Christian Bailey
Ms.Bell
AP Lit.&Comp.
November 24,2013
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a famous English short story writer, poet, and novelist born December 30th, 1865. One of his many accomplishments was winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The poem "What the People Said" written in 1887 Kipling tells of a Queen giving a speech; she says how God has given her many years, and granted her with dominion and power. In this time the people believed in the "Divine Right of Kings" that the person in power over the people were chosen by God. The ploughman settles the share and says "The wheat is my care, And the rest is the will of God." He takes care of what he has and he gives the rest unto the heavenly Father. Stanza 16 he tells how God sends the rain and Mlech in the fated year. What God does is good because he helps young wheat grown for the bread of life(stanza 21&22).
English: Scanned image of the swastika logo from a...
Rudyard Kipling's signature
Cover of The Jungle Book first editionWithout God sending these elements the ploughman would have no harvest; this idea goes back to stanza four, when the poet writes that "the rest is in the will of God". It is in the will of Him to provide for the people and he knows that by him sending rain to the wheat the ploughman will have a harvest to reap. In the next few lines Kipling writes again about the good years the Lord sends. He also reassures that God will provide for his people " He giveth to each man his food or her food to the Earth". Alliteration and repetition is frequently used in this piece. Kipping brings up in Stanza 39 how God sends rain similarly to stanza 16. This time the rain is increasing the cattle. Lines 41 and 42...