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fighting talk 

This tone is frequently heard in the soldiers’ chorus, where the traditional sense
ofthe form as a collective utterance is permeated by a dissentient isolation, an
elegiac moan that runs through the sing-song. In ‘That Day’ (1895), for instance,
the chorus becomes a form of torment:

Now there ain’t no chorus ’ere to give,

Nor there ain’t no band to play;

An’ I wish I was dead ’fore I done what I did,

Or seen what I seed that day!^87

Daniel Karlin has astutely observed that ‘solidarity with one’s kind is the most
precious gift in Kipling’s world....But Kipling’s emblem is the Cat that Walked
by Himself.’^88 Kipling’s soldier is awkwardly positioned between solitude and
solidarity. Very much his own man, yet also fearful of betraying or dishonouring his
comrades, he frequently speaks with regret about what collective endeavour might
encourage in war, even as he acknowledges the longing for community that war
creates. These divided impulses are heard here, in a chorus that laments the lack of
a chorus, and in lines that express both a loneliness and a need to be alone.
Kipling’s poems often bring into prominence a particular strength of Victorian
war poetry: a desire to dispel illusions, alongside an attempt to keep disillusion at
bay. One means of effecting such a balance is through the double-jointed nature
of the dramatic monologue, which allows us to sense another kind of eloquence
and viewpoint operating behind the speaker. ‘The Young British Soldier’ is a
characteristic example of Kipling’s dexterity; spoken by an old soldier to a new
recruit going out to India, the poem ends:

When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

So-oldierofthe Queen!^89

On the one hand, Kipling’s ingenuity with accent helps to accentuate the old
man’s uncompromising perspective. ‘Jest roll’ turns ‘just’ into ‘jest’, as if to suggest
that in this arena justice has become a joke, while ‘your Gawd’ whittles down
heavenly comfort by pairing a local pronunciation with a disturbingly localized
pronoun—‘yourGawd’ seems oddly uncollaborative (even question begging) at
such a crucial juncture. On the other hand, the poet’s craft hints at the limits of

(^87) Kipling, ‘That Day’, inRudyard Kipling’s Verse, 437.
(^88) Daniel Karlin, inRudyard Kipling: A Critical Edition of the Major Works,ed.DanielKarlin
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. xxi. 89
Kipling, ‘The Young British Soldier’, inRudyard Kipling’s Verse, 418.