A Song of the English - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson

By Rudyard Kipling and W. Heath Robinson

This edition of Kipling’s "The Song of the English" was originally published in November 1909. It included the six subsidiary poems: The Coastwise Lights, The Song of the Dead, The Deep-Sea Cables, The Song of the Sons, The Song of the Cities, and England's Answer.

The theme underlying much of this collection, is that the English are the Chosen under the Lord, so long as they obey the Law. This is one of Kipling’s earliest verses specifically setting out his vision of the British Empire, and the duties which it imposes on the English (British) people. His definition of 'the English' is wide, certainly embracing the people of the overseas Empire, Australia, New Xealand, Canada, South Africa, but arguably also the Americans.

These classic poems are accompanied by thirty incredible colour illustrations and many beautiful and intricate black and white drawings by W. Heath Robinson. An English cartoonist and illustrator, best known for drawings of ridiculously complicated machines – for achieving deceptively simple objectives. Such was (and is) his fame, that the term ‘Heath Robinson’ entered the English language during the First World War, as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pook Press
• Release date: May 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781528782876

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.

Book preview