Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry
The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1: Modern Poetry
The great Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote in her journal about Barrack-Room Ballads:
“They are capital — full of virile strength and life. They thrill and pulsate and burn, they carry you along in their rush and swing, till you forget your own petty interests and cares, and burst out into a broader soul-world … We can never be quite so narrow again.”
I love that. “They thrill and pulsate and burn, they carry you along in their rush and swing …”
That is pretty much my experience of him as well.
I’m a Kipling fan from way back, from childhood. It was the cartoon version of Rikki Tikki Tavi, shown on television back then, that did me in completely. I saw it when I was, what, 8 years old? I remember it vividly and I LIVED it. Kipling is good for kids. I took his stuff out of the library and read some of it. I liked the adventure of it, the exotic setting … and I also loved books about animals. So with Rikki Tikki Tavi I was all set. The story opens:
This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the musk-rat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki did the real fighting.
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but quite like a weasel in his head and habits. His eyes and the end of his restless nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he pleased, with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use; he could fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his war-cry, as he scuttled through the long grass, was: ‘_Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!_’
I mean, how could you NOT keep reading after such an opening? Even now, re-reading that, it makes me want to pick it up again!
I was haunted by the image of the bird PRETENDING to be wounded in order to lure Nagaina the cobra-wife away from her eggs. I was so frightened by that! I wondered if I would have the courage to behave in such a way if I needed to.
Anyway, Kipling’s controversial nature went right over my head as a child and I just loved the stories and the beat of the poems, which reminded me of Longfellow (“hardly a man is now alive who remembers that day and year”). It is compulsively readable stuff. There is much that is distasteful in Kipling’s views but to throw him out completely because of that is retarded. I feel sorry for those who feel that way because God what joy they miss! Now, on the flipside, if I walk into your room and find that you have a shrine to Oliver Cromwell on your dresser, then yeah, I will flag you as a nutbag and I will think badly of you. We all have our limits. Kipling’s views on Irish independence suck, and obviously I have strong feelings about that issue. But Kipling is a WRITER. He was also a man of his time. As we all are “of our time”. To hold that against him is, again, retarded. Shakespeare was of his time. Yeah, let’s just write him off, too, because he doesn’t line up with our precious 21st century way of thinking. grrrrrr. Yes, Kipling shilled for Empire. So? Every Empire should have such a talented shill!
Orwell’s essay on Kipling is not to be missed – and Christopher Hitchens (the heir of Orwell) has also written quite a bit on Kipling. All very interesting stuff for Kipling lovers. It’s not about turning a blind eye to the more unsavory aspects of the world Kipling describes. It’s about appreciating his talent as a story-teller, first of all, and putting him in the correct context. At least that’s what it’s about for me.
Besides, anyone who captivated my imagination from before the age of 8 has a “forever” place in my heart because … well, you never forget those people who sweep you away before you really know who you are, before you worry about things like context and controversy … when you just like what you like because you like it. It’s that simple.
In the end, there are just the stories. The stories remain. You could say to me, “Yeah, but did you know that Kipling did THIS such-and-such awful thing?” Yeah, I know it. But have you read those poems? Have you read the stories?
Both can be true. Both ARE true. I am able to hold more than one idea in my brain at a time, thank Christ, and contradictory opinions do not need to be resolved. SOME do, but not ones like the one I describe. Not for me, anyway. Lots of my favorite writers held views I think abhorrent. So? What am I, the arbiter of morality? Besides, I’d rather not miss out on something WONDERFUL. And I think Kipling is wonderful.
Kipling’s work clamors with voices. Shouts, catcalls, different dialects … You can feel the dust and heat of India in them, the cacophony of accents, the world … These are not poems in quiet isolation. They rustle, rumble, jostle for position … Kipling has his ear to the ground.
I will also always love Kipling for the following line, which I would actually remember on occasion in high school, when I felt insecure about not being like other people, or not wanting to go along with the pack … I had read the story when I was a kid, and it struck a nerve, and these words would come back to me. Actually, they still do. I really find them comforting. They are from Kipling’s story “The Cat That Walked By Himself.”
The Cat. He walked by himself. He went through the wet Wild Woods, waving his wild tail, and walking by his wild lone.
God, I just think that is marvelous. So it helped explain me to myself. Not that I didn’t have friends – I had the best friends! – but to see myself as the cat who “walked by himself” as opposed to some FREAK who didn’t want to drink or have sex or the other things going on in high school … it was really helpful. I am just “walking by my wild lone”, and that’s my nature. It’s okay. It’s okay.
Here is one of Kipling’s better-known poems.
Shillin’ a Day
My name is O’Kelly, I’ve heard the Revelly
From Birr to Bareilly, from Leeds to Lahore,
Hong-Kong and Peshawur,
Lucknow and Etawah,
And fifty-five more all endin’ in “pore”.
Black Death and his quickness, the depth and the thickness,
Of sorrow and sickness I’ve known on my way,
But I’m old and I’m nervis,
I’m cast from the Service,
And all I deserve is a shillin’ a day.
