Transcript Rudyard Kipling - West Fargo Public Schools

Biography
List of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Presentation by Kylie Schumacher - 2011
Biography
A Look into the Life of Rudyard Kipling
Biography
List of Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
“…the writings of Rudyard Kipling exude a love of India and her people, not
contempt or racial animus. In fact, his portrayals of India are in many ways more tender and
sympathetic than those of the great modern Indian writers like Salman Rushdie, Rohinton
Mistry and Arundhati Roy” (“Nobel Prize Winners 1907”).
This quotation in the article Nobel Prize Winners 1907 defines Kipling’s poetry in a
brilliant way. Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born to father John Lockwood Kipling and spouse
Alice on December 30, 1865 in Bombay, India. At five years old, Kipling was flown to
Southsea, England to live with a foster family, as was the custom during that time in India
(“RUDYARD KIPLING”). He was terribly miserable there, and rightly so. He was beaten
and victimized at the lodge he lived in, and due to the mistreatment, he endured insomnia for
the rest of his life, which ended up having a vast impact on his writing (“Biography of
Rudyard Kipling”). When Kipling was twelve, he was sent to the United Services College at
Westward Ho!, which was near Bideford, England (“Rudyard Kipling – Biography”). The new
change in social environment, including the English schoolboy code of honor and duty,
affected Kipling’s views on loyalty later in his life (“Biography of Rudyard Kipling”). In 1882,
Kipling returned home to his parents in Lahore, India. There, he worked as a part-time writer
and newspaper reporter, which exposed him to the colonial life later expressed in his poems
and writings.
Biography
Biography
List of Works
Sample
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Inspired
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Original
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As Kipling grew older, he began to become preoccupied with his physical and
mental strain and the passing of both of his children, Josephine and John, did nothing to help
him. His published works were deeply affected by his breakdowns, causing scrutiny amongst
the critics. Kipling’s poems dealt with racial and imperialistic themes, focusing on the British
Empire while also writing about the common soldier (“Biography of Rudyard Kipling”)
(“Rudyard Kipling – Biography”). Rudyard Kipling’s early life noticeably affected his writings
in his later life, but this didn’t stop him from becoming a highly notable English poet.
Kipling began writing during his teenage years while he attended the United
Services College at Westward Ho!. Cormell Price provided perhaps the largest impact on
Kipling and his literature by having him edit the school newspaper and complimenting the
boy’s poems. Kipling mailed some of his poems home to his father, who in turn had them
printed as Schoolboy Lyrics in 1881. When Kipling returned home to his parents in Lahore,
India in 1882, he worked as a copy editor for the Civil and Military Gazette before later
moving to the Allahabad Pioneer in 1887 (“Rudyard Kipling Biography”). In 1884, he
published The Jungle Book, which by 1886 had become a children’s classic all over the world.
His literary career jumpstarted when he first published Departmental Ditties in 1886.
(“Rudyard Kipling – Biography”). Two years later in 1888, he published over seventy short
stories, which indicated the inspiration of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bret Harte, and
Guy de Maupassant (“Rudyard Kipling Biography”). His first major break came in 1892 when
he published Barrack-Room Ballads (“Rudyard Kipling”).
Biography
Biography
List of Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
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Original
Poems
Bibliography
Kipling’s most acclaimed poem was Recessional (1897), and his most famous story was Kim
(1901). In 1907, Kipling won the Noble Prize in literature for his understanding of the
capabilities of observation, ingenuity of imagination, virility of ideas and noteworthy talent
for description which were illustrated in his writings (“Biography of Rudyard Kipling”). In
1926, Kipling accepted the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature, which only a select
few before him had achieved (“Rudyard Kipling – Biography”).
Kipling’s writing style was majorly influenced by the time period he lived through.
The main ideas surrounding his literature focused on imperialism and the life of the British
soldier and Indian native. When he published the poems Danny Deever, Tommy, FuzzyWuzzy, and Gunga Din, he introduced readers to a new Cockney dialect, which had a more
serious tone to it (“Rudyard Kipling Biography”). In his poetry, Kipling used vivid metaphors
in order to show the resemblance between two subjects in his poems. He also used rhymes that
made his poetry interesting and flowing. After imperialism became almost non-existent in the
world, Kipling’s poetry began to lose its power. Many people discontinued reading his
literature and his published works were still highly criticized for their racial and imperialistic
views. From 1919 to 1932, Kipling traveled around the world and continued to publish his
works, though they were far from the prestige they had once been due to his psychological and
physical stress. On January 18, 1936, Kipling passed away, leaving behind a diverse collection
of literature and a legacy of a man whose literature had great power and depth (“Rudyard
Kipling Biography”).
