Barrack Room Ballads
4/5
()
About this ebook
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet who began writing in India and shortly found his work celebrated in England. An extravagantly popular, but critically polarizing, figure even in his own lifetime, the author wrote several books for adults and children that have become classics, Kim, The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Captains Courageous and others. Although taken to task by some critics for his frequently imperialistic stance, the author’s best work rises above his era’s politics. Kipling refused offers of both knighthood and the position of Poet Laureate, but was the first English author to receive the Nobel prize.
Read more from Rudyard Kipling
The Jungle Book: Level 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic Children's Stories (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kipling: 'If–' and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMowgli of the Jungle Book: The Complete Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJust So Stories: Level 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/520 Eternal Masterpieces Of Children Stories (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMother's Day Poetry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorian Mystery Megapack: 27 Classic Mystery Tales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Something Of Myself: For My Friends Known And Unknown Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Classic Starts®: The Jungle Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling: All novels, short stories, letters and poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry Of Rudyard Kipling Vol.1: "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories Of Rudyard Kipling: "He travels the fastest who travels alone." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlain Tales from the Hills Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/530 Occult & Supernatural masterpieces you have to read before you die (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Christmas Stories: 120+ Authors, 250+ Magical Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Barrack Room Ballads
Related ebooks
The Gourmet's Guide to Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApres Moi le Dessert: A French Eighteenth Century Model Meal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Barrack Room Ballads Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrit In Barracks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Barrack-Room Ballads (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): With "Departmental Ditties" and Other Verses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir, They're Taking the Kids Indoors: The British Army in Northern Ireland 1973–74 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVerses 1889-1896 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Campden Wonder and Mrs Harrison: "In this life he laughs longest who laughs last." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJames Sullivan's First World War Diary Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Riddles Of Wipers: An Appreciation of the Trench Journal "The Wipers Times" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clarence Clark: “Vanity takes no more obnoxious form than the everlasting desire for approval” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings‘ANZAC: Diary of Harold Rydon 1914-1917’ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry Of Rudyard Kipling Vol.1: "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Best of Rudyard Kipling: A Collection of Essential Poetry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDriving Ambition: Memoirs Part One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconciliation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAvenging Steel 4: The Tree of Liberty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInto the Jaws of Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Survived, Didn't I?: The Great War Reminiscences of Private 'Ginger' Byrne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRhymes of the Rookies Sunny Side of Soldier Service Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBaskerville: The Mysterious Tale of Sherlock's Return Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5War! Hellish War! Star Shell Reflections, 1916–1918: The Illustrated Diaries of Jim Maultsaid Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Splendid Years: The Memoirs of an Abbey Actress and 1916 Rebel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarrack-Room Ballads: “The meaning of my star is war” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBab Ballads And Savoy Songs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCanongate to Cannon Shell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Foundations: "The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSomething of Myself for My Friends Known and Unknown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Linguistics For You
Dark Psychology and Manipulation: Psychology, Relationships and Self-Improvement, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So to Speak: 11,000 Expressions That'll Knock Your Socks Off Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need: A One-Stop Source for Every Writing Assignment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tyranny of Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inspired Baby Names from Around the World: 6,000 International Names and the Meaning Behind Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, Vol. 1 Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Writing That Works, 3rd Edition: How to Communicate Effectively in Business Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: American English Idiomatic Expressions & Phrases Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extinct Languages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5500 Beautiful Words You Should Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of Styling Sentences Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Happiness Passport: A World Tour of Joyful Living in 50 Words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between: Volume II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular & the New Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metaphors We Live By Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities: A Yearbook of Forgotten Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dictionary of Word Origins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Barrack Room Ballads
15 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love Kipling's poetry and find that some of his apparently jingoistic stuff is quite thoughtful underneath, putting forth the view of the ordinary soldier. Some of his war poems have quite an anti-war sentiment.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5"Making mock o' uniforms That guard you while you sleepIs cheaper than them uniformsAnd they're starvation cheap."Somehow it doesn't matter to me that Kipling is jingoist and a patronizing racist and that occasionally I can't understand what he's talking about. Barrack room ballads was written for soldiers and Kipling understodd the soldier's experience and is not always complimentary to the Army command or to "The Widow of Windsor" and her wars. Readers will also find many phrases that have become commonplace in the language. While it lacks the some personal favorites ("If", "The Ballad of East and West"), this is a good collection to get an introduction to Kipling's poetry.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love Kipling's poetry and find that some of his apparently jingoistic stuff is quite thoughtful underneath, putting forth the view of the ordinary soldier. Some of his war poems have quite an anti-war sentiment.
