Rudyard+Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India (now Mumbai) in 1865 to English parents. When he was 6 years old, his parents sent him and his sister Alice off to boarding school in Southsea, England where they lived with the owners of the school. Kipling was not accustomed to the traditional English beating the Captain and his wife gave, and saw the years he spent with them as a dismal time in his life. In 1881, Kipling returned to India to live with his parents and began working as a newspaper editor. He published his first poems in 1883 and in 1887, a collection of short stories. Kipling began travelling to places such as Burma, China, Japan, and the U.S. on his way back to England, where he married Caroline Balastier in 1892. However, during their honeymoon, he lost all of his funds when his bank failed. Kipling and his wife remained in the U.S. for four years, during which time they had 3 kids and Rudyard Kipling published //The Jungle Book//. In 1896 the family moved back to England, and Rudyard Kipling began traveling to South Africa almost every year for winter vacations. Kipling published the //Just So Stories// in 1902, and these became children's classics. He was a major supporter of British imperialism, as was made manifest in his poem //The White Man's Burden// published in the early 20th century, while he was at the height of his popularity. Around this time, in 1907, Kipling received the Nobel Prize in literature. He continued writing until the 1930's, when he died in 1936 from a brain hemorrhage. Today, though his early success was from his poems, he is most highly regarded for his short stories and children's books. By the time of his death, Rudyard Kipling had compiled one of the most diverse collections of works in English literature. Sources (: || The Rhyme scheme of the poem //If// is ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJKLKL. In each stanza, the 1st and 3rd, 2nd, and 4th, 5th and 7th, and 6th and 8th lines rhyme. //If// uses a lot of imagery and some symbolism and hyperboles, but it is more or less pretty straightforward in saying what it takes to "be a man." Its imagery appeals to mainly the reader's sense of touch in quotes such as : "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone..." Symbolism in //If// include its reference to walking with kings, because it really means to be wealthy and proserous. "Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it" can be viewed as a hyperbole or a metaphor because in reality, no one can own the Earth, but it's saying that you can have everything you want to be truly happy. || **__If__** If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
 * = Rudyard Kipling ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Rudyard_Kipling_1.jpg width="260" height="419"]] || ~Biography~
 * ~ ~Explanations~ ||~ ~Poems~ ||
 * The poem //If// is one of Rudyard Kipling's most famous poems. It talks about how to be someone with the truest depth of character. I personally really liked the poem because of how it hits the nail on the head in summing up how to truly succeed in life.

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! || "All Power, each Tyrant, every Mob, Whose head has grown too large," means that they became overconfident and full of themselves. In addition, Kipling uses alliteration in likes such as "Till, bruised and bitten to the bone," which repeats the "b" sound, and "But bitter pinch of pain and fear," which repeats the "b" and "p" sounds. The use of these consonants makes the lines seem harsher so that when read aloud, the poem makes the reader almost feel the pain the poem is describing. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN OPOP QRQR STST. || __**The Benefactors**__
 * The poem //The Benefactors// is about the evolution of weaponry over the time during which mankind has roamed the Earth. I like it because of how it displays how even though humans may be advancing as a whole, there will always be those in power and people who are more prominent because of man's natural tendancy to form castes in society. Like //If//, it is rather straightfoward, but it uses a lot of imagery and some idioms to get the point across. In describing each different method of gaining power, the poem appeals to the sense of sight. The poem also contains an idiom--

It is not learning, grace nor gear, Nor easy meat and drink, But bitter pinch of pain and fear That makes creation think.

When in this world’s unpleasing youth Our godlike race began, The longest arm, the sharpest tooth, Gave man control of man;

Till, bruised and bitten to the bone And taught by pain and fear, He learned to deal the far-off stone, And poke the long, safe spear.

So tooth and nail were obsolete As means against a foe, Till, bored by uniform defeat, Some genius built the bow.

Then stone and javelin proved as vain As old-time tooth and nail; Till, spurred anew by fear and pain, Man fashioned coats of mail.

Then was there safety for the rich And danger for the poor, Till someone mixed a powder which Redressed the scale once more.

Helmet and armour disappeared With sword and bow and pike, And, when the smoke of battle cleared, All men were armed alike. . ..

And when ten million such were slain To please one crazy king, Man, schooled in bulk by fear and pain, Grew weary of the thing;

And, at the very hour designed To enslave him past recall, His tooth-stone-arrow-gun-shy mind Turned and abolished all.

//All Power, each Tyrant, every Mob Whose head has grown too large, Ends by destroying its own job// And works its own discharge; ||
 * I enjoyed this poem because it is humorous and I know from experience that little kids, particularly little girls, tend to ask so many questions that it can be overwhelming. The main types of figuritive language used in the poem are metaphor, because it is portraying questions as serving men, and hyperbole, when talking about how many questions the little girl asks. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABABCDCD EACAFGAG HIHI. The theme of this poem is basically that it is good to ask questions and everyone should, but it's also important not to ask too many because your "serving men" will get tired, and people will get tired of all the questions. || __**//~//Chapter Heading to** //**The Elephant's Child~**//__

I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five, For I am busy then As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea, For they are hungry men. But different folk have different views; I know a person small- She keeps ten million serving-men, Who get no rest at all!

She sends ’em abroad on her own affairs, From the second she opens her eyes- One million Hows, two million Wheres, And seven million Whys! ||