| I Keep Six Honest Serving Men |
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| This poem was first published in Just So Stories in 1902 when Kipling was 36; it followed the story of The Elephant’s Child. It always registers as one of the most read poems on the website, invariably occupying 4th position in the viewing figures, after the always dominant The White Man’s Burden, the ever popular Mandalay and one or two others. This suprises me considering it’s shortness and relative mildness. My suspicion is that it has found its way into the bank of modern day teaching lessons, and the link is regularly accessed by classes of young children. Another debatable point that interests me about this poem is the fact that it is not set out as five 4-line verses when it clearly cries out for this in my opinion, especially from the point of view of being read by children. Our background notes suggest that the poem starts as being about Kipling himself, and ends being about his daughter Josephine, but this still does not clinch it for me. I am taking the brave step of presenting the poem “for one week only” in 5 verse form. Fear not “Ye Keepers of the Holy Grail” it will return to it’s 8-8-4 or 8-12 line form after that. (iantks@icloud.com) |
