The author George Orwell was less than sympathetic in his assessment: 'In the stupid early years of this century, the blimps, having at last discovered someone who could be called a poet and who was on their side, set Kipling on a pedestal, and some of his more sententious poems, such as ‘If’, were given almost biblical status.

The great Statesman Winston Churchill was moved to say: 'No one has ever written like Kipling before and his work, with all its characteristics and idiosyncrasies… has been successfully imitated by none' As you would expect from a literary genius he was good for a one liner so this is my compilation of 20 of the best Rudyard Kipling quotes Quotes About Rudyard Kipling He became a tortured soul who often thought, what if, I never intervened. This devastated his father who never recovered from his death and he never regained the literary genius that had been unleashed for 2 decades prior to WW1. Rudyard intervened using his celebrity status to pull some strings and John enlisted with the Irish Guards and in 1915 after only 2 days at the Western Front he was killed in battle at Loos. His own son John, was 18 years of age and desperate to enlist but his poor eyesight saw him fail time after time. Kipling became known as the Poet of the Empire and with the onset of WW1 he was highly active in the propaganda war against the Germans. 'If' was written as a proud father speaking to his son in a tone that summed up the colonial era of Victorian stoicism, it is a spine tingling conjecture of inspiration that characterises the rectitude of perseverance against all odds. He settled in London where he got down to work publishing short stories, novels and some memorable poetry.įrom 1890 onwards he maintained the prolific literary output but the quality of the narrative grew exponentially which led to the poems 'Gunga Din' and 'Mandalay' in 1890, 'The Jungle Book' (short stories) in 1894 and his jewel in the crown which is possibly the best poem ever written in the modern era 'If' in 1895 and published in 1910. and Canada until finally crossing the Atlantic to England.

For 6 years he worked for various publications and in 1889 he left India to travel and experience 4 Asian countries before crossing the Pacific to explore the U.S. At the age of 10 his parents sent him to a tough boarding school that specialised in preparing children for serving in the armed forces.Īt 16 Kipling set sail back to India and a career as a journalist and short story writer was about to unfold as the years of travel that followed molded the mind of the young Kipling into the literary genius he was to become. The next few years were to be the unhappiest time of Rudyard's life as his guardians neglected, bullied and scolded the children on a daily basis.

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If rudyard kipling quotes