BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS. Mr. Kipling's 'Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads' (1892) is on the whole a highly original as well as significant volume. Far surpassing his 'De partmental Ditties,' it established his fame as a poet, and contains, indeed, those of his poems which, with the °Recessional" and a few others, have remained the greatest popular favorites. The collection is made of the Barrack-Room Ballads proper, most of which had already ap peared in the National Observer, edited by W. E. Henley; of other poems which were re printed from Maemillian's Magazine, The Saint James' Gazette, etc.. and of still others which now were printed for the first time. The 21 Barrack-Room Ballads proper bear somewhat the same relation to 'Soldiers Three' as is borne by 'The Departmental Ditties) to 'The Plain Tales from the Hills.) Written mainly in Cockney dialect, salted with slang and soldier-lingo, they voice the sentiments and ex periences of °Tommy Atkins" as he figures in various parts of the empire. Here the poet's magic has transfigured his material, and has added a new province to poetry. All are sing ing ballads, with catchy choruses and jingling refrains that contribute largely to their spirited effect. Their sentiment ranges through the rollicking fun of °Oonts° and °Fuzzy-Wuzzy," the satire of "Tommy," the grim tragedy of °Danny Deever," and the romantic longing of °Mandalay." These five, at least, have been sung throughout the English-speaking world.
The narrative ballads of the collection and the other poems in ordinary English are as a whole less successful. Though much of their
subject matter is fresh, they often follow con ventional and even outworn methods and styles. °The Ballad of East and West" which avers that °the East is East and the West is West, and never the two shall meet," rather too strongly suggests Macaulay. The highly-mannered *English Flag," which asks *What should they lcnow of England who only England know?" is interesting as perhaps the first of Kipling's poems of imperial sentiment. The poetry of the engine-room, which this poet has since ex tensive!y cultivated, appears in the *Clampher down" and the °Bolivar," the latter truly ex cellent, and probably the best of the narrative ballads. But more famous, perhaps, is °Tomlin son," a stinging satire, with its galaxies, comets and suns, its glimpses of heaven and hell, all of which teleological and astronomical acces sories have since figured prominently in Mr. Kipling's verse. Yet, with all its limitations, (Barrack-Roorn Ballads' is a brilliant, original and, on the whole, delightful volume, which cannot safely. be neglected by any lover of poetry. Criticism has run the gamut from un cntical eulogy to hypercritical depreciation. Consult Richard (Rudyard Kip ling.' Explanatory notes on the poems are given by Durand, (Handbook to the Works of Rudyard Kipling' (pp. 26-92),