In article <memo.20080301002821.3584B@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
prd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Paul Dormer) wrote:
> In article <ddfr-2C9FD9.13584929022008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> ddfr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(David Friedman) wrote:
>
> > In article <memo.20080229110544.2612A@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > prd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Paul Dormer) wrote:
> >
> > > Last year, there was a film on ITV called My Son Jack, about
> Rudyard
> > > Kipling and his son. His son (played by Daniel Radcliffe of Harry
> > > Potter fame) had very bad eyesight, but was keen to enlist when
> > > the war broke out. His father pulled string to get him a
> > > commission, despite he'd failed several medical exams. He died
> > > the first time he led his men over the top. It broke his father,
> > > who wrote an epitaph for the fallen, "If any question why we
> > > died, Tell them, because our fathers lied."
> >
> > Kipling was a strong sup****ter of the war throughout, as I think
> > you can tell from his writing. My guess is "our fathers lied"
> > isn't a statement about how he got his son into the army, which
> > is a possible reading of what you wrote although perhaps not the
> > intended one, but about failures of British policy earlier than
> > that. In both his poetry and prose of the pre-war period you can
> > see arguments for much greater military preparedness.
>
> Certainly the argument of the film was the Kipling became quite
> disillusioned with the war after his son's death. The military
> historian Richard Holmes did a series on WWI on the BBC a few years ago
> which told the same story, and he linked that line explicitly with his
> son's death.
"A Death Bed"
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/kipling_ind.html
is 1918, and pretty clearly blames the Kaiser.
Or take a look at "The Holy War" (1917)
Likewise the Lords of Looseness
That hamper faith and works,
The Perseverance-Doubters,
And Present-Comfort ****rks,
With brittle intellectuals
Who crack beneath a strain--
John Bunyan met that helpful set
In Charles the Second's reign.
Emmanuel's vanguard dying
For right and not for rights,
My Lord Apollyon lying
To the State-kept Stockholmites,
The Pope, the swithering Neutrals
The Kaiser and his Gott--
Their roles, their goals, their ****d souls--
He knew and drew the lot.
Now he hath left his quarters,
In Bunhill Fields to lie,
The wisdom that he taught us
Is proven prophecy--
One watchword through our Armies,
One answer from our Lands:--
"No dealings with Diabolus
As long as Mansoul stands!"
A pedlar from a hovel,
The lowest of the low --
The Father of the Novel,
Salvation's first Defoe,
Eight blinded generations
Ere Armageddon came,
He showed us how to meet it,
And Bunyan was his name!
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/kipling_ind.html
Or "The Irish Guards" (1918)
"h, France! And will we deny you In the hour of your agony, Mother of
Swords? "
And consider "My Boy Jack"
Have you news of my boy Jack?"
Not this tide.
"When d'you think that he'll come back?"
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
"Has any one else had word of him?: "
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind--
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.
Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!
Obviously Kipling thought WWI was a dreadful war--as did everyone. But I
don't think he became disillusioned in the sense of thinking that
England was wrong to get into it. Nor do I think he was "illusioned" at
the beginning--he didn't have a romantic view of war, as you can see by
stories much before that.
For his view of the Germans, see "The Outlaws"
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/kipling_ind.html
--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
Published by Baen, in bookstores now
|
