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Identifying a Kipling poem

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wilbobob
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Identifying a Kipling poem

#182775

Postby wilbobob » November 24th, 2018, 11:49 pm

I've started looking for a poem I read some time ago that I would like to revisit. I'm pretty certain it was by Rudyard Kipling and was written in the voice of a soldier who has retired to the service in the Big House he left to join the Army. He is stifled and frustrated by the people around him who have no idea of the life he has led ranging across the mountains of India and Afghanistan.
Do you recognise this work?
I guessed it was in Barrack Room Ballads, but not in the copy I have from the library.
Bob

Itsallaguess
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Re: Identifying a Kipling poem

#182783

Postby Itsallaguess » November 25th, 2018, 6:23 am

wilbobob wrote:
I've started looking for a poem I read some time ago that I would like to revisit.

I'm pretty certain it was by Rudyard Kipling and was written in the voice of a soldier who has retired to the service in the Big House he left to join the Army. He is stifled and frustrated by the people around him who have no idea of the life he has led ranging across the mountains of India and Afghanistan.

Do you recognise this work? I guessed it was in Barrack Room Ballads, but not in the copy I have from the library.


Just had a quick look, and the 'frustrated soldier' is quite a common theme in Kipling's poems, as you'd imagine I suppose.

Not sure if these include the one you're looking for -

Screw Guns - https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/Music_P_files/P004_ScrewGuns.htm

Mandalay - http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_mandalay.htm

Tommy - http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_tommy.htm

If not, and if you can remember any more details from the poem that you're looking for, then we might be able to take another look.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

wilbobob
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Re: Identifying a Kipling poem

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Postby wilbobob » November 25th, 2018, 9:42 am

Thank you Itsallaguess. I'd already checked out those suggestions without finding what I'm looking for.
There's not much to add to what I've already said, other than the veteran compares that he is now being given instructions on how to get to the post office when previously he has been free to roam mountains.
I've been working my way through the listings of his poems, in an admittedly scattergun manner. I'll need to start sequentially from the top. I may find more that I like.
Bob


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