Edward J. Erickson - A Soldiers Kipling: Poetry and the Profession of Arms

Poetry and the Profession of Arms

Edward J. Erickson

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

Pen & Sword Military

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Edward J. Erickson 2018

ISBN 9781526718532

eISBN 9781526718556

Mobi ISBN 9781526718549

The right of Edward J. Erickson to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

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This book is dedicated

to my students at the

United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College

from whom I have learned so much,

in particular

Major Will Norcott, Royal Marine Commandos

Major Sandra Patterson, New Zealand Army

Major Dina Poma-Barnes, Unites States Marine Corps

Major James Small, United States Army

I would first and foremost like to compliment and acknowledge the contributions to the completion of this book made by the students who took my Kipling elective at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia. They are Major Will Norcott, Royal Marine Commandos, Major Sandy Patterson, New Zealand Army, Major Dina Poma-Barnes, United States Marine Corps, and Major James Small, United States Army. Although few in number their many sage insights, comments, and thoughts helped me understand these verses in ways that I had not seen. Their observations about how practitioners of the Profession of Arms, fresh to Kipling, interpret his work were monumentally important in developing how I have understood and presented these verses. All four of them are combat veterans and all four had served in Afghanistan, some multiple times. Major Pattersons family served in India under the Raj until 1947. I have used their ideas mercilessly and without attribution, and I cant thank them all enough! Like Kipling, who observed similarities between his own appropriation of stories with that of the ancient Greek poet Homer, I hope that Will, Sandy, Dina, and James will grant me a wink and a nod when they read this book.

When Omer smote

is bloomin lyre...

Introduction to the Barrack-Room Ballads in

The Seven Seas

When Omer smote is bloomin lyre,

Hed eard men sing by land an sea;

An what he thought e might require,

E went an took the same as me!

The market-girls an fishermen,

The shepherds an the sailors, too,

They eard old songs turn up again,

But kep it quiet same as you!

They knew e stole; e knew they knowed.

They didnt tell, nor make a fuss,

But winked at Omer down the road,

An e winked back the same as us!

I would also like to acknowledge the authors and members of the Kipling Society, whose wonderfully complete website contains a wealth of valuable information and insights about these poems. I am especially grateful to Alastair Wilson and John Seriot of the Kipling Society for going the distance and reading the entire manuscript in detail and providing exquisitely comprehensive and eye-opening comments. Thank you Alastair and John! Several members of the Kipling Society have also read parts of my manuscript and I owe them my thanks as well, they are: Meredith Dixon, John McGivering, and John Radcliffe. The superb work of Andrew Lycett has also been of great value in understanding Kipling and his world. I absolutely could not have mined the numberless small details required for this book by myself.

I am also indebted to the Director of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Colonel Mike McCollough, United States Marine Corps, and the Dean of Academics, Dr Doug McKenna, for allowing me to create a graduate course titled Rudyard Kiplings Small Wars as an elective offering to the students of the college.

Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my patient and beautiful wife, Jennifer Collins, and to my faithful editor and friend at Pen and Sword, Rupert Harding, for their endless encouragement and constant support.

Kiplings India

Sketch Map North West Frontier

British India

Second Anglo-Boer War

South Africa 1885

Africa 1914

Khyber Pass 1914

Engagements, Second Anglo-Boer War

Historical Counties of England

Irish Guards at the Battle of Loos