(Chorus) Shillin’ a day,
Bloomin’ good pay —
Lucky to touch it, a shillin’ a day!
Oh, it drives me half crazy to think of the days I
Went slap for the Ghazi, my sword at my side,
When we rode Hell-for-leather
Both squadrons together,
That didn’t care whether we lived or we died.
But it’s no use despairin’, my wife must go charin’
An’ me commissairin’ the pay-bills to better,
So if me you be’old
In the wet and the cold,
By the Grand Metropold, won’t you give me a letter?
(Full chorus) Give ‘im a letter —
‘Can’t do no better,
Late Troop-Sergeant-Major an’ — runs with a letter!
Think what ‘e’s been,
Think what ‘e’s seen,
Think of his pension an’ —-
GAWD SAVE THE QUEEN!
I am finding a lot of import in “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” these days.
I agree with you on the frustration with people who would either expunge his work from anthologies because of his beliefs, or those who sniff and go, “Oh, I would NEVER read him because…”
And I love the Just So stories. I once memorized part of “The Elephant’s Child,” just because I loved how it sounded. I will still sometimes take it down off the shelf and read it out loud to myself.
I think also with some of his poetry, it’s almost like reading the Iliad and the Odyssey – you get a glimpse of a different way of thinking, a different culture. And one that really isn’t so far removed from our own – that’s what fascinates me so much: in some respects it’s SO different, but in others, it isn’t. “If” seems to kind of sum up what was expected of a Son of the British Empire in those days, and though times may have changed, there are still some valuable ideas there – sure, there are some bad ideas in some of his writing, but it seems unfortunate to throw out the good because there is some bad…
Ricki – I love the glimpses of another culture that we get. It just comes to life! Sure, it’s
“biased” but God, most good writing is. Bad writing is bad for many different reasons – but one thing that ALL bad writing has in common is that it is “GENERAL”.
Kipling is the epitome of “local” and specific.
His poems are really fun to read out loud too!
The narrative voice of his best work is unsurpassed. The asides in the Just So Stories! The sailor lost at sea, at such-and-so longitude and latitude, “which is magic” – !! And he finds time to mention that he always wears his suspenders “the way his Mummy told him.” Or the native and the honey cakes – “for he was a genuine Tawaran.” So brilliant.
I have Just So Stories, the Jungle Book, some of the short stories (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is included), and I’ve read a few others that I can’t recall clearly. Going to read the Orwell essay right now, too.
Speaking of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi… some of Chuck Jones’ best work on that cartoon. Also the subject of an odd Donovan tune (and did he write any other kind, really?). I don’t think the song was in the cartoon. “I saw her today/ On the number 12 bus/ She was going my way”… naaah, not a cartoon song. Also, has nothing to do with mongooses (mongeese?) or Rudyard Kipling. But hey, it’s catchy.
“Won’t be comin’ around for to kill yer snakes n’more, m’love…”
Here’s just a wee snippet of Orwell’s fascinating essay:
Yup. You can see how that would have happened.
VERY complex essay – not to be missed.
Nightfly – I love that you remember that cartoon! I honestly don’t believe I have seen it since it was first aired in, what, 1975?? But I remember some of it vividly, the markings on the cobra hood especially. Horrifying! Also the aforementioned scene with the bird pretending to be wounded, which just blew me away as a kid.
I loved the Just So Stories growing up. Did you happen to catch My Boy Jack on masterpiece Classics this fall? It was about Kipling, the first World War, and his family, specifically his son Jack. Well done and heart-breaking.
I loved the Rikki Tikki Tavvi cartoon! The cobra hood was vivid, wasn’t it? The movie both fascinated and scared me – I remember it being so intense – but that could be because I had gotten so into it.
And, what do you know – its on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qhBxv7r5gg
I also love the Just So stories – I had a volume of them as a child. And, a few years back, I was a Jr. Great Books facilitator, and the Elephant’s Child is in one of them (I forget the year). We had fun with that!
Melissa – Oh my GOD !! Youtube! Why don’t I think to immediatley check Youtube for things like this? I haven’t watched it yet but I will later and I cannot WAIT!!
Thank you!!
Mary – I didn’t! Sounds wonderful! I should see if it’s on Netflix (or Youtube???)
It’s on youtube?!??!
And I can’t see it at work! Blast! I wish I could go home for lunch hour.
Daniel Radcliffe plays Jack Kipling. It’s an awesome show.
It’s on the YouTube in three installments.
I am SO watching the whole thing as soon as I am able.
David Haig played Rudyard (he also wrote the play). *I* know him as Bernard from “Four Weddings and a Funeral” — the rest of you probably him from the hundreds of OTHER things he’s done besides Richard Curtis movies. Things I have no use for. ;)
Anyhoo, it ends with Rudyard reciting “My Boy Jack,” and the viewer (me) sobbing into my sofa pillow.
Lisa, I think very early in my knowing you you referred to yourself as “Richard Curtiss’s bitch” and I immediately thought, “I think I can hang with this girl.”
