Kipling turned down many honours in his lifetime, including a knighthood and the poet laureateship, but in , he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first English author to be so honoured. In , Kipling bought a 17th century house called Bateman's in East Sussex where he lived for the rest of his life. He also travelled extensively, including repeated trips to South Africa in the winter months.
Kipling had great difficulty accepting his son's death - having played a major role in getting the chronically short-sighted John accepted for military service - and subsequently wrote an account of his regiment, 'The Irish Guards in the Great War'. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled.
While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets CSS if you are able to do so. In his poetry, Kipling dramatizes war as a primitive affliction, one that unleashes exhilaration as well as rage and terror.
When she hears a groan, she looks around to discover a wounded German pilot pinioned under a branch. She ceased to think. She gave herself up to feel … drew her breath short between her teeth and shivered from head to foot. But people continued to read him: he remained the most popular poet in England during the war.
He gathered the material for them over tankards of beer at the garrison near Lahore, where he loved hanging out as a young journalist in India. Soldiers carried these poems to the front lines in Flanders, France, and Palestine. Kipling was too old to serve in the war. Most war poets focussed on what they saw around them: the plight of the English infantry on the Western Front.
Kipling brought a different perspective. A Bombay-born child of Empire, his gaze travelled to its rims. Kipling even dedicated a couplet to the reviled deserter. Many of the poems were written from the perspective of English soldiers and won him great notoriety. The verse contrasts with his later work, as he depicts the Indian as a heroic character whilst the British soldiers around him treat him with a lack of respect. As his reputation as a great poet grew, in he married Caroline Balestier, who was related to the American publisher and writer with whom he had previously worked.
The young married couple decided to settle in America, moving to Vermont where his two daughters were born. Kipling in his study in Vermont, Back in the literary world, Kipling embraced poetry and short-stories as well as novels, which earned him as many plaudits as his previous work. By Kipling had settled in Sussex where he would stay until his death.
The book contains a number of short stories set in different eras but with a continuous narrative throughout. The poem was said to be inspired by Leander Starr Jameson, the man who unsuccessfully led the doomed Jameson Raid against the Transvaal in South Africa. His work, whilst varied in genre, form and style, whether poetry, short-story or novel proved to have a massive impact on its audience and would later win him the Nobel Prize for Literature in , notably the first Englishman to receive the award.
Whilst his work would continue to garner great attention and appreciation, as time went on, especially after the First World War and in an ever changing global context, his popularity dwindled. His association with South African statesman Cecil Rhodes appeared to strengthen his convictions but he soon found himself surrounded by liberal attitudes completely juxtaposed to his own.
In a world that was changing, he quickly fell out of favour and spent the rest of his life in isolation. On 18th January he passed away and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
0コメント