An increasing number of readers since World War I have neither enjoyed nor felt instructed by poetry which often is, quite blatantly, politically imperialist and socially reactionary--sounding like and appealing to, in George Orwell's words, a "gutter patriot." Also contrary to most twentieth-century taste--which has, of course been primarily formed by modernism--are Kipling's characteristically rhyming, rhythmically regular, formal stanzas. He was also intent on writing clear, matter-of-fact statements expressed by a voice certain about a particular point of view: again, rather the antithesis of a modernist persona. Nevertheless, such a characterization of Kipling's poetry, although justified and clearly recognized by most of its admirers, is superficial; for in his verse one can also find many of the great qualities of the best modernist poetry: plainness, concision, passionate utterance instead of worn-out poetic diction, conviction, sharp images, a revitalized sense of history, great artistic craft, originality.
In 1941 T. S. Eliot--who, along with G. K. Chesterton and George Orwell, has written the most enlightening, evaluative essay on Kipling's work--resuscitated interest in the verse by editing and writing an introduction for A Choice of Kipling's Verse. Eliot saw three periods in Kipling's career: his living in India, his worldwide travel and residence in America, his final years in Sussex, England.
