Prophetic Verse: Including "The Gods of the Copybook Headings"

by Rudyard Kipling

This new collection includes such impressive classics as "The Gods of the Copybook Headings," "The City of Brass," "Recessional," "Jubal and Tubal Cain," "When Earth's Last Picture Is Painted," "If," and many, many more. With prophetic vision, Rudyard Kipling's timeless verse speaks clearly to our own times. He was a keen observer of human nature--and of his times--which were much like our government leaders who were inept or corrupt or both, foreign conflicts that never seemed to end (or simply cropped up in other places), a populace who had largely forgotten God, and a general confusion about what was right and what was wrong. "Kipling was something rarer than a philosopher; he was a prophet," wrote T. S. Eliot. "He had a gift for prophecy." Kipling's warning voice sounds a clarion call to the troubled and stumbling world of the 21st century.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 14, 2015

About the author

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."

Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a bit of a mixed bag. There are quite a few excellent poems, but also quite a few that seemed very obscure -mostly due to the fact that Kipling was writing about his own current events. The first half of the book that dealt with faith and religion was much stronger than the second half.

One note on this edition- there is an introduction that is simply signed by "J.A.F" but no indication of who this person is. I thought that was odd, as if I needed to know the secret handshake or the guy didn't want to actually sign his name. Why?