Re: Tennyson/Kipling
I am aware of the story of
The Jungle Book and I might have read it as a child or at least I have had contacts with iterations in storybook or movie form. I have read his poem Gunga Din and have seen the movie but the only book of his I have read is
Kim which I did last year. I loved the book....and I love the optimism and light in Kipling's narrative vision. Although I am aware that he has been criticised by post-colonial readers.
As to the comparison of Tennyson and Kipling - I think it requires more critical depth than my current cursory glance. But diebitter, I think you were closer to the mark with Tennyson and Wilde at least on form if not content.
Nonetheless - a taste of Kipling's tea is happily consumed on this palate.
"The White Man's Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands"
Take up the White Man's burden, Send forth the best ye breed
Go bind your sons to exile, to serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden, In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit, And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden, The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden, No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper, The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living, And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burden And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden, Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper, By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden, Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood, through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers!
Rudyard Kipling (1899)
Irony and Satire or Exhortation to Empire ---> Or a bit of both.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (/ˈrʌdjərd ˈkɪplɪŋ/ RUD-yəd KIP-ling; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)[1] was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He is chiefly remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India and his tales for children. He was born in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old.[2] Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), Just So Stories (1902), Kim (1901) (a tale of adventure), many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888);[3][4] and his poems, including "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story";[5] his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works are said to exhibit "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling
(John Maler Collier, 1891)
The Honourable John Maler Collier OBE RP ROI (27 January 1850 – 11 April 1934) was a leading English artist, and an author.[1] He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. Both his marriages were to daughters of Thomas Henry Huxley. He studied painting at the Munich Academy where he enrolled on 14 April 1875 (Register: 3145) at the age of 25.
1939 RKO studio
Last edited by DiggertheDog; 02-02-2014 at 06:07 AM.