Rudyard Kipling: Selected Poems

“Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.”
— The Law of the Jungle

Kipling’s innovative experiments with language—especially the dialects of the ordinary soldier—won him many admirers, and still stand out as truly modern today. Compiled here, this selection of his eclectic poetry shows the development of Kipling’s talent, his deepening maturity and the growing somberness of his poetic vision. Ranging from early, exhilarating celebrations of British expansion overseas, including ‘Mandalay’ and ‘Gunga Din’, to the dignified and inspirational ‘If’ and the later, deeply moving ‘Epitaphs of the War’—inspired by the death of Kipling’s only son—it clearly illustrates the scope and originality of his work. It also offers a compelling insight into the Empire both at its peak and during its decline in the early years of the twentieth century.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is often regarded as the unofficial poet Laureate of the British Empire. Yet his writing reveals a ferociously independent figure, at times violently opposed to the dominant political and literary tendencies of his age. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author.”