The schoolboys, recreated imaginatively as they used to be twenty years earlier, are portrayed as rebellious, opposed to all forms of authority, subversive. It is a quite deliberate device on Kipling’s part. Some critical commentsĪlthough the poem and the stories were written at roughly the same time, the retrospective mood of the poem and the immediacy of the stories creates a distance between them. Consider for instance the variation between lines 3 and 5 of the third verse:Ĭhanging the order of two tiny words not only alters the rhythm, but it also changes the meaning too: beat on us makes “us” just the recipients of punishment, “beat us on” implies purpose in the beating, to drive “us” towards the goal of learning. The stirring verse form and haunting language have great subtlety. by Isabel Quigly and Roger Lancelyn Green. This poem is Kipling’s hymn of praise to the masters of his old school, the United Services College (USC) at Westward Ho! in North Devon. Also, with the title “A School Song”, collected in Songs from Books (1913), Inclusive Verse, Definitive Verse, and the Sussex and Burwash editions. in the same month, and in subsequent editions of that collection, including The Complete Stalky & Co. The faculty and headmaster of a boys’ private school repeatedly pursue a trio of poetic pranksters, “Stalky,” “Beetle” and “Turkey” as they wage war on fellow students and the “establishment” with unwavering energy and creativity.Published, without title, in Harper’s Weekly in September 1899, and as the prelude to Stalky & Co.

is a cunning story of mischievous 19th century British schoolboys attempting scholastic mutiny. Listeners of all ages will delight in this tale of ingenious schemes and rebellious antics.īased on Kipling’s own adolescent experiences, Stalky & Co.

is at times poignant in its realistic portrayal of boys negotiating manhood and hilarious in its illustration of their relentless attempts to beat the system, even in the face of creative punishment and a savvy housemaster. The faculty and headmaster of a boys private school repeatedly pursue a trio of poetic pranksters, “Stalky,” “Beetle” and “Turkey,” as they wage war on fellow students and the “establishment” with unwavering energy and creativity. Based on Kipling’s own adolescent experiences, Stalky & Co.

Stalky & co