RUDYARD KIPLING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 336, 30 November 1945, Page 5

RUDYARD KIPLING

Sir,-There is much that is admirable in "Vincent County’s" letter on "Thanks. giving for Victory." But it is a pity that in his third patagraph he seems to be one of those who, without troubling to read, much less understand, Kipling, think it fashionable, "a sort of hall-mark of intelligence," to decry him. First he is guilty of a most uncouth misquotation. The second line of the verse he quotes should read, "And Mirth that has no bitter springs," not strings. Secondly his use of the word "doggerel" is inaccurate. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as "trivial, mean, halting or irregular verse." The ideals set before the children in the song are certainly not trivial or mean, as V.C. himself grudgingly admits; and the last thing that can be said of Kipling’s verse is that it is halting or irregular. I would refer V.C. particularly to the fifth and sixth verses of the Children’s Song; and I would ask if he knows any place in literature where the same thoughts are better expressed. Lastly V.C.’s remark "The sentiments are worthy of course" is the acme of impertinence. How condescending of him! Let who will quarrel with the song’s noble aspirations. So much the worse for him. It may be after all that such things as Kipling here wrote about are hidden from the wise and prudent, but have been revealed unto babes. If V.C. poses as a critic, he should not be loose and slovenly in the use of words, especially when he has the audacity to arraign an author whose mastery of the English language is admitted even by his most hostile critics.

R. B.

SIBSON

(Auckland).