List of Works
Biography
List of Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
“An American”
“Anchor Song”
“The Answer”
“Arithmetic on the Frontier”
“Army Headquarters”
“As the Bell Clinks”
“An Astrologer's Song”
“The Ballad of the "Bolivar"
“A Ballad of Burial”
“The Ballad of East and West”
“The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding-House”
“A Ballad of Jakkko Hill”
“The Ballad of the King's Jest”
“The Ballad of the King's Mercy”
“The Ballad of the Red Earl”
“Banquet Night”
“Beast and Man in India”
“The Bees and the Flies”
“Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm”
“The Bell Buoy”
“The Benefactors”
“Belts”
“The Betrothed”
“Bill 'Awkins”
"Birds of Prey" March”
“Blue Roses”
“Boots”
“A Boy Scouts'Patrol Song”
“Bridge-Guard in the Karroo”
“A British-Roman Song”
“The Broken Men”
“Brookland Road”
“Buddha at Kamakura”
“The Burial”
“Butterflies”
“By the Hoof of the Wild Goat”
“Cain and Abel”
“The Captive”
“A Carol”
“Cells”
“Certain Maxims Of Hafiz”
“Chant-Pagan”
“Chapter Headings”
“A Charm”
“The Children's Song”
More Works
If by Rudyard Kipling
Biography
List of Works
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Inspired
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If you can keep your head when all about you
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
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 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!
Analysis
Biography
List of Works
Sample
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Inspired
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Original
Poems
Bibliography
The poem If by Rudyard Kipling, arguably his most famous, uses the literary device of rhyming
commendably. Kipling’s poem discusses the qualities of someone, who is considered to be a ‘perfect’
man, would have. He continually states the traits that he thinks would make up the basis of the
‘perfect’ man’s personality, and how he must act in times of hardship or when he has risen to power.
Kipling manages to get all of this across to the reader, while also integrating the literary device of
rhyming. An example of this would be in the following lines: “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, not talk too wise;” Another example would be: “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;” A rhyme is defined as the sound of
accented vowels and all succeeding sounds are identical, which Kipling undertakes in If and in these
two examples. They each show the use of rhymes because the last word at the end of every line
rhymes with the last word two lines before, like “fools” and “tools” in the last example. What makes it
so impressive, is the fact that Kipling manages to use rhymes without losing the meaning of the
poem to the rhyming words, and he doesn’t allow the rhyme to control the poem; he is still able to
achieve the main points and theme of the poem. Kipling used rhyming to give the poem sort of
rhythm, which makes the reader even more interested and allows them to become lost in the poem as
they read. His brilliant and intuitive use of rhyme is one of the many reasons that Kipling has
become one of the great poets of his time. If is an excellent poem that uses the literary device of
rhyming in an outstanding way to allow the reader to enjoy the poem while fully comprehending the
meaning behind the words.
Sample Poems
Biography
List of Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Recessional is one of Rudyard Kipling’s most renowned poems, and rightly so. In this piece of poetry,
Kipling writes about the pride he has for the British Empire, while also including a deeper meaning
of how he believes the Empire will fall to other, greater powers. Kipling loved the British Empire,
but he predicted that the end of the Empire’s reign was soon to come. The lines “Lest we forget -lest we forget!” would later become immensely popular after the end of World War I. This poem is
one of my favorites of Kipling’s, not because it is popular, but because I enjoy the way that Kipling
uses his words and how he manages to rhyme so easily.
Recessional (A Victorian Ode) by Rudyard Kipling
God of our fathers, known of old -Lord of our far-flung battle line -Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine -Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies -The Captains and the Kings depart -Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!
Far-called our navies melt away -On dune and headland sinks the fire -Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe -Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law -Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard -All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.
Sample Poems
Biography
List of Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
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Original
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Though not one of Rudyard Kipling’s most renowned pieces of poetry, The Gods of the Copybook Headings is still an
excellently written piece of literature. In this poem, Kipling tried to have the “Gods of the Copybook Headings’
symbolizing governing forces. Countries throughout history have fallen because of false promises by their
government, and many will continue to fall in the future because something will always become corrupt. Three of the
most powerful lines to me were: “When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins/As surely as
Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn/The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!”
