Barrack-Room Ballads

First gathered in book form in 1892, this collection of poems is spoken largely in the voice of the British private soldier of the late Victorian army. The speakers talk of barracks, drink, punishment, colonial postings, and the gap between the official nation and the men who serve it. Familiar pieces include the ballads of Danny Deever, Tommy, Gunga Din, and Mandalay. Dialect, music-hall rhythm, and soldier slang carry poems that can be comic, brutal, or homesick. The book is a sequence of dramatic lyrics rather than a narrative: a portrait of rank-and-file imperial service from below.

Quarter bound in dark brown cloth, yellow paper boards with a repeat pattern in brown by Ribbons. Brown endleaves. Transparent plastic dust-jacket, no slipcase.