The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-09-07

SSHG W Mill 4AC
tiser printed the following:
1t was all our fault and our very great
fault-we praised him in the be-
ginning.
So it isn't his fault, not all his fault
he's as much sinned at as SHINING,
We worshipped his face and sang his
songs from page just 9x7ly;
So we got our lesson and got it good,
till the task was far from heavenly.
For times 8 makes 81 and 2 plus
is four,
And horses are quicker than messenger
boys, and Briton runs quicker
than a Boer,
And bikes are quicker than bob-tail
cars, but the quickest of all that
class
Is the blubbering automobilly goatee,
petroleum, steam or gas.
So it was our fault, our terrible fault;
by the Great Horn Spoon!-Who
knows?
Had we jumped on him with Saxon
vim, his verse mightn't now be
prose.
So the more he works and the less he
prints, twill be better all round,
you bet!
We have had an imperial lesson, and
We'll profit-lest we forget!
The New York World regards '"The
Lesson" as only another example Of
the disastrous effect of the Boer war
upon British poets. "Swinburne 1t
drove mad, so that he wrote of the
burghers as dogs agape with jaws
afoam.' Kipling it has made quite
otherwise mad" The World thinks
that "The Lesson" Kipling might have
written and didn't should read some
thing like this:
1t was all our fault and our very great
fault, that angered the Lord to
smite;
And black are the weeds the widows
wear for the bones on the veldt
bleached white.
The bones bleach white on the rain
washed veldt where the red stain
fingers long
To bid us curb our stiff-necked pride
and purge our souls of wrong.
The Brookly Daily Eagle finds .'Nhe
Lesson" good medicine, though poor
poetry:
Tonics are bitter but wholesome, and
Mr.. Kipling's verse has on several occa-
sions proved itself a tonic to the Brit
ish philistine and the British prlg. His
last poem is not poetic, but it makes a
straight and sounding blow against the
ribs of complacency and conceit, Of
convention, and cockiness. It isn't
poetic poetry, but it is rhymed prose
that touches more vanities and repu-
tations than the verse of the serious
men.
The Philadelphia Press says that
Kipling "began his descent by getting
down into the gutter Of raw realism
and sickening sentiment with his ABB
sent-Minded Beggar,' adding that
"the lesson of The war may be accept
ed in England with gratitude or with
out it, but it Is to be feared even the
British public will gag at The Les
son." The Chicago Record-Herald
says:
The old Kipling in story and verse
moved his readers by the native vigor
and freshness of his style. 1t was I'M
studied, simple, full Of fire that molds
words into new and unexpected Ian
guage. But so far as the reading pub
lie is aware there has not been
glimmer of the old Kipling in anything
he has written since his restoration to
health. He has seemed oppressed with
the impression that the world was
looking to him for moral and intellectu-
al guidance. He has sought to be the
interpreter between omniscience and
mortal man. From his point of view
"The Lesson" is doubtless sound and
one the British people may well give
heed to, but the poetry is not above
the standard Of costermonger.