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Example research essay topic: Rudyard Kipling And Poetry - 1,814 words

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"Kipling strikes me as personally the most complete man of genius that I have ever known" (Ricketts 270). Such was Henry James' opinion regarding Rudyard Kipling. Surely a man held in such esteem would be capable of becoming an accomplished poet. However, Kipling became a very disputed author.

He produced works that caught the eye of many critics, receiving both positive and negative attention particularly in the genre of poetry. Because of the content, style, and time period in which Kipling wrote, he was often misunderstood and unappreciated. The critics based their opinions on common misconceptions and myths. Therefore, the criticisms of Kipling have no basis of truth. Despite negative criticism, Kipling had his own admirers.

George Orwell drew attention to the remarkable fact that Kipling's verse, like it or not, never leaves the reader's mind completely- his score in a book of quotations is very high (Stapleton 490). T. S. Elliot, a major poet, published A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1941) and called him a writer of verse who sometimes ascended to poetry (Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry, 1602).

His writing from 1890 onward brought him wealth and lasting popularity. His work added new phrases to the English language. Few today realize that they paraphrase Kipling when they assert that "the female is deadlier than the male, " or that "East is East and West is West. " The Ballad of East and West not only incorporated itself into a common phrase, but also shows that all men can understand one another in the fundamental test of courage: Oh East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Bread, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth (Selendy)! These two men, beginning as enemies, part as friends. Kipling has gathered admirers and fans because of works like this which not only incorporate themselves into daily sayings, but also deliver a message of insight into humanity.

Kipling's best work contained sheer, unforgettable rhythmic musicality (Magill, Dictionary of World Biography, 1292). His verse is highly crafted poetry. It uses metaphors and prosody- the science or study of poetic meters in verse- in unusual ways, but this is a strength, not a weakness. Kipling's mastery of metaphor is apparent.

For instance, the theme of the fragility of human achievements is an important one in poetry and in "The Way through the Woods, " Kipling makes this theme mystical and haunting (Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry, 1607). Kipling understood people and in his verse he preserves the thoughts, emotions, hopes, and despairs of people usually ignored by poets (Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry, 1607). The language he uses is clear and accessible to even casual readers. In addition, the surface themes of Kipling's poetry are usually easy to understand. Keen insight made his language strikingly acute.

It was coarse, harsh, and elemental. He was perfectly willing to be blunt and still metaphorical (Hopkins 110). The fact that Kipling's work was comprehensible to the average person was a strength of his work but even his strengths were subject to criticism. Critics also became excited by his so-called racial and imperialistic topics. On the contrary, Kipling's verse repeatedly emphasizes that no one can rightfully be regarded superior to another on the basis of race and origin. In "The White Man's Burden, " he wrote to "Fill full the mouth of Famine/ And bid the sickness cease. " Although imperialistic, the poem emphasizes not race, but the obligations of Europeans and Americans to the oppressed peoples of the world (Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry, 1609).

Kipling is said to glorify warfare by devoting much of his poetry to descriptions of the lives of soldiers; in fact, he shows war to be ugly and stupid in "The Last of the Light Brigade. " The poem calls attention to the differences between a Victorian Master Tennyson's poetic description of the ill-fated charge and the degradation that characterized the soldier's lives. Another myth is that Kipling's poetry is coarse and crude. The subject matter is, indeed, sometimes crude, but not the prosody. If one approaches his verse with an open mind, one will likely find brilliant prosody, literary and political fashion (Magill, 1609).

The sources of misconception about Kipling's poetic achievement seem obvious: casual or careless reading might glean only the surface remarks of subtle poems. Kipling's political poetry was and remains unpalatable to many people who condemn it on no other grounds than political distastefulness. His aggressive dislike of academics and admiration for men of action alienate many of those who would be likeliest to write about his poetry (Manley 136). Some of these negative myths are Kipling's fault. If one writes on the politics of the moment, one invites political interpretations of one's work (Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry, 1602). However, too much of the criticisms of Kipling's poetry is clearly biased.

Many rationales for denigrating the poetry seems contrived, as if covering reasons that would not bear exposure (Magill, Dictionary of World Biography, 1292). Elitism also has much to do with the negative responses. Critics seem to believe that Kipling has degraded his verse. In order to understand why Kipling's critics thought this, it is necessary to look at the era in which he wrote as well as by what standards he was being judged. Kipling began his career in the Victorian era. The Victorians added the notion that poetry was morally uplifting and that a poet was obligated to discuss high topics in grand language.

