Dear Myron Smith,
Further to George Engle's reply to your query, and merely to add a gloss to
what has already been said, I wonder if it is significant to look at the
dating of the poem, and consider that it is an allegory for man's vanity in
not only the physical things of this world, but in ideas as well.
The poem was written in 1902, at the end of the Boer War: the year in which
the Kiplings moved into Bateman's. Kipling had built 'Naulahka' some eight
years earlier, and, in effect, his design in building had come to nothing:
here we was again, about to do building works of his own, realizing their
impermanence in the long-term: and perhaps, following his thoughts in
'Recessional', he was warning about what was about to be 'built', in
constitutional terms, in South Africa.
Jut a thought.
Yours,
Alastair Wilson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Myron Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2001 4:28 AM
Subject: The Palace
> I'm new on this list and would like some insight into the meaning of the
> lines from Kiplings poem, The Palace:
> "They sent me a Work from the Darkness
> They whispered and called me aside,
> They said: 'The end is forbidden'
>
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