A Song of the English — Reading Companion

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Authors: Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936, Robinson, W. Heath (William Heath), 1872-1944 [Illustrator] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2011 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Poetry Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 5,748

Reading time 25 min

Text sections 1

The source record for A Song of the English — Reading Companion measures this digital text at 5,748 words, 25 min estimated reading time, and 1 detected text section.

The text analysis averages about 23.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Poetry,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #37091

Kipling's sequence of seven poems, first published in 'The Seven Seas,' uses maritime imagery and imperial rhetoric to explore English identity, duty, and the moral weight of empire, with W. Heath Robinson's illustrations framing the verse.

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File: pg37091

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Produced by Chris Curnow, Steve Read and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

A SONG OF THE ENGLISH

_illustrated by_ W. HEATH ROBINSON

Hodder & Stoughton, London

_This Edition of 'A Song of the English' is reprinted from 'The Seven Seas,' and the Publishers desire to acknowledge the courtesy of Messrs. Methuen & Co. in consenting to its issue as a separate volume_

A SONG OF THE ENGLISH

_Fair is our lot--O goodly is our heritage! (Humble ye, my people, and be fearful in your mirth!) For the Lord our God Most High He hath made the deep as dry, He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth!_

_Yea, though we sinned--and our rulers went from righteousness-- Deep in all dishonour though we stained our garments' hem. Oh be ye not dismayed, Though we stumbled and we strayed, We were led by evil counsellors--the Lord shall deal with them!_

_Hold ye the Faith--the Faith our Fathers sealed us; Whoring not with visions--overwise and over-stale. Except ye pay the Lord Single heart and single sword, Of your children in their bondage shall He ask them treble-tale!_

_Keep ye the Law--be swift in all obedience-- Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford. Make ye sure to each his own That he reap where he hath sown; By the peace among Our peoples let men know we serve the Lord!_

_Hear now a song--a song of broken interludes-- A song of little cunning; of a singer nothing worth. Through the naked words and mean May ye see the truth between As the singer knew and touched it in the ends of all the Earth!_

Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees; Our loins are battered 'neath us by the swinging, smoking seas. From reef and rock and skerry--over headland ness, and voe-- The Coastwise Lights of England watch the ships of England go!

Through the endless summer evenings, on the lineless, level floors; Through the yelling Channel tempest when the siren hoots and roars-- By day the dipping house-flag and by night the rocket's trail-- As the sheep that graze behind us so we know them where they hail.

We bridge across the dark and bid the helmsman have a care, The flash that wheeling inland wakes his sleeping wife to prayer; From our vexed eyries, head to gale, we bind in burning chains The lover from the sea-rim drawn--his love in English lanes.

We greet the clippers wing-and-wing that race the Southern wool; We warn the crawling cargo-tanks of Bremen, Leith, and Hull; To each and all our equal lamp at peril of the sea-- The white wall-sided warships or the whalers of Dundee!

Come up, come in from Eastward, from the guard-ports of the Morn! Beat up, beat in from Southerly, O gipsies of the Horn! Swift shuttles of an Empire's loom that weave us, main to main, The Coastwise Lights of England give you welcome back again!

Go, get you gone up-Channel with the sea-crust on your plates; Go, get you into London with the burden of your freights! Haste, for they talk of Empire there, and say, if any seek, The Lights of England sent you and by silence shall ye speak!

_Hear now the Song of the Dead--in the North by the torn berg-edges-- They that look still to the Pole, asleep by their hide-stripped sledges. Song of the Dead in the South--in the sun by their skeleton horses, Where the warrigal whimpers and bays through the dust of the sere river-courses._

_Song of the Dead in the East--in the heat-rotted jungle hollows, Where the dog-ape barks in the kloof--in the brake of the buffalo-wallows. Song of the Dead in the West--in the Barrens, the waste that betrayed them, Where the wolverine tumbles their packs from the camp and the grave-mound they made them; Hear now the Song of the Dead!_

We were dreamers, dreaming greatly, in the man-stifled town; We yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down. Came the Whisper, came the Vision, came the Power with the Need, Till the Soul that is not man's soul was lent us to lead. As the deer breaks--as the steer breaks--from the herd where they graze, In the faith of little children we went on our ways.

