Barrack-Room Ballads
1890
Kipling did something no poet had done before: he let the common soldier speak for himself. Where others wrote about war from the officer's perspective, Kipling climbed down into the barrack room and gave voice to Tommy Atkins - the working-class Brit who fought the Empire's battles for meager pay and even less gratitude. Written in Cockney dialect, these poems crackle with rough humor, hard-bitten wisdom, and an unflinching look at what it means to be cannon fodder. From the gallows-row ballad of 'Danny Deever' to the bittersweet tribute 'Gunga Din,' from the bitter cri de coeur of 'Tommy' to the nostalgic 'Mandalay,' Kipling captures the full weight of soldiering: the comradeship, the brutality, the strange pride and deeper bitterness. These ballads endure because the contract between soldier and society hasn't changed. The public hails warriors in wartime and forgets them in peace. Kipling captured that truth before anyone wanted to hear it.
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“And the first rude sketch that the world has seenwas joy to his mighty heart,Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it art?””
— Rudyard Kipling
“O it's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and Tommy 'ow's your soul/But it's thin red line of heroes when the drums begin to roll.””
— Rudyard Kipling
“Gentlemen-rankers out on the spreeDamned from here to Eternity,God ha' mercy on such as we, Baa! Yah! Bah!””
— Rudyard Kipling
“and if somehow my conduct ain't all your fancy paints, why single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints””
— Rudyard Kipling
“When the flush of a newborn sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mold;And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves: 'It's pretty, but is it Art?””
— Rudyard Kipling
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Kipling, Rudyard. Barrack-Room Ballads. Lex, lex-books.com/book/barrack-room-ballads-ee4c64bc-83c4-4b23-b3c5-07fb4802cefc.Kipling, R. (1890). Barrack-Room Ballads. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/barrack-room-ballads-ee4c64bc-83c4-4b23-b3c5-07fb4802cefcKipling, Rudyard. Barrack-Room Ballads. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/barrack-room-ballads-ee4c64bc-83c4-4b23-b3c5-07fb4802cefc.
