In the Neolithic Age
- Civil and Military Gazette 31 Dec 1892[1]
- San Francisco Examiner 31 Dec 1892[1]
- The Idler December 1892[1]
"In the Neolithic Age" is a poem by the English writer Rudyard Kipling. It was published in the December 1892 issue of The Idler and in 1896 in his poetry collection The Seven Seas. The poem is the source of the quotation: "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, / And every single one of them is right."
Background
The poem was published in the December 1892 issue of the literary magazine The Idler as the introduction to Kipling's article "My First Book", with the title "Primum Tempus".[2] Kipling experimented with a variety of styles in his poetry. He had also been reluctant to criticize other writers after becoming well known.[1]
In 1896, now titled "In the Neolithic Age", the poem was published in Kipling's next volume of poetry, The Seven Seas. He placed it between two other poems about tribal singers, "The Last Rhyme of True Thomas" and "The Story of Ung".[3]
Text
The narrator is a Stone Age tribal singer who reacts badly to criticism of his work. He also deals badly with other artists whose work he dislikes. He kills a younger singer as well as a cave painter.[4]
Then I stripped them, scalp from skull, and my hunting-dogs fed full,
And their teeth I threaded neatly on a thong;
And I wiped my mouth and said, "It is well that they are dead,
For I know my work is right and theirs was wrong."[5]— Stanza 4
His actions are noticed by his tribe's totem, who visits him in a dream.[4]
But my Totem saw the shame; from his ridgepole-shrine he came,
And he told me in a vision of the night:—
"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
And every single one of them is right!"[5]— Stanza 5
In the second half of the poem the narrator has been reincarnated as a present-day poet. "And I stepped beneath Time's finger, once again a tribal singer / [And a minor poet certified by Tr—ll]." In January 1892 H. D. Traill had published an article "Our Minor Poets". In March he published a sequel which added Kipling to the list. This stanza was omitted when the poem was published in The Idler.[6]
The poet finds his fellows still neglecting their own work to criticize others.
Here's my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the moose
And the reindeer roared where Paris roars to-night:—
"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!"[5]— Stanza 10
Critical reception
The collection The Seven Seas was praised in the American press by Charles Eliot Norton in the Atlantic Monthly and William Dean Howells in McClure's Magazine.[3] In London the Saturday Review's response was mixed. It begins by considering "In the Neolithic Age" and its two companion tribal singer poems to be "all excessively clever" and an attempt to "instruct the reviewer what to say". The review continues: "No, dear Kipling, there is only one way..."[7]
Musical setting
In 1993 Leslie Fish set the poem to music and recorded it with Joe Bethancourt on their album Our Fathers of Old,.[8] This is the third album Fish has done based on Kipling's poems.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Holberton, Philip; John Radcliffe; Alastair Wilson (31 January 2015). "Notes - In the Neolithic Age". The New Readers' Guide to the Works of Rudyard Kipling. The Kipling Society. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ Kipling, Rudyard (1991). "My First Book (1892)". In Thomas Pinney (ed.). Rudyard Kipling: Something of Myself and Other Autobiographical Writings. Cambridge University Press. pp. 171–178. ISBN 978-0-521-40584-3.
- ^ a b Ricketts, Harry (2000). Rudyard Kipling: A Life. Carroll & Graf. pp. 227–230. ISBN 978-0-7867-0830-7.
- ^ a b Durand, Ralph Anthony (1914). A Handbook to the Poetry of Rudyard Kipling. Doubleday, Page Company. pp. 158–162. OCLC 37610624.
- ^ a b c Kipling, Rudyard (1940). Rudyard Kipling's Verse (Definitive ed.). Garden City, NY: Doubleday. pp. 341-342. OCLC 225762741.
- ^ Kipling, Rudyard (1990). Thomas Pinney (ed.). The Letters of Rudyard Kipling: 1911-19. University of Iowa Press. pp. 587. ISBN 978-0-87745-657-5.
- ^ "Reviews: The Seven Seas". The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art. 82 (2143). John W. Parker and Son: 549–550. 21 November 1896.
