KIPLING’S GENIUS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 129, 13 March 1936, Page 3

KIPLING’S GENIUS

THE KEY TO HIS POWER. VIRILE PATRIONISM KINDLED. Probably no British writer has ever been so much argued about and discussed in his own lifetime as the late Rudyard Kipling, writes Mr Oliver Pitt in the “London Sunday Graphic.’’ It is the peculiar quality of his writing, especially his verse, that has evoked the wildest enthusiasm and the fiercest antagonism. Those who read Kipling became at once violent partisans. They were either tremendously for the mac or terrifically against him. There were no neutrals in the wordy war. The battles which have raged around his name for nearly 40 years are to lie explained by the fact that Kipling must be regarded as something more than a novelist and poet. In the early nineties he was the sonorous and eloquent mouthpiece of a vast and growing section of public opinion. Ho readied his prime at that period when, after a long spell of quietude, the spirit of expansive Imperialism was once more firing the public imagination. Its spokesman in polities was Joseph Chamberlain, who, waving the Flag with high gusto and shouting the slogans of Empire, had won the ascendancy in the Conservative Party, and was fast gaining the allegiance of the people.

pays of Joseph Chamberlain. By a singular accident, the emergence of Chamberlain as a powerful and popular politician coincided almost exactly with the arrival of Kipling as a forcible and successful writer. It was his grandiose conception of Empire, expressed in resounding verse, which gave him liis influence and fame. As they read his stirring lines his admirers flung out their chests, squared their shoulders, held their heads higher. He had reminded them in language they could understand, and in rhyme apt for ready quotation, that they were not citizens of a tiny island but of a far-flung Empire spread over the earth’s surface, bordered by the Seven Seas. Between the speeches of Chamberlain and tho songs of Kipling the bulk of the nation had been won over to tho new Imperialism. These salient facts of history must be borne in mind if we are to reach any true appreciation of Kipling’s position in the nation’s life. If we judge him simply as a novelist and writer, purely on his literary merits, we shall utterly faid to measure the man. Schoolboy Memories. I was a schoolboy in an upper form when 1 first encountered liis verses. I remember liow thrilled, excited, captivated we all were by the lilt and rhythm of liis lines. The part ol English history which liatl interested us most was the Elizabethan tales of conquest and adventure, tlie, shining triumphs of Marlborough, the Napoleonic struggle ending in the victories at Waterloo and Trafalgar. But these bygone glories were far-off tilings to our youthful minds. We had fallen upon dull, unromantic times. Wo were too young to think sensibly. We did not understand the preciqusness ol peace.

Then Kipling spoke and all was changed. Wo instantly grew a superiority complex—we were brave, bold, British—and soon looked with scorn upon “lesser breeds without the law. The new Imperialism, which ran rampant through the land, was soon to receive a severe shock. There was grave trouble in ,South Africa. Summit of Fame. It was evident that Avar was coming, and in 1899 an ultimatum from the, Boer President Kruger caused an immediate outbreak ot hostilities, 40,000 British troops being dispatched to tho Cape. It was at the summit of Chamberlain’s power. It was at the zenith of Kipling’s fame. Almost everywhere there was tremendous enthusiasm for the war. There was acute disorganisation at the War Office, however, and soon the wives and children of our soldiers were in hopeless distress. Kipling seized his pen and dashed olf “The Absent-Minded Beggar,” which was set to music and sung, as well as recited, at innumerable public gatherings. It was tlic sheerest doggerel:Cook’s son, duke’s son, son of a belted earl, Son of a Lambetli publican, they’re all the same to-day,

Each of ’ern’s doing his country’s work so who’s to look after the girl? Pass the hat for your credit’s sake, and pay, pay, pay. Influence During Great War. The chanting of this ditty—there were several other .verses —in patriotic ears brought in more than a million pounds. This was the author’s present to the “Tommies” whom ho knew and loved so well since his association with them in India. In the very quality of “The AbsentMinded Beggar” and many other examples of Kipling’s much criticised verse we have the key to his genius. Its sentiments, though crudely expressed, were exactly attuned to the mood and temper of the time. One thing is unquestionably true of Kipling. It was bo who, as much as, or' more than, any man kindled and kept alive that spirit of virile patriotism which was the country’s most precious asset at the onset of the Great War. During that bitter conflict ho was mostly silent. But the spirit of his heroic yerse was reflected in countless deeds of valour at the crisis of the Empire’s fate.