Selected Poems

This selection draws on the verse Kipling published from the 1880s into the early twentieth century: barrack-room ballads in soldiers' vernacular, poems of ships, engines, and imperial stations, Sussex and English historical pieces, and songs written for children. Speakers include privates, engineers, and a public voice addressing the costs of rule. Dialects and music-hall rhythms are part of the method. There is no continuous story. The book is a cross-section of ballad and recitation, not a novel of India and not a political pamphlet, though empire, work, and law are its usual subjects.

Quarter-bound in dark red leather with pale orange pattern printed cloth boards. Dark red slipcase.