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Verses 1889-1896

by Rudyard Kipling from 1889–1896

About

Kipling's collected verse from his peak decade includes 'If,' 'The White Man's Burden,' 'Mandalay,' 'Gunga Din,' and the 'Barrack-Room Ballads' that made him the most popular poet in the English-speaking world. His poetry is inseparable from imperialism's moral contradictions — celebrating working-class soldiers while endorsing the empire that ground them up — but it remains extraordinarily powerful as oral performance. The ballads are designed to be spoken aloud; their rhythms and refrains lodge in memory with ease.

VictorianLyricalSolemnMovingDefianten

Verses 1889-1896

Words
56.1k
Duration
~7 hr 1 min

30 sections

56.1k words
#TitleWords
1
—
220:10
2
Beyond the path of the outmost sun through utter darkness hurled --
50:02
3
I have made for you a song,
110:05
4
I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
10:00
5
We've fought with many men acrost the seas,
90:04
6
Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,
150:07
7
You may talk o' gin and beer
10:00
8
Wot makes the soldier's 'eart to penk, wot makes 'im to perspire?
10:00
9
If you've ever stole a pheasant-egg be'ind the keeper's back,
10:00
10
This 'appened in a battle to a batt'ry of the corps,
130:06
11
There was a row in Silver Street that's near to Dublin Quay,
40:02
12
When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East,
10:00
13
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,
10:00
14
Troopin', troopin', troopin' to the sea,
140:06
15
Kabul town's by Kabul river,
10:00
16
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned,
20:01
17
We're marchin' on relief over Injia's sunny plains,
30:01
18
My name is O'Kelly, I've heard the Revelly,
9467:06
19
Beyond the path of the outmost sun through utter darkness hurled --
3502:38
20
I have made for you a song,
3972:59
21
I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
4493:22
22
We've fought with many men acrost the seas,
7855:53
23
Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,
8456:20
24
You may talk o' gin and beer
5604:12
25
Wot makes the soldier's 'eart to penk, wot makes 'im to perspire?
4593:27
26
If you've ever stole a pheasant-egg be'ind the keeper's back,
1.3k9:54
27
There was a row in Silver Street that's near to Dublin Quay,
1.1k7:55
28
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,
1.5k10:54
29
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned,
3962:58
30
We're marchin' on relief over Injia's sunny plains,
47k352:30

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