- ^ "Our Fathers Of Old". Joe Bethancourt. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- v
- t
- e
- The Light That Failed (1891)
- The Naulahka: A Story of West and East (co-author, Wolcott Balestier, 1892)
- Captains Courageous (1896)
- Kim (1901)
- Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
- Soldiers Three (1888)
- The Story of the Gadsbys (1888)
- In Black and White (1888)
- The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales (1888)
- Under the Deodars (1888)
- Wee Willie Winkie and Other Child Stories (1888)
- From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel (1889)
- Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, poetry)
- Many Inventions (1893)
- The Jungle Book (1894)
- "Mowgli's Brothers"
- "Kaa's Hunting"
- "Tiger! Tiger!"
- "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"
- The Second Jungle Book (1895)
- "Letting in the Jungle"
- "Red Dog"
- All the Mowgli Stories (c. 1895)
- The Seven Seas (1896, poetry)
- The Day's Work (1898)
- Stalky & Co. (1899)
- Just So Stories (1902)
- The Five Nations (1903, poetry)
- Puck of Pook's Hill (1906)
- Rewards and Fairies (1910)
- The Fringes of the Fleet (1915, non-fiction)
- Debits and Credits (1926)
- Limits and Renewals (1932)
- Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition (1940)
- A Choice of Kipling's Verse (by T. S. Eliot, 1941)
- "The Absent-Minded Beggar"
- "The Ballad of the 'Clampherdown'"
- "The Ballad of East and West"
- "The Beginnings"
- "The Bell Buoy"
- "The Betrothed"
- "Big Steamers"
- "Boots"
- "Cold Iron"
- "Dane-geld"
- "Danny Deever"
- "A Death-Bed"
- "The Female of the Species"
- "Fuzzy-Wuzzy"
- "Gentleman ranker"
- "The Gods of the Copybook Headings"
- "Gunga Din"
- "Hymn Before Action"
- "If—"
- "In the Neolithic Age"
- "The King's Pilgrimage"
- "The Last of the Light Brigade"
- "The Lowestoft Boat"
- "Mandalay"
- "The Mary Gloster"
- "McAndrew's Hymn"
- "My Boy Jack"
- "Recessional"
- "A Song in Storm"
- "The Sons of Martha"
- "Submarines"
- "The Sweepers"
- "Tommy"
- "Ubique"
- "The White Man's Burden"
- ".007"
- "The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly"
- "Baa Baa, Black Sheep"
- "Bread upon the Waters"
- "The Broken-Link Handicap"
- "The Butterfly that Stamped"
- "Consequences"
- "The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin"
- "Cupid's Arrows"
- "The Devil and the Deep Sea"
- "The Drums of the Fore and Aft"
- "Fairy-Kist"
- "False Dawn"
- "A Germ-Destroyer"
- "His Chance in Life"
- "His Wedded Wife"
- "In the House of Suddhoo"
- "Kidnapped"
- "Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris"
- "Lispeth"
- "The Man Who Would Be King"
- "A Matter of Fact"
- "Miss Youghal's Sais"
- "The Mother Hive"
- "The Other Man"
- "The Rescue of Pluffles"
- "The Ship that Found Herself"
- "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo"
- "The Taking of Lungtungpen"
- "Three and – an Extra"
- "The Three Musketeers"
- "Thrown Away"
- "Toomai of the Elephants"
- "Watches of the Night"
- "Wireless"
- "Yoked with an Unbeliever"
- Bibliography
- Bateman's (house)
- Indian Railway Library
- Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer
- Law of the jungle
- Aerial Board of Control
- My Boy Jack (1997 play)
- Rudyard Kipling: A Remembrance Tale (2006 documentary)
- My Boy Jack (2007 film)
- Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling (wife)
- Elsie Bambridge (daughter)
- John Kipling (son)
- John Lockwood Kipling (father)
- MacDonald sisters (mother's family)
- Stanley Baldwin (cousin)
- Georgiana Burne-Jones (aunt)
- Edward Burne-Jones (uncle)
- Philip Burne-Jones (cousin)
- Edward Poynter (uncle)
- Alfred Baldwin (uncle)