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"The Beginnings" is a 1917 poem by the English writer
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
. The poem is about how the English people, although naturally peaceful, slowly become filled with a hate which will lead to the advent of a new epoch
In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured.
The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...
.
The first four stanzas have four lines each with alternate rhymes, while the fifth (and final) stanza has five lines. The last line of every stanza ends with "... the English began to hate". The context is the anti-German sentiment
Anti-German sentiment (also known as Anti-Germanism, Germanophobia or Teutophobia) is opposition to or fear of Germany, its inhabitants, its culture, or its language. Its opposite is Germanophilia.
Anti-German sentiment largely began with t ...
in Britain during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Kipling was known for never portraying Germans in a positive light, and had been the first to use the word "Hun
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
" as a slur for Germans. The poem was written following the death of his son in that war.
The poem first appeared in Kipling's 1917 collection ''A Diversity of Creatures'', where it accompanies the short story "Mary Postgate". The story had originally been published in 1915, but without the poem.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beginnings 1917 poems Anti-German sentiment in Europe Poetry by Rudyard Kipling World War I poems