The Glories

Publication

This poem was first published in May 1925 as the preface to A Choice of Songs from the verse of Rudyard Kipling. It is listed in ORG as no. 1125.

The poem

The poem, written as the preface to a collection of thirty poems, from “Sestina of the Tramp Royal” (1896) to “Recessional” (1897), is a celebration of human diversity, ‘In Faiths and Food and Books and Friends’, concluding that:

There is a glory in all things;
But each must find his own,

This principle was dear to Kipling’s heart throughout his life: see also “The Mother Lodge” (1894), and “The Two-sided Man” (1901).

Daniel Hadas notes:: This poem is built on 1 Corinthians 15.41:

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory”.

[JR]