Thread: Mandalay - A Poem by Rudyard Kipling

I was reading some Rudyard Kipling works and ended up looking on YouTube and finding this fantastic reading of Mandalay by Charles Dance for the 70th VJ Day commemoration.

"Mandalay" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling, written and published in 1890^, and first collected in Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses in 1892. The poem is set in colonial Burma, then part of British India. The protagonist is a Cockney working-class soldier, back in grey restrictive London, recalling the time he felt free and had a Burmese girlfriend, now unattainably far away.

Mandalay (poem) - Wikipedia

Well worth a look, and hope someone else enjoys it as much as I did.

Burmese girlfriend

Slave- she was a Slave. Come the PC revolution, the works of Kipling will be first on the pile. Colonial lackey.

Poetry grinds my inner philistine

Noodles seems to be a poster on a mission

Originally Posted by English Noodles

and hope someone else enjoys it as much as I did

...glorification of empire, darkie enslavement and cultural supremacy...as well as nostalgia for days when Britain mattered...

I enjoyed that reading very much.

Kipling was popular during his lifetime and "If" has been a national favourite. I don't find it difficult to accept that he was writing of the world as it was and not as we should like it to be.

Hilarious attention seeking and clearly completely and utterly obsessed.

I for one bet he'd never heard of it until the British ambassador basically told Boris Johnson he was being a twat by reciting it in a temple in Myanmar.

Should bring back Prince Philip for those foreign diplomacy trips.

25 things Prince Philip said that will make you full-body cringe

Anyway, more poetry choices please, Noodles.

Did Enoch Powell pen any favourites?

Kipling's White mans burden?

That Boris vid is class.

Big Kipling fan personally
named my son after one of his seminal characters


Balu

as shutree mentions, it was a different time and whilst imight not agree with his world view now, still a very good writer and commentator

Originally Posted by Shutree

I enjoyed that reading very much.

Kipling was popular during his lifetime and "If" has been a national favourite. I don't find it difficult to accept that he was writing of the world as it was and not as we should like it to be.

...."we"??

Who might we be?

Originally Posted by Shutree

I enjoyed that reading very much.

Good. It is rather excellent.

Originally Posted by Dillinger

Kipling's White mans burden?

Make believe burden.
No such beast as a civising mission.

Kipling never made it to Mandalay

Danish version:

I love it; you won't


Burmese Days by Orwell is worth a read

Originally Posted by helge

Burmese Days by Orwell is worth a read

A brilliant piece of period work.
Much more realistic and connected than any of Kipling's romantic [fanciful] efforts.

Originally Posted by helge

Burmese Days by Orwell is worth a read

Indeed, it is. Though the work of Orwell and Kipling are like chalk and cheese, they're completely different beasts. Orwell by-the-way despised Kipling and his work.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Much more realistic and connected than any of Kipling's romantic [fanciful] efforts.

Have you ever read Kipling's work? I doubt somehow you progressed The Jungle Book. You should try reading Kim, a novel in a similar vein as works by G A Henty.

^I'll take that as a no.

Originally Posted by English Noodles

Have you ever read Kipling's work?

Incidentally, few days ago I started read - again after many years - Orwell's Burmese Days. It seems that he hadn't much glamorised the English "contribution" to the plight of their Burmese subjects...

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Incidentally...

...as always, eh Cindy?

Originally Posted by HuangLao

...."we"??

Who might we be?

I am sure that I am not alone in thinking that we could make a better world. Or maybe everyone else is happy with the status quo.
We could have a poll.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Incidentally, few days ago I started read - again after many years - Orwell's Burmese Days. It seems that he hadn't much glamorised the English "contribution" to the plight of their Burmese subjects...

Indeed.
Might be the reasoning as to why his work wasn't romanticized and greatly celebrated within the empire sphere.

More akin to the archetypal anti-hero - challenging and questioning the ingrained sense of superiority.
Never popularly promoted among the dumbed down masses, lest the imperial circles.

Just one in many of his kind.

How generous from the viceroys to let the local small lords do and steal whatever they want from their own people, provided that they let the viceroys do what they want...

Similarly what had happened during the long reign of the field marshal Sarit - and the others who came after him...

And whoever tried to obtrude (weren't they the communists?), off with you into a barrel with diesel oil, striking a light...