These lines explain that though a government will start out well, something may come up in the future that can
destroy it. This poem struck me because the first time I ever heard it was when my dad made me watch the book
trailer for Glenn Beck’s The Overton Window, and the man who voiced Optimus Prime was reading the last stanza of
the poem.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
Market-Place;
Make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the MarketBut they always caught up with our progress, and
Place.
presently word would come
'eering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights
fall,
had gone out in Rome.
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast
Nith the Hopes that our World is built on they were
them all.
utterly out of touch
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she
Ne were living in trees when they met us. They showed us
was even Dutch
each in turn
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly
Pig had Wings
bum:
S we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth
these beautiful things.
of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the
March of Manlund.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their
pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the
Sample Poems
The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling (Cont.)
Biography
List of Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
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Original
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When the Cambrian measurres were forming They
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their
promised perpetual peace.
smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
They swore, if we gave them our weapons that the wars And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and
of the tribes would cease.
began to believe it was true
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two
bound to our foe,
make Four -And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to
And
the
Gods
of
the
Copybook Headings limped up
the Devil yox know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised
the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended
by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men
lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The
Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised
abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was
nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If
you don't work you die."
to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
-There are only four things certain since Social
Progress began -That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow
returns to her Mice,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling
back to the Fire -And that after this is accomplished, and the brave
new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must
pay for his sins
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will
burn
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror
and slaughter return!
Inspired Poems
White Horses by Rudyard Kipling
Biography
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Inspired
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Where run your colts at pasture?
Where hide your mares to breed?
'Mid bergs about the Ice-cap
Or wove Sargasso weed;
By chartless reef and channel,
Or crafty coastwise bars,
But most the ocean-meadows
All purple to the stars!
The coming of the herd!
Is none dare work them wrong;
While thick around the homestead
Whose hand may grip your nostrils -- Our snow-backed leaders graze -Your forelock who may hold?
A guard behind their plunder,
E'en they that use the broads with us - And a veil before their ways.
The riders bred and bold,
With march and countermarchings -That spy upon our matings,
With weight of wheeling hosts -That rope us where we run -Stray mob or bands embattled -Who holds the rein upon you?
They know the strong White Horses We ring the chosen coasts:
The latest gale let free.
From father unto son.
And, careless of our clamour
What meat is in your mangers?
That bids the stranger fly,
The glut of all the sea.
We breathe about their cradles,
At peace with our pickets
'Twixt tide and tide's returning
We race their babes ashore,
The wild white riders lie.
Great store of newly dead, -We snuff against their thresholds,
The bones of those that faced us,
We nuzzle at their door;
....
And the hearts of those that fled.
By day with stamping squadrons,
Afar, off-shore and single,
By night in whinnying droves,
Trust ye that curdled hollows -Some stallion, rearing swift,
Creep up the wise White Horses,
Trust ye the neighing wind -Neighs hungry for new fodder,
To call them from their loves.
Trust ye the moaning groundswell -And calls us to the drift:
Our herds are close behind!
Then down the cloven ridges -And come they for your calling?
To bray your foeman's armies -A million hooves unshod -No wit of man may save.
To chill and snap his sword -Break forth the mad White Horses
They hear the loosed White Horses Trust ye the wild White Horses,
To seek their meat from God!
Above their fathers' grave;
The Horses of the Lord!
And, kin of those we crippled,
Girth-deep in hissing water
And, sons of those we slew,
Our furious vanguard strains -Spur down the wild white riders
Through mist of mighty tramplings To school the herds anew.
Roll up the fore-blown manes -A hundred leagues to leeward,
What service have ye paid them,
Ere yet the deep is stirred,
Oh jealous steeds and strong?
The groaning rollers carry
Save we that throw their weaklings,
Inspired Poems
Wild Phantoms by Kylie Schumacher
Biography
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Not a sound could be heard across the prairie
There was no breath of air,
And yet the tendrils of grass moved,
As if they were being stroked by the fingers of a
ghost.
Somewhere in the distance,
A sound like that of rumbling thunder could be
heard.
Hooves pounded the silent ground,
Causing a shudder to run through the earth.
