Product Description
A hardcover first UK Edition, ( Methuen london, 1903) of Kipling's ' Five Nations' , including the text of Recessional ( firts published in the Times Newspaper in 1897.
Recessional" contains five stanzas of six lines each. As a recessional is a hymn or piece of music that is sung or played at the end of a religious service, in some respects the title dictates the form of the poem, which is that of traditionl hymn.
The poem went against the celebratory mood of the time, providing instead a reminder of the transient nature of British power. The poem expresses both pride in the British Empire, but also an underlying sadness that the Empire might go the way of all previous empires. "The title and its allusion to an end rather than a beginning add solemnity and gravitas to Kipling's message. In the poem, Kipling argues that boasting and jingoism, faults of which he was often accused, were inappropriate and vain in light of the permanence of God.
Conditiopn - solid in maroon/ red cloth, titles in gilt to spine, bumps to head and base of spine, the binding is slightly loosened in front and rear gutters, but is intact.