Barrack-Room Ballads: “The meaning of my star is war”

By Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling: A great Victorian, a great writer of Empire, a great man.

Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular writers of prose and poetry in the late 19th and 20th Century and awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1907.

Born in Bombay on 30th December 1865, as was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the couple who they boarded with in Portsmouth, Kipling himself suggested, contributed to the onset of his literary life. This was further enhanced by his return to India at age 16 to work on a local paper, as not only did this result in him writing constantly but also made him explore issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.

Whilst he is best remembered for his classic children’s stories and his popular poem ‘If…’ he is also regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Jun 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781787806177

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), India, but returned with his parents to England at the age of five. Among Kipling’s best-known works are The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, and the poems “Mandalay” and “Gunga Din.” Kipling was the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1907) and was among the youngest to have received the award. 

Book preview

Barrack Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling: A great Victorian, a great writer of Empire, a great man.

Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular writers of prose and poetry in the late 19th and 20th Century and awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1907.

Born in Bombay on 30th December 1865, as was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the couple who they boarded with in Portsmouth, Kipling himself suggested, contributed to the onset of his literary life. This was further enhanced by his return to India at age 16 to work on a local paper, as not only did this result in him writing constantly but also made him explore issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.

Whilst he is best remembered for his classic children’s stories and his popular poem ‘If…’ he is also regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story.

Index of Contents

BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS

BACK TO THE ARMY AGAIN

BIRDS OF PREY MARCH

SOLDIER AN' SAILOR 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

THE SHUT-EYE SENTRY

MARY, PITY WOMEN!

FOR TO ADMIRE

L'ENVOI

RUDYARD KIPLING – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

RUDYARD KIPLING – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS

When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre,

He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea;

An' what he thought 'e might require,

'E went an' took—the same as me!

The market-girls an' fishermen,

The shepherds an' the sailors, too,

They 'eard old songs turn up again,

But kep' it quiet—same as you!

They knew 'e stole; 'e knew they knowed.

They didn't tell, nor make a fuss,

But winked at 'Omer down the road,

An' 'e winked back—the same as us!

BACK TO THE ARMY AGAIN

I'm 'ere in a ticky ulster an' a broken billycock 'at,

A-layin' on to the sergeant I don't know a gun from a bat;

My shirt's doin' duty for jacket, my sock's stickin' out o' my boots,

An' I'm learnin' the damned old goose-step along o' the new recruits!

Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again.

Don't look so 'ard, for I 'aven't no card,

I'm back to the Army again!

I done my six years' service. 'Er Majesty sez: "Good day—

You'll please to come when you're rung for, an' 'ere's your 'ole back pay;

An' fourpence a day for baccy—an' bloomin' gen'rous, too;

An' now you can make your fortune—the same as your orf'cers do."

Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again;

'Ow did I learn to do right-about turn?

I'm back to the Army again!

A man o' four-an'-twenty that 'asn't learned of a trade—

Beside Reserve agin' him—'e'd better be never made.

I tried my luck for a quarter, an' that was enough for me,

An' I thought of 'Er Majesty's barricks, an' I thought I'd go an' see.

Back to the Army again, sergeant,

Back to the Army again;

'Tisn't my fault if I dress when I 'alt—

I'm back to the Army again!

The sergeant arst no questions, but 'e winked the other eye,

E' sez to me, 'Shun! an' I shunted, the same