one of the poems we learnt at school should so regularly be voted the best ever poem. Whether ‘If..’ deserves that credit or not is irrelevant to this empire wandering artist who was not only a fine story teller but a great poet of the Empire, its people and views. In today’ society some of what he had to say was undoubtedly wrong but of its time and we can learn much from that as well as all that was good about his other work. Many of the poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. Among our readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Sep 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780005096

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (12/30/1865-01/18/1936) is considered one of the great writers of his time. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Book preview

The Poetry Of Rudyard Kipling

Poetry is a fascinating use of language.  With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries.  In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage.

Here we look at the works of Rudyard Kipling; that great Victorian, that great writer of Empire, that great man; from ‘The Jungle Book’ to ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ to a great and voluminous poet with works of the calibre of ‘If’ and ‘On The Road To Mandalay’ a man at the top of his craft and always aware of his affect on the minds of us mere mortals.

With our almost religious zeal to categorise and pigeon hole everything it should come as little surprise that one of the poems we learnt at school should so regularly be voted the best ever poem.  Whether ‘If..’ deserves that credit or not is irrelevant to this empire wandering artist who was not only a fine story teller but a great poet of the Empire, its people and views.  In today’ society some of what he had to say was undoubtedly wrong but of its time and we can learn much from that as well as all that was good about his other work.

Many of the poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry.  Many samples are at our youtube channel   http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee    The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.  Among our readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe

Index Of Poems

If…

The Absent Minded Beggar

Gunga Din

Recessional

Kim

Danny Deever

Tommy

The Ballad Of East And West

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Cells

A Song Of The English

Cruisers

Ballad Of Fisher's Boarding-House

Mandalay

To The City Of Bombay

In Springtime

Mother O’ Mine

My Father’s Chair

Our Father Also

Old Mother Laidinwool

Pink Dominoes

The Decline Of The West

The English Flag

The Explanation

The Last Of The Light Brigade

The Mother’s Son

The Prairie

The White Man’s Burden

As The Bell Clinks

England’s Answer

The Way Through The Woods

The Legend Of Evil

The Explanation

When Earth’s Last Picture Is Painted

Seal Lullaby

Cuckoo Song

Two Months

The Egg Shell

A Nativity

A Code Of Morals

I Keep Six Honest Serving Men

The Young British Soldier

If…

IF you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

The Absent Minded Beggar

When you've shouted Rule Britannia,

When you've sung God save the Queen,

When you've finished killing Kruger with your mouth,

Will you kindly drop a shilling in my little tambourine

For a gentleman in khaki ordered South?

He's an absent-minded beggar, and his weaknesses are great -

But we and Paul must take him as we find him -

He is out on active service, wiping something off a slate

And he's left a lot of little things