Neighbours

Publication

First published in the programme of a meeting of The National Council of Social Service at the Albert Hall in London on 27 January 1932, in the presence of the then Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) Set to music by Walford Davies (KJ 027/78). See The Musical Settings of Kipling’s Verse. It is collected in Limits and Renewals (1932) where it precedes “Beauty Spots”, in the Sussex Edition, Volume 11 page 277, and Volume 34, page 421. Also collected in Inclusive Verse, Definitive Verse, and The Works of Rudyard Kipling (Wordsworth Poetry Library).

Notes on the Text

[Verse 1] The Splendour of Morning: Kipling was particularly inspired by this time of day – see “The Dawn Wind” and Something of Myself, page 53 line 20: ‘I would wander until dawn in all manner of odd places—liquor-shops, gambling, and opium dens …’

[Verse 2] his innards: Kipling suffered from gastric trouble for many years.

[J.McG/J.R.]