Thus, biblical phrasing and high-sounding archaisms such as "thee" and "thou" lingered in nineteenth century poetry. Poetry has traditionally been regarded as the elite of literary genres. The term poet was reserved in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for those who had excelled in literature. It was a term of honor to which writers aspired.

Poetry has been thought of as appropriate to high aspirations and great ideas. In other words, poetry was traditionally considered "elevating" (Selendy). The problem was that no matter how much Kipling's contemporaries were involved with the literary revolutions of their time, they were still children of the Victorians. What this meant was that his critics came to expect good poetry to demand close and sometimes prolonged reading in order for one to understand the most basic meanings of verse (Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry, 1603). Kipling's poetry was being judged by the wrong standards since his style was out of step with the literary movement of his day. His unfashionable-ness has its origins in two important aspects of his poetry: his versification was clear and usually unadorned, and his subjects were usually plain, working class people (Magill, 1610).

This made his poetry accessible and twentieth century critics have all too often regarded poetry that is popular among the common person as automatically bad (Magill, 1610). Many of the most admired poems of the first three decades of the twentieth century focused on the Arthurian legends or revived Latin poetic traditions. Kipling's poetry, in contrast, focuses on common people, the active people whose raw manner of dealing with the world most interested him. Kipling gave voices to the soldiers and the products of laboring classes (Magill, 1608). In writing for the broad literate mass of people, Kipling encompassed those who were generally left out of poetry and he did not romanticize them. A soldier's achievement is to survive one more day; a laborer's achievement is to feed himself one more day (Magill, 1608).

Kipling was in touch with much that was thought and done by those who provided the foundations for civilization. Even Kipling's eccentric phrase "Almost as long as flowers" is within easy reach of the unsophisticated reader: in the vastness of time, cities exist only briefly. The surface meanings of the central metaphor do not preclude subtlety (Magill, Dictionary of World Biography, 1288). Kipling dealt with large metaphysical ideas, with the cycles of civilizations and the threats to Western civilization, yet for all his great themes, Kipling was at home with subjects no more lofty than the ordinary person's hope for a better future. Ironically, to be known by many in the eyes of a critic was considered bad since obscurity had been the hallmark of much of the best of twentieth century poetry. Kipling's audience differed from the traditional and so did his style.

His lyrical and narrative poetry had more in common with the styles of Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Swinburne, than it had with the styles that were prominent in the twentieth century (Magill, 1290). This style was out of step with the Modernist school. Modernism dealt with emphasis on metaphors. This may be why many readers think of Kipling as Victorian, even though he actively wrote and published into the 1930 's. Kipling's approach to poetry was neither better nor worse than that of his later contemporaries; it was merely different because he aimed for an audience other than the literary elite. Poetry had been a genre for popular reading; Kipling kept it such.

His best poetry will reward close reading by perceptive readers. It will also reward the unskilled or casual reader with a basic surface meaning (Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry, 1610). Through all the criticisms which Kipling received for various reasons, whether it be the subject matter or form or misconceptions, it is still apparent that Kipling was no failure in the genre of poetry. There were no criticisms that held so true and strong as a brick wall. Instead, there are holes in those walls through which shines the accomplishments Kipling made in the realm of poetry.

Even today, his efforts have meaning and leave impressions on the reader who approaches Kipling's work with a love for poetry. Henry James was not mistaken when commenting on Rudyard Kipling's genius. The best of this man was preserved in a form of art through which he expressed his understanding of how tenuous life is and how valiant the human struggle can be. Even the best critics could not find fault in Kipling's poetry, and those who thought they did, have thus been proven false. BIBLIOGRAPHY Hopkins. Thurston, R.

Rudyard Kipling- A Literary Appreciation. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York. Magill, Frank N. Critical Survey of Poetry. Salem Press- Englewood Cliffs, N.

J. 1982. Magill, Frank N. Dictionary of World Biography- The 19 th Century. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago. 1999. Manley, Sean. Rudyard Kipling- Creative Adventurer.

The Vanguard Press, Inc. New York. 1965. Rickettes, Harry. A Life. Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc. New York. 1999.

Selendy Communications. "Rudyard Kipling Poems." 2000: n. pag. On-line. Internet. 10 Jan. 2002: Available WWW: web Kip ling/Kipling contents. htm.

Stapleton, Michael. The Cambridge Guide to English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1983.


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Research essay sample on Rudyard Kipling And Poetry

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