I say, thosed damned Yankees have stolen our Rudyard!

Stand by for yet another example of my appalling ignorance!  Some damned 'Yankee-doodle' has had the effrontery to steal our beloved Rudyard Kipling!  Honestly, the cheek of it!  I mean, Kipling is as English as, er, well, kippers and cups of tea.  Even so, some American literary swot is suggesting that 'our Rudyard' actually lived the most creative part of his literary life in, er, well, Brattleboro, Vermont, actually, and it was there that he wrote his famous poem "If" which was - wait for it! - a homage to George Washington!  'HOONOO'?

It gets even worse:

Although Kipling was a global celebrity, the Nobel Prize-winning author was intimately connected with the United States. “The White Man’s Burden,” in fact, was not meant as a hymn to the British Empire, but the emerging American one. Kipling, who had married an American woman and lived in Vermont, wrote the poem as “an explicit plea for the United States to adopt the Philippines as an American colony.”

At this point, deeply shocked, I was tempted to load my revolver and do the decent thing as decent British chaps did back in those days.  Happily, I recalled the wise admonishment of my old platoon sergeant who once told me that it was doubtful if I could hit a barn with a sub-machine gun - even if I was inside it!  Anyway, fortunately I read on and learned the good news that:

Ultimately, other political questions dampened Kipling’s attitude toward America. In 1895, an obscure dispute between the United States and England over their interests in South America forced Kipling to choose sides, and he chose Britain. A scandalous falling-out with his troubled American brother-in-law further complicated his life in the States. In 1896, he relocated to England.

Jolly good show, a 'pukka' fella that Kipling after all!

 

Comments

[Richard]

As I understand it, 'If' was inspired by one Leander Starr Jameson of Jameson Raid fame. What WAS inspired by American actions in the Philippines was that rather wonderful, rather controversial poem 'The White Man's Burden.

"Take up the White Man's burden -
The savage wars of peace -
Fill full the mouth of famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought."

[Whyaxye]

"Take up the White Man's burden -
The savage wars of peace -
Fill full the mouth of famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought."

Could be the mission statement of most London local authorities.