On Nov 18, 2007, at 10:18 AM, M Healy wrote:
It may be relevant that the worrds of the epitaph are spoken by the dead, so that 'our fathers' belong to RK's generation, not the one before. Recall 'we' in the line from that magnificent poem The Dykes -
Now, it may fall, we have slain our sons, as our fathers we have betrayed.
Michael Healy
I may have this wrong, but I think RK was angry with his own generation's laxity with regard to military preparedness (that included, for him, maintenance of a strong empire).
And thanks to David Page for the A.A. Gill reference. A key term in that review, surely, is "energy." Taking Kipling's grief as having broken him in 1915-17 seems to me to ignore the sheer energy of the anger and laughter, as well as the pity and anguish, in stories like those set in Faith and Works No. 5837 E.C. For me, the power of that undiminished, complex energy shows through in a line like Humberstall's "It was the nice old gentleman’s bald ’ead. I patted it" after his battery has been blown up in "The Janeites."
Kipling is a more protean figure than the one I saw in the stage version of My Boy Jack, some years ago (in Richmond), at the end of which David Haig came down stage center and recited "My Boy Jack". The combination of fury and grief and pride that I find in RK's reaction to John's death is much more interesting and humane.
Best,
Peter
Peter Havholm
Department of English
The College of Wooster
Wooster, OH 44691
