The Five Nations

by Rudyard Kipling

The Five Nations, poems about the Boer war ( 1899-1902 ) in South Africa and its consequences, was published in 1903.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

215 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

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

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10.

A mixed bag of poetry by Kipling, which was written from 1896-1903. One major theme of this collection is that the Europeans (and especially the British) keep wasting their blood trying to colonize the whole earth. They have such idealistic hopes of a magical transformation happening to other places in the world, where Christian civilization is brought to them from pious and nationalistic men. But in the end, the Faustian yearnings of Western man always fall short of their goal. The natives do not want to reform, do not want to change their ways. Much blood is spilt from equatorial disease, barbarous battles, and an environment not suited to those who descend from the North.

But — alas! — the high hopes continue pushing forward into the abyss. The high ideals of many Brits led to easy exploitation by a plutocratic elite wanting more gold, more money from the Boer lands. This money power led to senseless death of closely-related peoples and the downfall of the pride of the British Empire. A large part of this collection of poetry is about the Boer War, which I did not connect with as I do not know that much about the war. What I do know is that base motives tricked the British into a false patriotism which only hurt them in the long-run.

[Liz Wager · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this as a Christmas present (matching several others I've already got in a nice edition) ... I read it last night ... I don't think it contains Kipling's best works, but it does include 'The white man's burden' and 'Boots'. I know it's fashionable to criticize Kipling for his imperialist views but you can't beat his scansion and rhythm and, beneath those marching couplets, there's often strong anti-war sentiment and wonderful human observation.

[Le Maistre Chat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a 1903 book of poetry, the one that both "The White Man's Burden" and "Recessional" appear in, though those were both written in 1897: any number of these may have been published in The Times prior to 1903.
It's funny how many of these are jingoistic poems about working-class British soldiers or the Royal Navy's ships. I would say that Kipling's biggest legacy is as the author of Kim and animal short stories. In the main, this is a very different side of Kipling from the one whose imaginative sympathies lay with Buddhists, Hindus and animals rather than his own tribe of humans. I suppose Empire gave him a challenging life: his parents had him raised by a Hindu and a Goan Catholic servants in imperial Bombay until sending him back to England at age five, where he was subject to "calculated torture" by a devout Christian woman who boarded Anglo-Indian children, ran back to India at the end of secondary school and was never able to go to Oxford, which would have been necessary to become a civil servant. So he was always psychologically betwixt and between, not rejecting the Empire whose class system had rejected him, never a Christian like most Britons still were but never converting to an Indian religion or the militant atheism of the growing British Left.
Outside of the famous two already mentioned, I don't suppose these have a lot of literary merit, though "The Peace of Dives" (about Satan and peace through capitalism) is a quite good. But the themes chosen certainly say a lot about Kipling's psychological complexity: a paean to Cecil Rhodes, a bunch about how working-class soldiers know too much about the world for the English class system to be reasonable, an ode to Sussex that says men's hearts are too small to love the whole world and so we are by natural law limited to local piety (strange talk from a man split between India and England!), and "Buddha at Kamakura" which takes the side of Japanese Buddhism against Christians who would hurt it if Japan was within imperial power.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this book when his poem “Boots” was trending, but the entire collection is fantastic. It shows the unnecessary power struggle war causes and how it affects the soldiers and civilians as it is conducted by the greed of men that do not involve themselves in the front line. As you read further, Kipling’s writing spirals with his mind. He omits letters and words; creating a sense of desperation. Desperation to be free of the war.

[Chris Purser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good collection of Kiplings poetry.

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The same person that wrote boots and jungle book is insane concept