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Kipling's 'A Song of the English' opens with a direct address to the nation: 'Fair is our lot—O goodly is our heritage!' The poem immediately establishes a tone of collective responsibility, warning against 'evil counsellors' and urging obedience to 'the Law.' The first section, 'The Coastwise Lights,' personifies England's lighthouses as sentinels that 'bridge across the dark' and guide ships from 'the guardports of the Morn.' This maritime framing recurs throughout the sequence, with each poem adopting a distinct voice—from the dead sailors in 'The Song of the Dead' to the submarine cables in 'The Deep-Sea Cables.'

Voices of the Sea and Shore

The sequence is structured as a series of dramatic monologues. 'The Coastwise Lights' speaks as the lighthouses themselves, describing their vigil over 'the ships of England.' 'The Song of the Dead' shifts to the perspective of drowned mariners, who claim 'we have fed our sea for a thousand years.' Kipling gives agency to inanimate objects and collective entities: the deep-sea cables 'run' and 'bear the Word,' while the cities in 'The Song of the Cities' each boast of their role—'I am the market of the North' (Hull). This technique creates a chorus of voices that together define England's global reach.

Repetition and Refrain as Structural Anchors

Kipling uses repeated lines to bind the poems together. 'The Coastwise Lights' ends with the refrain 'The Coastwise Lights of England,' and 'The Song of the Dead' echoes 'We have fed our sea for a thousand years.' The final poem, 'England's Answer,' returns to the opening stanza's phrasing: 'Fair is our lot—O goodly is our heritage!' This circular structure gives the collection a liturgical quality, as if the poems are responses in a service. The refrains also serve as mnemonic devices, reinforcing key images of duty and sacrifice.

Illustrations as Interpretive Frame

W. Heath Robinson's illustrations, though not reproduced in this text-only edition, are integral to the original volume. The title page notes that the edition is 'illustrated by W. Heath Robinson,' and the poems were first published with his drawings. Robinson's style—detailed, fantastical, and often whimsical—contrasts with Kipling's earnest tone. Readers of the illustrated edition would encounter visual interpretations of the 'Coastwise Lights' as anthropomorphic figures or the 'Deep-Sea Cables' as serpentine creatures. The interplay between text and image adds a layer of irony or wonder that the bare text alone does not convey.

Imperial Rhetoric and Its Tensions

Kipling's language is steeped in the language of empire: 'the Lord our God Most High He hath made the deep as dry,' 'He smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth.' Yet the poems also acknowledge failure—'we sinned—and our rulers went from righteousness'—and demand moral accountability: 'Make ye sure to each his own / That he reap where he hath sown.' The tension between divine mission and human fallibility runs through the sequence. 'The Song of the Sons' warns against 'whoring not with visions,' while 'England's Answer' ends with a plea for 'the peace among Our peoples.' The poems do not resolve this tension but hold it in suspension.

Reading the poems in sequence reveals a deliberate arc: from the coastal sentinels to the deep-sea cables, from the dead to the living cities, and finally to England's own voice. Kipling's use of varied speakers and refrains creates a cumulative effect, each poem adding a layer to the collective identity. The excerpts are sufficient to trace this structure, though the full collection includes additional poems not present here. Readers may wish to compare the text with the original illustrated edition to see how Robinson's art complements or complicates Kipling's vision.

Reading Kipling’s sea-verse, I remembered my grandfather’s worn atlas, the margins scored with tide-lines. His quiet duty felt heavy, like those illustrated ships. Years later, a small book of nasty couplets gave me the same strange ache—not humor, but the weight of rules we keep. That old gallows tickle stays with Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes — Context and Discussion, a shadow I half-recognize.