Book preview
Barrack Room Ballads - Rudyard Kipling
BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS
by
Rudyard Kipling
Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
Rudyard Kipling
First Series (1892)
Danny Deever
Tommy
Fuzzy-Wuzzy
Soldier, Soldier
Screw-Guns
Cells
Gunga Din
Oonts
Loot
‘Snarleyow’
The Widow at Windsor
Belts
The Young British Soldier
Mandalay
Troopin’
The Widow’s Party
Ford o’ Kabul River
Gentlemen-Rankers
Route Marchin’
Shillin’ a Day
Second Series (1896)
‘Bobs’
‘Back to the Army Again’
‘Birds of Prey’ March
‘Soldier an’ Salor Too’
Sappers
That Day
‘The Men that fought at Minden’
Cholera Camp
The Ladies
Bill ‘Awkins
The Mother-Lodge
‘Follow Me ‘Ome’
The Sergeant’s Weddin’
The Jacket
The ‘Eathen
‘Mary, Pity Women!’
For to Admire
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay, India. Amongst his family members he could number not only the famous painters Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Edward Poynter, but also Stanley Baldwin, a future Prime Minister. Kipling lived in India until the age of six, when his family took him back to England for schooling.
In 1872, Kipling began boarding with the Holloway family in Southsea. Between 1878 and 1882, Kipling attended the United Services College at Westward Ho! in northern Devon. Nearsighted and physically frail, he was once again teased and bullied. However, it was also here that he developed a love of literature. Near the end of his stay at the school, it was decided that he lacked the academic ability to get into Oxford University on a scholarship, and so Kipling’s father secured a job for him in Lahore, Punjab (now Pakistan), working as the assistant editor of The Civil & Military Gazette.
Between 1882 and 1886, Kipling wrote profusely. His first volume of poetry, Departmental Ditties, was published in 1886. He followed this with a vast amount of short stories: in 1888, he published six collections of short stories: Soldiers Three, The Story of the Gadsbys, In Black and White, Under the Deodars, The Phantom Rickshaw, and Wee Willie Winkie.
Following a dispute over pay, Kipling was discharged from The Pioneer in early 1889. Following this, he returned to London, the literary centre of the British Empire, where he was already a growing popular and critical success from afar. Over the next two years, he published a novel, The Light that Failed, had a nervous breakdown, and met an American writer and publishing agent, Wolcott Balestier, with whom he collaborated on a novel, The Naulahka.
In 1892, Kipling married Caroline Balestier, the sister of an American friend, and the couple moved to Vermont in the United States, where her family lived. Their two daughters were born there and Kipling wrote his famous The Jungle Book (1894). In 1896, a quarrel with his wife’s family prompted Kipling to move back to England and he settled with his own family in Sussex. His son John was born in 1897.
By now Kipling had become an immensely popular writer and poet for children and adults. His subsequent publications included Stalky and Co. (1899), Kim (1901) and Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906). Despite having turned down many honours in his lifetime, including a knighthood and the poet laureateship, in 1907, he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first English author to be so honoured.
In 1915, his son, John, went missing in action during the Battle of Loos. Having played a major role in getting the chronically short-sighted John accepted for military service, Kipling had great difficulty accepting his son’s death and subsequently wrote an account of his regiment, The Irish Guards in the Great War. He also joined the Imperial War Graves Commission and selected the biblical phrase inscribed on many British war memorials: Their Name Liveth For Evermore
.
Kipling kept writing until the early thirties, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. He died in 1936, at the age of 70, and is buried at Westminster Abbey. Today, Kipling’s reputation is a complex one: as the literary critic Douglas Kerr puts it, He [Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with.
Dedication: To T. A.
Dedication
To T. A.
I have made for you a song,
And it may be right or wrong,
But only you can tell me if it’s true;
I have tried for to explain
Both your pleasure and your pain,
And, Thomas, here’s my best