Hot air was expelled from flaring nostrils in a short
burst,
The grass becoming a rolling sea of waves.
Heads were thrown back in a heated fashion,
While high-pitched whinnies filled the air.
The white herd of horses moved all at once,
Like roaming silver phantoms.
Their long, labored strides ate up the ground,
Though they were on a road to nowhere.
They ran for the joy of running,
Only stopping when their bodies refused to continue.
They rose as one over the hilltop and disappeared,
Leaving behind the sound of silence across the
prairie.
Inspired Poems
The Legend of Evil by Rudyard Kipling
Biography
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This is the sorrowful story
Told when the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
Holding their neighbours' tails: -"Our fathers lived in the forest,
Foolish people were they,
They went down to the cornland
To teach the farmers to play.
"Our fathers frisked in the millet,
Our fathers skipped in the wheat,
Our fathers hung from the branches,
Our fathers danced in the street.
"Then came the terrible farmers,
Nothing of play they knew,
Only. . .they caught our fathers
And set them to labour too!
"Set them to work in the cornland
With ploughs and sickles and flails,
Put them in mud-walled prisons
And -- cut off their beautiful tails!
"Now, we can watch our fathers,
Sullen and bowed and old,
Stooping over the millet,
Sharing the silly mould,
"Driving a foolish furrow,
Mending a muddy yoke,
Sleeping in mud-walled prisons,
Steeping their food in smoke.
"We may not speak to our fathers,
For if the farmers knew
They would come up to the forest
And set us to labour too."
This is the horrible story
Told as the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
Holding their kinsmen's tails.
InspiredPoems
Twilight’s Secret by Kylie Schumacher
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This is the sorrowful story
Told when the twilight fails
And the world turns silent
Bathed in moonlight.
Death rises like a shimmer,
Released from the anguished pits of hell.
Bringing with it a black, cursed fog.
That strokes the ground with a heated passion.
All forms of light vanish on the spot,
Cast out by the vengeful mist.
All sounds cease in imminence,
Swallowed and gathered by the air.
A cool gust of air slices its way through the
trees,
Coating the battered branches in glistening
white.
A crack splits the silence,
Its wavelengths filling the silent atmosphere.
The world abruptly returns to silence,
The ominous spell over.
Noiselessly, death creeps and slithers away,
As twilight turns to dawn.
Original Poems
Watery Destruction by Kylie Schumacher
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Rain comes pelting down
As the heavens open their drains.
Animals turn up their noses
And scurry for cover.
While the trees open their pores
Breathing the moisture in.
Clouds block out the sun like drapes
Encasing the forest in a dreary gray.
Wind slices through the rain
Forcing it to fall at a faster pace.
Booming thunder pounds the sky
Followed abruptly by a flash of light.
All sound ceases to exist,
All except the drip-drop of rain.
Animals remain huddled in their dens,
Patiently awaiting the end of the storm
Their previous attempts to gather food have been
terminated,
Everything having been swept away.
Vehemently the storm rages on,
Allowing the forest no escape.
Torrents of water mix with the sodden earth,
Leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
Debris is washed away,
As the rain comes pelting down.
Original Poems
Choices by Kylie Schumacher
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Why do we lie
When all we seek is the truth?
Why do we lie
When our lies are remembered?
Why do we lie
When we are already broken?
When wrong is right
And right is wrong
Which is the path to follow?
If the world is filled with opinions
Won’t someone choose right
And someone choose wrong?
What will it take
For the truth to be told?
What will it take
For the liars to be forgiven?
What will it take
For the lies to be forgotten?
Remember the right
And forget the wrong
Remember the truth
And forget the lies
Because our life is too short
To wallow in our cries.
Original Poems
Burning Rage by Kylie Schumacher
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Fire licks its way up the trees
Encompassing them in its rage.
Nothing can halt its attack
As the flames continue to burn.
Animals scurry from the forest,
Desperate for a safe haven.
For some, their attempts are futile,
As the flames continue to burn.
The fierce wind only fuels the fire
Its whipping tendrils carrying the flames.
Foliage turns to ash,
As the flames continue to burn.
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http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/rudyard_kipling/poems
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http://brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/622
http://www.kipling.org.uk/kip_fra.htm
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1907/kipling-bio.html
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/Kipling-Rudyard.html
http://www.poemhunter.com/rudyard-kipling/biography/
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