The more astute among y’all miscreants, reprobates, and guttersnipes will no doubt have noticed a shiny, brand-new link up there in the masthead links bar called simply, “Kipling.” What the hell, you may have wondered, that seems…odd. Well, from the sub-page the link attaches to, here’s your explanation:

It would be no more than apt to call Rudyard Kipling the de facto poet laureate of the American warrior caste, along with their British cousins and a few others. Professional military men who are in the know revere him for his deep understanding of not only the eternal human condition, but of the human spirit as well. His writing is as sharp as a razor, as elegant as tulips in bloom, and as uncompromising as a punch in the mouth. Better still, the reasons soldiers so love his brilliant work—the reasons I do myself, and always have—are the self-same ones why shitlibs everywhere absolutely loathe him.

He saw clearly the obvious superiority of Western thinking, of the culture wrought by it. He was an unapologetic colonialist; the seemingly eternal sorriness of the state of affairs in most of their colonies long years after the Brits granted them their independence would seem to validate those views somewhat, to say the least. The professorial Left, in their reflexive hatred for not only Kipling but for all things colonial, has led them to almost entirely write him out of the canon of English literature; when they’re forced to mention him at all, it is only ever in the most bitterly disparaging and contemptuous of terms.

Which, as far as I’m concerned, is as robust a recommendation for him as I can possibly imagine. If you haven’t read Kipling yet, prepare yourself for a real treat, a total delight. If you have read him, but not lately, enjoy renewing your acquaintance with one of the finest writers ever gifted to the world by English-language poesy. I confess to being somewhat embarrassed that, after nineteen years toiling away in the blogging saltmines here, it only just now occurred to me how richly he merits a place on this websty. I can only beg that y’all accept my shamefaced apologies for such a grievous oversight.

A complete listing of Kipling’s poetry can be found here. Enjoy, folks.

My title above is a common ice-breaker question among military men, at least according to John Ringo, who oughta know. The page is now live, but without any poems on it at the moment. I’m gonna be working on that tonight, and probably for some little time to come yet too, I imagine, as I dive into the great man’s copious archive and remember some old treasures that I’d forgotten. Not sure how many I’m gonna post on the Kipling subpage as of yet; it’s gonna be one of those deals where I’ll find it hard to leave anything out. With Kipling, too much is never enough. Like I said: enjoy.