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by Aryadasa Ratnasinghe

"The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant, The saplings reeling on the path he trods; Declare his might, our lord the elephant, Chief of the ways of God". - Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), was not only a poet and writer par excellence, but also a man of many honours. He was born on Dec. 30, 1865, at Mumbai (Bombay) in India.

His father was John Lockwood Kipling the son of a Methodist minister, the Rev. Joseph Kipling. His mother was Alice Macdonald, the daughter of another Methodist minister, the Rev. George Macdonald. Rudyard was the eldest in the family and Trix was his only sister.

Rudyard's father having accepted a post as principal of a school in Bombay, decided to settle down at Mumbai with his wife Alice, and it was during their stay at Mumbai that the two children were born.

In those days, children of English parents, born in India, were invariably sent to England for their education, when they were about 8 years old, and, likewise, Alice with her two children Rudyard and Trix left Mumbai for England.

At the age of 12 years, Rudyard's eye-sight began to fail, which compelled him to wear spectacles for the rest of his life. In England, he was admitted to a public school known as the United Services College, founded by a group of service personnel, to give their children an elementary education.

Cromwell Price, the Principal of the College, who happened to be a friend of Kiplings, willingly admitted Rudyard to his College, which was at Westward Ho in Bideford Bay, North Devon. The education Rudyard received, provided the background for his later developments as a poet and a writer of repute.

Recollecting the past, one of Rudyard's classmates, George Beresford, in later years wrote: "Rudyard Kipling was rather short for his age, but he took it out in extra width. He was not muscular or sinewy, and was not good at fisticuffs, for which, in any case, his exceedingly shortsightedness unfitted him.

He always tried to side-track physical violence by tactful means and friendliness and not by quarrelling with any boy, unless he had allies to support him".

Rudyard was mostly influenced, during his stay at the College, by William Crofts, who taught him English literature. Crofts soon realised the talents of the boy and took keen interest to develop his literary knowledge. He was advised to read literature that would improve his knowledge.

He read the works of poets, such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Algermon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) and others of literary calibre, which improved his knowledge and style of expression.

At the young age of 16 years, Rudyard began to compose poems of high quality, which were published in the College magazine, the 'Chronicle'. The poem 'Ave Imperatrix', written by him to the magazine, received much praise form Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), the renowned poet, critic and playwright.

Having left the College, Rudyard returned to India to meet his parents living in Lahore, where his father was the Principal of Mayo School of Arts and Curator of the Lahore Museum. In a short time, Rudyard found a job as assistant editor of the Civil and Military Gazette. In the following year, he became the editor by filling the vacancy created by the death of the editor.

In 1887, Rudyard left the job and joined the staff of the newspaper 'Pioneer'. His first attempt to write a book was in 1888, which he wrote under the title 'Plain Tales from the Hills'. The book was in great demand throughout India. Rudyard's competence, versatility and brilliance as a literary writer, first revealed his ability as a story-teller, which reminds us many of the stories of Henri Rene Maupassant (1850-1893), the famous novelist and story writer.

The editor of the 'Pioneer' encouraged Rudyard to write feature articles on his travels. In March 1889, he left for the United States via Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, and returned to England in October the same year. He proved to be a travel-experienced young man, and many praised him for his success as a precocious traveller and a versatile writer.

His next attempt was 'Annus Mirabilis' (Year of Wonders).

He achieved the zenith of his popularity in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, by writing the poem 'Recessional'. Only a lapse, which displeased the Queen, of his poem 'The Ballad of the Window of Windsor', prevented Rudyard being appointed Poet Laureate.

During the period 1882 and 1889, Rudyard Kipling wrote many works such as 'Soldiers Three', 'Under the Deodars', 'Wee Willie Winkie' etc. Next he wrote 'The Light that Failed' (1890), 'The Barrack Room Ballads' (1892), 'Many Inventions' (1893), 'The Two Jungle Books' (1895), 'Captains Courageous' (1897), 'Kim' (1901), 'The Just So Stories' (1902), 'Puck of Pook's Hill' (1906), 'Rewards of Fairies' (1910), 'Letters of Travel' (1920), 'Thy Servant a Dog' (1930) and 'Some Things of Myself' (1937), which is more or less an autobiography.

In 1892, Rudyard married the American-born Caroline, the sister of Wolcott Balestier, who collaborated with him in the work 'Naulahka' (1891). He carried his successes to higher limits with great popularity, as a matchless writer and poet of fame, not only in England but also in other countries as well, where his works appeared in translations.

During the Boer War (1899-1902), Rudyard edited a newspaper for the troops in South Africa, and his imperialistic sentiments rose to a new peak during this period. After the war, he settled down with his wife Caroline, and after the death of their only son John, at the Battle of Loos in 1915, the pace of his writing spirit became slower.

Kipling received many honours and awards. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, McGill, Paris, Strastourg and Athens, conferred honorary degrees upon him. In 1926, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature, an honour previously given to the poet Sir Walter Scott (1777-1832), the British novelist and poet George Meredith (1828-1909) and Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), the British poet. He was also offered the Order of Merit, but he declined to accept it.

Rudyard died on January 18, 1936, and was buried in the Poets' Corner of the Westminster Abbey.

This Abbey was built on a marshy land that was once Thorney Island. It was traditionally founded by Serbert, King of the Saxons, early in the 7th century. Its official title is the Collegiate Church of St. Peter.

The Abbey is crowded with memorials and tombs of statesmen, writers, poets etc., who have left their mark on English history.

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