Kipling can be a wonderful writer: I grew up on the Just So Stories (and so did my kids), and the Jungle Books are quite gripping. Many of the stories are excellent too. As for his poetry, he is probably the finest doggerel writer in English, and is capable of work that is moving. Dane-Geld, quoted below, is not one of his better efforts, although I am not familiar enough with anything that Francis Scott Key wrote other than the words to the Star Spangled Banner, so I cannot compare:
(The tune to the SSB is an old British drinking song, though how anyone can sink it drunk when no one can sing it sober is beyond me; Hendrix's version is the only one I can stand, although I of course I do stand _for_ it at ball games, commencement, and other ceremonial occasions)
Dane-Geld
A.D. 980-1016 It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: -- "We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: -- "Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray; So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost; For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
This is crap, politically, poetically, just rubbish.
Contrast it with his great and racist hymn to imperialism, Recessional, which shows a real sense of perspective and manifests a reasonably complex moral and intellectual position. Hitchens has evidently forgotten this poem, especially the final verse:
Recessional
God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far-flung battle line Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine-- Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart: Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire: Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe-- Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the law-- Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard-- All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard-- For frantic boast and foolish word, Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> <http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-
> thomas_jefferson.html>, reprinted at
> <http://frontpagemag.com/
> Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27956>
>
> Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates
> Christopher Hitchens
>
> America’s first confrontation with the Islamic world
> helped forge a
> new nation’s character
>
> [...]
>
> And then, finally, there is principle. It would be
> simplistic to say
> that something innate in America made it
> incompatible with slavery
> and tyranny. But would it be too much to claim that
> many Americans
> saw a radical incompatibility between the Barbary
> system and their
> own? And is it not pleasant when the interests of
> free trade and
> human emancipation can coincide? I would close with
> a few staves of
> Kipling, whose poem “Dane-Geld” is a finer effort
> than anything
> managed by Francis Scott Key:
>
> [...]
>
> [also in City Journal
> <http://www.city-journal.org/html/
> 17_1_urbanities-steyn.html>:]
>
> Facing the Islamist Menace
> Christopher Hitchens
>
> Mark Steyn’s new book is a welcome wake-up call.
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
>
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