Customer Reviews

Complete Verse

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... 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")

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.

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!

While seemingly comprehensive with over 500 poems, the book is disappointingly organized and has no biographical or historical information. The table of contents is alphabetical, by poem name, but there is no organization by period, subject, geography, or even by alphabet. There is an index of first lines, which works unless you only remember some of the later lines. Footnotes are limited to definitions of otherwise obscure or unknown terms, but they are very helpful. However, these shortcomings do not detract from Kipling's poetry, which can be quite moving.

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.

Lord, what did the Publisher do? Type the poems on 3x5 cards, shuffle them and present the totally random result? The poems follow no order at all. Early is mixed with late; India with the sea with World War I. The book cries out for an editor, an annotator, anyone! The publisher should be ashamed.

I discovered Kipling at about the age of ten, when I was at a summer camp and a grown-up sat under the tree with us boys and read us "Rikki-tikki-tavi." At the age of 17 I obtained a two-volume selection of his writings and went totally nuts over his poetry. It was not meant to be read, it was meant to be recited or sung. I would walk back and forth in my den chanting "The Ballad of the King's Mercy" (about the Afghans). This was fifty years ago. When I was 22 and in the Navy, I would catch guard duty and march up and down the dusty, silent passageways of the instruction building at night, singing "Mandalay" as the mice or whatever scurried out of my way. How prescient Kipling was! His poem "The Truce of the Bear" tells you all you need to know about a war that started long after Kipling died, the Russo-Afghan war that ended (or did it?) in 1989.

Rudyard Kipling, probably best known as a fiction author, was also an excellent and prolific poet. While his poetry is often dismissed as second rate by today's literary scholars, this seems to be the result of his chosen subject matter, the glory and righteousness as well as the human cost of the British Empire, as much as by his utilization of traditional rhyme and meter which offends English teachers' notions that literature must explore new forms in order to be worth studying. I, and many other unreconstructed fans of Kipling, appreciate his elegant, lyric, yet evocative style coupled with unforgettable characters.

Kipling is probably at his best writing about soldiers or sailors who are struggling with the reality of a world that is so big and dangerous that it's hard to keep ahead of it. He is also a master of the dialects of India as well as of England and Scotland. His chief engineer of the Mary Gloster, in "McAndrew's Hymn," virtually created the stereotype of the Scottish ship's engineer later mined by Gene Roddenberry of "Star Trek" fame. His "Ballad of East and West" shows a broad, humanistic notion of chivalry when a British officer chases an Afghan bandit and they end up parting on terms of mutual respect. In "The Destroyers" he recognizes the creation of a new warship type that would be "the Choosers of the Slain" up to the present day -- writing two years after the first one was commissioned!

In this collection it's all here, in readably-sized type. If you're seeking a particular favorite, however, organization is weak considering the sheer number of peoms included. The basic organization is chronological, but for some reason there are frequent exceptions. The year of a poem is sometimes shown underneath the title but just as often not. I would have preferred keeping some of the traditional collections like "Barrack-Room Ballads," his Indian Army works from the enlisted-men's point of view, together. The table of contents is alphabetical by title. There is an index by first lines as well, but if you just remember a few phrases, or have some idea of the date of a poem, you'll have to work harder to find it. Nevertheless, I recommend this book.

In my own library it replaces a well-thumbed, leather-bound volume I inherited, published in 1901.

It's Kipling. It's an important part of a filker's inventory, since Leslie Fish has put quite a bit of it to music. Kipling wrote these as songs, but we don't have his music anymore. Anyhoo, the National Trust has graciously granted Leslie to use the lyrics and she has come up with some fun pieces to sing, like "Rimini," "The Pict's Song," etc. It's a definite MUST for filkers, and it doesn't matter how its organized - it's KIPLING, and that's enough.

Well, Kipling rocks. "The white Man's burden" tells you all about development assistance - nothing changes;)