Rudyard Kipling: The Complete Verse

Kipling, Rudyard & M. M. Kaye

ISBN 10: 1856264491 / ISBN 13: 9781856264495

Published by Kyle Cathie Ltd, London, 2002

About this Item

A nice, crisp copy. ; 5.25 X 2.25 X 8.5 inches; 702 pages.

Seller Inventory # 320476

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rudyard Kipling: The Complete Verse
• Publisher: Kyle Cathie Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1856264491
• ISBN 13: 9781856264495
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 3rd Edition
• Condition: Very Good+
• Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

When Rudyard Kipling died in 1936, he was considered second to none as a poet. Years before, when Tennyson was Laureate, he had described the young Kipling as the “only one with divine fire.” His poetry is as varied as it is beautiful; among eulogies for the dead and celebrations of life are also character assassinations and comic masterpieces. Very often, the most powerful and evocative poems are the most personal and humane; together, they comprise a compelling and deeply moving portrait of the man.

From Library Journal

Kipling was once the literary lion of the English-speaking world; within a generation his fame, as a poet at least, was all but extinguished. In a tendentious foreword to this edition of his complete verse, Kaye makes an unconvincing attempt to answer the usual charges of imperialism, racism, and war-mongering. Her attempt to rekindle enthusiasm for Kipling's verse will doubtless prove even less successful. While the poet's political attitudes played a substantial role in the eclipse of his literary reputation, no amount of coaxing is likely to convince a modern reader that these rollicking tales and ballads in verse are the creation of a writer touched with the "divine fire" of genius. One must be impressed, however, with Kipling's masterful storytelling ability, his gift for cadence, and the sheer number of verse forms he mastered. The poems are printed in chronological order, with an index of first lines. General readers and informed laypersons may still find these poems appealing.
- Jeffrey R. Luttrell, Princeton Univ., N.J.
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