wever, to miss the author's flagging, because, as we have seen, the
soldier songs are the best songs, whereas the soldier tales are not the
best tales. The full extent of the inferiority of Mr Kipling's verse
to Mr Kipling's prose cannot, however, be missed if we compare the
finer grain of Mr Kipling's prose with the poems that deal with similar
themes. Read first _The Story of Ung_ (_The Seven Seas_) and
afterwards the tale of the Flint Man found upon the Downs by Dan and
Una (_Rewards and Fairies_). Or, to take an even more telling
instance, recall the most perfect of all Mr Kipling's tales _The
Miracle of Purun Bhagat_, and afterwards read the poem that is proudly
set at the head of it:

"The night we felt the earth would move
We stole and plucked him by the hand,
Because we loved him with the love
That knows but cannot understand.

"And when the roaring hillside broke,
And all our world fell down in rain,
We saved him, we the Little Folk;
But lo! he does not come again!

"Mourn now, we saved him for the sake
Of such poor love as wild ones may.
Mourn ye! Our brother will not wake,
And his own kind drive us away!"
--_Dirge of the Langurs._

The poem is excellent cold craft, but leaves us precisely in the state
of mind in which it found us. The story which follows it is rooted in
the same idea; but, where the one is a literary exercise, the other is
a supreme feat of imagination.

Here, with _The Miracle of Purun Bhagat_, the story itself and not the
dirge of the Langurs, we may conveniently leave the reputation of our
author. Critics of a future generation may need to apologise for
including within the limits of a brief monograph a specific chapter
upon Mr Kipling's verse. They will not need to apologise for its
brevity.

A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RUDYARD KIPLING'S PRINCIPAL WRITINGS

[Separate issues of single poems or stories have not generally been
included in this list. Dates of first publication of books are given;
new editions only when they involve revision of text, alteration of
format or transference to a different publisher.]

Departmental Ditties and Other Verses (_Lahore: The Civil and Military
Gazette Press_). 1886. New editions (_London: Thacker_). 1888; 1890;
1898; (_Newnes_). 1899; (_Methuen_). 1904; 1908; 1913.

Plain Tales from the Hills (_Thacker_). 1888. New editions
(_Macmillan_). 1890; 1899; 1907.

Soldiers Three: