To R. K.
To R. K.
Original Text
J. K. Stephen, Lapsus Calami, new edn. (Cambridge: Macmillan and Bowes, 1891), p. 3. PR 5473 S4L3 1891. Robarts Library.
As long I dwell on some stupendous
And tremendous (Heaven defend us!)
Monstr'-inform'-ingens-horrendous
Demoniaco-seraphic
Penman's latest piece of graphic.
BROWNING.
2Which shall rid us from the curse
3Of a prose which knows no reason
4And an unmelodious verse:
5When the world shall cease to wonder
6At the genius of an Ass,
7And a boy's eccentric blunder
8Shall not bring success to pass:
9When mankind shall be delivered
10From the clash of magazines,
11And the inkstand shall be shivered
12Into countless smithereens:
13When there stands a muzzled stripling,
14Mute, beside a muzzled bore:
15When the Rudyards cease from kipling
Notes
1] R. K. is Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), poet and novelist, with such popular poems as "If" and novels as The Jungle Book (1894) and Kim (1901). Stephen's epigraph is from Browning's "Waring," lines 52-56, a poem from which Rudyard quoted in "Slaves of the Lamp -- Part I," in his Stalky and Co. (London: Macmillan, 1899), which is available in Project Gutenberg (identification courtesy of James Fulford, Nov. 8, 2002). Back to Line
16] Haggards: Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925), author of such popular novels as King Solomon's Mines (1886) and She (1887). Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1891
Publication Notes
Cambridge Review (Feb. 1891)
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme