Rudyard Kipling: Complete Verse

This is a treasury of verse for Kipling fans and anyone who enjoys poetry. It has it all, from "power of a dog" to "mulhollands contract", he was brilliant!

The Man knew more about Soldiers and soldiering than most Generals today. His line "here lies a fool who tried to hustle the East" has more wisdom in those few lines than most books. If you want a realistic look at how life is as opposed to the way you want it to be, do a Recon on the Old Boy.

... Collections of Kipling's poems have been published many times over the years, but many of them were not complete. This collection includes many not found elsewhere. Many of his poems are about the British Army or the British Empire, but there are also poems on other topics. Some of Kipling's poems are better known than others, e.g., "Gunga Din." A few have been set to music, e.g., "Mandalay" and "Gentlemen-Rankers." In some cases, particular lines are well known such as, "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet (from "The Ballad of East and West") or "the Colonel's Lady and Judy O'Grady are sisters under their skins" (from "The Ladies). Some of the poems were concerned with the poor treatment of British soldiers for whom Kipling was a champion, including "Shillin' a Day," "Back to the Army Again," "The Last of the Light Brigade," and "Tommy" ("I went into a public 'ouse to get a pint of beer, the publican 'e up an' sez, 'we serve no redcoats here' ").Overall, it is a good, wide-ranging collection of poetry covering an extended time period. The collection is recommended for all age groups, although some poems might have to be explained to children. The poems were written at a different time in history, and readers should be aware that some of them may express prejudices and language of that period ("for she knifed me one night, 'cause I wished she was white, and I learned about women from 'er," from "The Ladies")

Much ado has been made lately about Kipling, mainly due to a resurgence of affection for poems like The White Man's Burden. Although this has been brought on by the war on terrorism, Kipling's work will brave the tests of time granting him immortality.Some reviewers have criticized the organization of Complete Verse. The table of contents lists all 500 or so poems in alphabetical order, and the editor provides an index of first lines. What the reader does not get is a scholar's interpretation of Kipling's prose. Although sometimes I enjoy reading another's perspective on the author's intentions, why bias my own experience with the thoughts of another critic? Much better to walk the fields of verse on a virgin path, experiencing Kipling through my own mind. A great compilation of poetry from a splendid author. Bravo!

I will admit that the organization leaves a lot to be desired - you start out with the Departmental Ditties, and the Barrack-Room Ballads and Boer war poems appear together, but elsewhere you have works from the Jungle Books and story collections like Rewards and Fairies and A Diversity of creatures arranged all anyhow. There are few annotations other than Kipling's own, and no biographical context. Some of the poems, such as the superb "Philadelphia", require that you have read the stories they were drawn from to understand. The positive side of this, though, is that this book is a gateway to less famous, but wonderful books like Rewards and Fairies, Plain Tales from the Hills, and Diversity of Creatures. But above all else the poetry is great. It is not just war and colonialism - there is tragedy, love, symbolic allegories of mankind, humorous sketches, and styles that evoke emotions and associations deftly and movingly. If you can't get the whole Kipling library (which I'd like dearly to own) this book is a great way to own all his verse at once, albeit in a disorganized way.