Personally, I think that Kipling would have quite expected, if not wanted, to be disrespected by modern Western society. He was among the few who “saw it coming” back when it was definitely not popular to do so, and even then, public opinion had begun to turn away from him. Close to the end of his life, his comments on the Nazis were quite prescient; as early as 1935, he begged an indifferent Britain to prepare for war. He was not listened to, with tragic results.
He’d have wanted no part of today’s Britain (“The Old Issue” says it all). Nor, for that matter, would he have wanted to be part of a larger society which has thoroughly expunged both the good and the bad from his worldview, trading vigor and honest joy for timidity and self-conscious shame at every opportunity. And Kipling could never have belonged to any society which could distill the incredible complexity and depth of his writing down to any one single “meaning”, much less write him off because of it.
Fortunately, in spite of all that, his writing still exists. To me, it is a clarion call to strength, to wildness, and then to voluntary sacrifice; a reminder that while human beings do not have to live nor believe the way others would have them do, we’re at our best when we find others worth living and believing with.
Those who would cry “racist” or “jingoist” at his writing are missing his larger point — he was a man who knew that the outsider was the outsider, yet also knew better than to underestimate him or deny his humanity, as works like “The Buddha at Kamakura” and “The Ballad of East and West” prove.
Sorry, my mind is racing … I was thinking about Kipling over lunch. So here comes more:
I am also suspicious of those who stick up too vehemently for his views. I am talking about his views as separate from his writing now. Which some people cannot do and many people REFUSE to do when it comes to Kipling. To those people his views ARE his writing.
I suppose to some degree that is true – as it is true with Dickens, Twain, Eliot, etc.
I still think it’s a shame to NOT read any of these people because you don’t “approve” of their views!
But there’s a baby with the bathwater thing that happens with Kipling (on BOTH sides) that detracts from his writing.
By both sides I mean: there are those who don’t want him read at all because they find his views offensive.
Then there are those who stick up for him like crazy (the ones Orwell references in the excerpt I posted) and are unwilling to to hear anything against him and leap to his defense.
I, as always, enjoy a more nuanced view.There are those today who think “nuance” is a dirty word, and I find those people to be rather boring, generally, myself – and really uninteresting to talk to.
I love what Orwell writes:
I like that. It is true BUT IT IS NOT TRUE …
Now there are those who don’t want to go that deep. Or who only see one side.
I like the full spectrum – the “is true” AND “is not true” (espeically with a writer like Kipling) – and also the fact that Orwell nails the “putting Kipling up on a pedestal” by those who CAN’T have understood much of what he wrote. Kind of like the un-ironic use of Springsteen’s highly bitter “Born in the USA” during the presidential campaign in the 80s. Even then, I was young, and I was like, to paraphrase Princess Bride … “I don’t think that song means what you think it means …”
But hey, the words sounded right and there was an American flag on the album – so that’s good enough for us!
I find a lot of Kipling’s stuff racist and rah-rah-rah in a disgusting way and I don’t relate to it. (I also hate much of his views on the Irish). Whatevs. I don’t read things to RELATE to them, not really. Shakespeare has a lot of views I don’t personally subscribe to. He’s too much of a royalist for me.
Also: it was a different time, a different culture. He’s of HIS time, I’m of mine. That’s actually why I love it!
I guess my main problem is with people who like certain writers only because the writer appears to AGREE with such-and-such view that that person holds. What a limited response to literature.
Ew!!
It occurs to me that this is similar to some of the things you see in old black-and-white movies. You know, you see outmoded views and racist jokes and all that stuff.
In the middle of a great and fun movie like Adam’s Rib there is one of the most viciously homophobic portrayals in all of cinema. It is nearly unwatchable. It’s watching hate propaganda – a character who is there merely to act as the repository for all of the latent aggression in the audience. He is an irredeemable character.
He doesn’t QUITE ruin Adams Rib for me – but he almost does!
Or the more blatantly racist portrayals of blacks in movies back then. There are those who literally can’t watch those movies because it offends their precious sensibilities. I think they’re WAY missing out.
Dammit, why can’t I watch Rikki Tikki Tavi now????
sheila – I own a VHS copy of THE animated RIKKI TIKKI TAVI that we used to see on TV – we can watch it over Christmas! Also, I love Kipling’s poem “If”… a poem that speaks advice from father to son…
Jean!! I love that you have it! I’d love to see it over Christmas!
“If” by Rudyard Kipling
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 all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath 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!
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:
God. God.
“watch the things you gave your life to, broken”
Just heartfelt awesome writing.
Watching Rikki Tikki Tavi as we speak – I am so excited!!
Narrated by Orson Welles??
Why didn’t I know that?
Well. That was TOTALLY satisfying.
Tommy did “If” in an episode of Brotherhood last year. It was pretty cool.
The opening lines to ‘R.T.T. are among my favorites in all literature.
Dan – it’s just flat-out perfect, isn’t it?