Details
KIPLING, Rudyard (1865-1936). Autograph manuscript signed of his poem on the death of Cecil Rhodes (fair copy), inscribed at the head 'C.J. Rhodes (buried April 10, 1902)', comprising four stanzas (each of 8 lines) signed with dedication 'For T.W.S.' at the foot, written in black ink on both leaves of a bifolium, blue/grey paper, two pages 8° (150 x 100 mm.), autograph envelope addressed to 'The Hon. T.W. Smartt' at Capetown, and signed with initials 'R.K.' in lower left corner (a few small light spots).
Kipling's powerful and elegiac lament for Rhodes, his greatly valued friend, opens
'When that great Kings return to clay
Or Emperors in their pride,
Grief of a day shall fill a day
Because its creature died.
But we - we reckon not with those
Whom the mere Fates ordain
This power that wrought on us and goes
Back to the Power again'.
Kipling first visited Cape Town in 1891 and went there in 1897 for his health. Rhodes attempted to persuade him to settle permanently by building a house for him, of which Kipling later wrote 'To this Paradise we moved each year from 1900-1907'. A great admirer of Rhodes, he describes him in the poem in almost mystical terms, as 'Dreamer devout, by vision led'.
Sir Thomas Smartt (1858-1929), to whom this fair copy was sent, was a physician and politician of Irish origin, well known for his oratory and loyal and disinterested service in government. Having become Rhodes' closest friend and ally when both were at Kimberley during the siege of 1898, he devotedly attended him during his last illness.
The poem, first published as The Burial in the Times and Boston Globe on 9 April 1902, was included in the first collected edition of Kipling's verse (1912) with the subtitle C.J. Rhodes, Buried in the Matoppos, April 10, 1902.
Kipling's powerful and elegiac lament for Rhodes, his greatly valued friend, opens
'When that great Kings return to clay
Or Emperors in their pride,
Grief of a day shall fill a day
Because its creature died.
But we - we reckon not with those
Whom the mere Fates ordain
This power that wrought on us and goes
Back to the Power again'.
Kipling first visited Cape Town in 1891 and went there in 1897 for his health. Rhodes attempted to persuade him to settle permanently by building a house for him, of which Kipling later wrote 'To this Paradise we moved each year from 1900-1907'. A great admirer of Rhodes, he describes him in the poem in almost mystical terms, as 'Dreamer devout, by vision led'.
Sir Thomas Smartt (1858-1929), to whom this fair copy was sent, was a physician and politician of Irish origin, well known for his oratory and loyal and disinterested service in government. Having become Rhodes' closest friend and ally when both were at Kimberley during the siege of 1898, he devotedly attended him during his last illness.
The poem, first published as The Burial in the Times and Boston Globe on 9 April 1902, was included in the first collected edition of Kipling's verse (1912) with the subtitle C.J. Rhodes, Buried in the Matoppos, April 10, 1902.