Ravings of a Long Haired Dude

Kipling

"Blogging Circle of Friends " 

DAY 3319 December 10, 2021
On this day in 1907, Rudyard Kipling   receives the Nobel prize for literature, the first English-language writer to do so. What is Mr. Kipling best known for? Poetry or Children's stories?



The prompt asked which Kipling is best known for, poetry or Children’s stories? He is a master of both, and also adult literature. I am more familiar with his prose. I have loved and enjoyed his work since before I could read.

The distinction between his poetry and prose blurs sometimes. Here are some examples:

“Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the grey-green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees, and find out.” From The Elephant's Child  

“And he went back through the wet wild woods waving his wild tail, and walking by his wild lone." The Cat That Walked By Himself  

Both quotes are from Just So Stories for Little Children  

When, I was little my mother took me to see the Disney movie based on Kipling's novel The Jungle Book  . I liked it very much. Since I enjoyed it, Mom bought me a copy of the above album “Just So Stories Volume 1: The Elephant’s Child and The Cat That Walked By Himself”, read by Sterling Holloway. Holloway's distinctive voice fits Kipling’s poetic prose perfectly. He also voiced Kaa the python in the movie The Jungle Book

When I got a bit older I read more of Kipling’s work including Kim   and Stalky and Co.   which demonstrate that he is not limited to children’s literature. The imagery and descriptions in Kim bring colonial India to life.

I studied Kipling in an English Literature class. Here I learned about a less positive characteristic of Kipling. He was a strong proponent of Empire, both for England and the United States of America. This is evidenced by his poem The White Man's Burden  . This poem seems to say that it is the responsibility of the white man to "civilize" people of color whether they like it or not.

"In 'the white man's burden', Kipling encouraged the American annexation and colonization of the Philippine Islands..."

This aspect of Kipling’s character disturbed me. Still, I am not one to "cancel" someone’s work based on something I disagree with. I can dislike The White Man’s Burden while still loving his other work.