4 November 2024

Mild Monday - "The Old Issue" by Rudyard Kipling/Leslie Fish

In 1899, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem, “The Old Issue,” as a comment on Britain’s entry into the Boer War. He sent it to the editor of The Times, indicating that it was his ‘contribution to the situation and so, of course, there is no charge.’

The Boer War itself was rather complicated—the blow-up of a simmering conflict between long-time Dutch settlers in South Africa and more recent British settlers. The Cape Colony had been seized by the British in 1806, as a result of upheaval in the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars. The Dutch were not pleased with British rule—particularly the abolition of slavery in 1834—and many migrated further inland to form two independent Boer republics: the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

John George Bartholomew derivative work: Themightyquill via Wikipedia

Britain, still in colonial mode, was not pleased with this secession. Then gold was discovered in Transvaal. British workers were needed, but the Boers considered them uitlanders and deprived them of various rights. Negotiations broke down, an (absurd) ultimatum was given by the president of Transvaal, and the war both sides were itching for began.

All of this background doesn’t really give a lot of clarity to Kipling’s poem. It would appear that something about the situation sparked a raging fire in Kipling’s mind about the traditional rights of Englishmen, and he poured that out on the page.

When folk-singer Leslie Fish set this poem to music, she made a few minor alterations and deletions to focus the song on the threat posed by authoritarian power.

Source: bandcamp

Ms. Fish may have started her adult life as a Wobbly (a member of Industrial Workers of the World), but she ended up being an anarcho-libertarian (last I saw of her, in 2016, she was supporting Trump). I prefer her lyrics to the original poem (which you can read here).

The Old Issue

All we have of freedom, all we use or know—
Our forefathers bought for us many years ago.
Ancient Right unnoticed as the breath we draw—
Leave to live by no man’s leave, under nature’s Law.

So they bought us freedom—not at little cost—
Therefore we must watch for kings, lest our gain be lost,
Over all things certain, this is sure indeed,
Suffer not the old King: for we know the breed.

Give no ear to bondsmen bidding us endure,
Whining “He is weak and far”; crying “Time will cure.”
They would beg us barter—wait his yielding mood—
Pledge the years we hold in trust—pawn our brother’s blood.

Howso’ great their clamor, what so good their claim,
Suffer not the old King under any name!
Nothing here unproven—nothing new to learn.
It is written what shall fall if the King return.

He will mark our goings, question whence we came,
Set his guards about us, all in Freedom’s name.
He will take a tribute, toll of all our ware;
He will change our gold for arms—that we may not bear.

He will peep and mutter; and the night shall bring
Watchers ’neath our window, lest we mock the King—
Strangers of his counsel, hirelings of his pay,
These will deal our Justice out: sell—deny—delay.

We shall drink dishonor, we shall eat abuse
For the Land we live in—for the Tongue we use.
We will take our station, dirt beneath his feet,
While his hired captains jeer us in the street.

Cruel in the shadow, crafty in the sun,
Far beyond his borders shall his teachings run.
Long-forgotten bondage, dwarfing heart and brain—
All our fathers died to loose, he shall bind again.

Nothing here is guessed at, random or untrue—
Swings the wheel full-circle, brims the cup anew.
Nothing here unproven, nothing here is hid:
Step by step and word for word—so the old Kings did!

Step by step, word for word: who is ruled may read.
Suffer not the old King: for we know the breed—
All the right they promise, all the wrong they bring.
Keepers of the Judgment, suffer not the King.

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Thoughts?