Throughout the English conquest of India, it has been the habit of the government to make friends with certain native leaders, to train their armies for them, and to rely on their aid in time of uprisings in other parts of the country. The most able of these native leaders were made officers or Ressaldars of their own troops, acting under the British government. Mohammed Khan in this poem is the son of the Ressaldar, and it is to this position that Kamal said (page 220) his son would some day be appointed.

The district of India described in this poem is the mountainous region at the north on the Afghanistan border.

1. What trick does Kamal play upon his pursuer?

2. Plan to dramatize for the class the scene in this poem which you consider the most exciting. Practice reading the lines aloud.

3. What lines early in the poem give you a good idea of the kind of man Kamal is?

4. In what way does he remind you of Robin Hood? Of Roderick Dhu in Scott's The Lady of the Lake?

5. How does Mohammed Khan know so much about Kamal?

6. Some poets are famous for the beauty and musical quality of their poetry. For what qualities do you think Kipling's poems are famous? Quote some lines to illustrate your points.

7. How do you like the plan of beginning and ending the poem with the same four lines?

8. See who can think of the largest number of words that describe the characters of Kamal and the Colonel's son.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Calkin (page 216), usually called calk, is a sharp piece of iron on the shoe of a horse which prevents slipping.

Pickets (page 216), soldiers who are sent out to guard against surprise. The Tongue of Jagai (page 216) is a pass from Afghanistan to India. The gut (10 lines below) means a narrow passage between hills.

Dun (page 217), a horse of dull brown or gray color.

Snaffle (page 217), the mouthpiece of a horse's bridle, by which it is curbed or restrained.

Byres (birs) (page 218), cattle barns.

In steer and gear and stack (page 218), in livestock, all necessary equipment, and fodder or food supplies.

Ling (page 219), heather, a blossoming evergreen plant that grows wild over hills and plains.

THE FIGHTING TÉMÉRAIRE

HENRY NEWBOLT

It was eight bells ringing,

For the morning watch was done,
And the gunner's lads were singing
As they polished every gun.
It was eight bells ringing,
And the gunner's lads were singing,
For the ship she rode a-swinging,
As they polished every gun.

Oh! to see the linstock lighting,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
Oh! to hear the round shot biting,
Téméraire! Téméraire!

Oh! to see the linstock lighting,
And to hear the round shot biting,
For we're all in love with fighting
On the Fighting Téméraire.

It was noontide ringing,

And the battle just begun,

When the ship her way was winging, As they loaded every gun.

It was noontide ringing,

When the ship her way was winging, And the gunner's lads were singing As they loaded every gun.

There'll be many grim and gory,
Téméraire! Téméraire !
There'll be few to tell the story,

Téméraire! Téméraire !

There'll be many grim and gory,

There'll be few to tell the story,
But we'll all be one in glory
With the Fighting Téméraire.

There's a far bell ringing

At the setting of the sun,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of the great days done,
There's a far bell ringing,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of renown forever clinging
To the great days done.

Now the sunset breezes shiver,
Téméraire! Téméraire !

And she's fading down the river,
Téméraire! Téméraire!

Now the sunset breezes shiver,
As she's fading down the river,
But in England's song forever

She's the Fighting Téméraire.

Sir Henry Newbolt carries on in his poetry the English tradition of the glory of the sea. His poems are collected in volumes entitled Songs of the Sea and Admirals All.

one.

Téméraire is a French word meaning the rash one or the bold and daring The battleship, the Fighting Téméraire, was captured by the British from the French in a naval battle. It was later used by the British navy in the famous Battle of Trafalgar and was in command of one of Sir Henry Newbolt's ancestors. The time came when it was to be taken down the Thames River to the wrecking wharf, much as "Old Ironsides" was to have been abandoned when Oliver Wendell Holmes saved it by his poem. The painter, Turner, on a cruise down the river, passed the old ship sailing, as it were, to its own funeral. He painted a beautiful picture of the vessel, which later became famous. Newbolt, seeing the picture in the National Gallery in London, determined to write a poem in honor of the old man-of-war. Unlike Holmes, he does not seem to wish to have the boat spared.

1. Imagine that you are watching a majestic ship sailing out beyond the horizon. What would be your feeling if you knew that the ship had done great service for your country, and that it was going to the wrecking dock to be torn to pieces? That is the feeling which the poet tries to express. He imagines that a sailor who has sailed on her in wartime is thinking of his experiences. Then he feels the contrast between the Téméraire in battle and her present position, sailing like a phantom ship against the sunset to be demolished.

2. Be prepared to read the poem aloud to the class, showing by the contrast in your voice and manner where the break in the poem comes. How should the last two lines be read?

3. What is there in the poem that tells you the author is a lover of the British navy?

4. How do the sounds of the first part of the poem differ from those of the last? Are the vowels, for instance, long or short? Which make you hear the fight? Which help you to see the lingering sunset rays on the water? Which show the sad doom of the boat?

5. Which do you like the better, this poem or Holmes's "Old Ironsides "? Why? (See Book One, page 412.)

6. Is there anything in the two poems which would tell you that one was an American poem and the other English?

KILMENY 1

ALFRED NOYES

DARK, dark lay the drifters against the red West,
As they shot their long meshes of steel overside;
And the oily green waters were rocking to rest

When Kilmeny went out, at the turn of the tide;
And nobody knew where that lassie would roam,
For the magic that called her was tapping unseen.
It was well-nigh a week ere Kilmeny came home,
And nobody knew where Kilmeny had been.

She'd a gun at her bow that was Newcastle's best,

And a gun at her stern that was fresh from the Clyde,

1 Reprinted by permission from Collected Poems, Volume III, by Alfred Noyes. Copyright, 1919, by Frederick A. Stokes Company.

And a secret her skipper had never confessed,

Not even at dawn, to his newly-wed bride;

And a wireless that whispered above, like a gnome,
The laughter of London, the boasts of Berlin.

O, it may have been mermaids that lured her from home;
But nobody knew where Kilmeny had been.

It was dark when Kilmeny came home from her quest
With her bridge dabbled red where her skipper had died;
But she moved like a bride with a rose at her breast,
And Well done, Kilmeny! the Admiral cried.
Now, at sixty-four fathom a conger may come
And nose at the bones of a drowned submarine;
But late in the evening Kilmeny came home,

And nobody knew where Kilmeny had been.

There's a wandering shadow that stares at the foam,
Though they sing all the night to old England, their queen.
Late, late in the evening, Kilmeny came home;

And nobody knew where Kilmeny had been.

Alfred Noyes is an English poet famous for his stirring ballads and for the beauty and musical rhythm of his poems. He is also a lover of the sea, and when at Oxford was a rower on the college eight. He lives in a little fishing town on the English Channel. Forty Singing Seamen" is another of his sea poems. You know his " Highwayman" from Book Two of Reading and Literature. "Sherwood" is another of his famous poems.

I. "Kilmeny "is a poem with a mysterious secret. Who was Kilmeny and where had she been? The poet doesn't tell us, but he gives us many hints. Can you guess? What lines tell you the answer?

2. Which lines give you a feeling of the secrecy of her mission?

3. Which lines give you the most vivid picture?

4. Try to tell by the rhythm of the lines how her motion was different from that of the Fighting Téméraire or of John Silver's ship (page 226).

5. If the poet is building up a mystery, is the repetition of the last line, as in the old ballads, a good thing or not?