ld is tired of the brilliant wit of
Byron, it turns in relief to the contemplative verse of Wordsworth;
when Longfellow and Tennyson have had their artistic day and a
thousand imitators have produced romantic poetry, because

Most can raise the flowers now
For all have got the seed,--

then this same world turns with delight to the robust poetry of
Kipling. He has brought a new dish to the banquet of life, or at least
a new flavor has been given to the old.

Kipling is a man's poet, robust and virile. As a preface to one of his
stories he wrote:

Go stalk the red deer o'er the heather,
Ride, follow the fox, if you can!
But for pleasure and profit together
Allow me the hunting of man;--

and this joy in the hunting of man is what has made Kipling so
acceptable to men. Kipling has the defects of his virtues. There is a
certain brutality in his point of view. His beautiful _Recessional_ is
not the greater part of Kipling. His voice "is still for war." His
critics charge him with "Jingoism." One of the most brilliant parodies
of recent times is Watson's

Best by remembering God, say some,
We keep our high imperial lot--
Fortune, I think, has mainly come
When we forgot, when we forgot!

The greater influence of Kipling, both in his prose and poetry, is
contrary to the humanitarian spirit of the age. Le Gallienne has
said,--"As a writer Mr. Kipling is a delight; as an influence a
danger."

Mr. Kipling sprang into public notice because he had genius and
because he had a new world to reveal to a jaded public. Mr. E. Kay
Robinson was a friend and associate of Kipling when both were in the
land of mysteries, India. Mr. Robinson went to India in 1884 and soon
began to write verses over the signature of "K.R." Kipling was writing
ballads under the initials "R.K." The similarity of the signatures
attracted Kipling and he wrote to Robinson. They were afterwards
associated in newspaper work and became close friends. Robinson has
written about Kipling in India:

"My first sight of Kipling was at an uninteresting stage, when he was
a short, square, dark youth, who unfortunately wore spectacles instead
of eyeglasses and had an unlucky eye for color in the selection of his
clothes. He had a weakness apparently for brown cloth with just that
suggestion of ruddiness or purple in it which makes some browns so
curiously conspicuous. The charm of his manner, however, made you
forget w