Religious Topics

Many of Kipling's poems deal with topics not only about God or religion but also about ideas that deal with Kipling's own peculiar take on religious stories or topics. For instance, in two of his poems Kipling retells, or embellishes upon, familiar Bible stories. In the first of these poems, "Cain and Abel," Kipling writes about what he refers to as the western version of the Biblical account of these two brothers. In this account, Cain takes the law in his own hands when Abel steals water from him to water his livestock. The outcome is the same. Abel is murdered by Cain and Cain is punished by God, but in the Biblical version, Abel is murdered by Cain because God accepts Abel's sacrifice and does not accept Cain's.

In the second poem of this same nature, Kipling completes the story of the prodigal son. Instead of...