The Rabbi’s Song

Publication

First published in Actions and Reactions (1909) where it follows “The House Surgeon”, and also collected in Volume 8 of the Sussex Edition (p. 287) Volume 34 (p. 116), and in the Burwash Edition Volumes 8 and 27. Also collected, with slight variations, in Inclusive Verse, Definitive Verse, and The Works of Rudyard Kipling, Wordsworth Poetry Library.

Some critical comments

The quotation from Samuel II, 14,14, which is also quoted in “On the Gate” (Debits and Credits) is echoed in verse 4 and examined by Dr. Tompkins (pp. 130 & 143 and passim). She observes that they also reflect the Lama’s wisdom in Kim when he tells how he had come near to great evil (p. 348) and how the elephant with the leg iron was freed from the hate and frenzy in his heart by the youngster he had befriended. (p. 235) See also Bonamy Dobrée, p. 195 passim.

Notes on the text

[Stanza 4]

Faith and Hope … even Love: See, by way of contrast, 1 Corinthians 13.13: [D.H.]

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three.

[J.McG.]