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Introduction
‘The Overland Mail’ is a tribute to the runners who carried letters across India during the Raj, and in particular the personal and business letters of the Indian Civil Service to which young Englishmen were posted. Among other things, Kipling’s poem is a welcome reminder that by Victoria’s day, the British Empire was increasingly united by trade, services and communications rather than by armies or centralised political will.
‘Overland Mail’ (1886)
Foot Service to the Hills
IN the name of the Empress of India,* make way,
O Lords of the Jungle wherever you roam,
The woods are astir at the close of the day—
We exiles* are waiting for letters from Home—
Let the robber retreat; let the tiger turn tail,
In the name of the Empress the Overland-Mail!
With a jingle of bells as the dusk gathers in,
He turns to the foot-path that leads up the hill—
The bags on his back, and a cloth round his chin,
And, tucked in his belt, the Post-Office bill;—
“Despatched on this date, as received by the rail,
Per runner, two bags of the Overland-Mail.”
Is the torrent in spate? He must ford it or swim.
Has the rain wrecked the road? He must climb by the cliff.
Does the tempest cry “Halt”? What are tempests to him?
The service admits not a “but” or an “if”;
While the breath’s in his mouth, he must bear without fail,
In the name of the Empress the Overland-Mail.
The Empress of India at this time was Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, a title granted to her by Parliament at the instigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in 1876. When Kipling published this poem in 1886, steamships, railways and telegraphy were displacing more laborious means of communication such as mail-runners: Calcutta had erected a grand Telegraph Office in Dalhousie Square ten years earlier. For Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas (1853–1931), the timing was providential. “By the time that steam and telegraphy had become fully effective,” he wrote, “the dominions had reached the stage when self-government was imperative, and could no longer be denied.” See Timely Progress.
Kipling was, of course, no exile in India: he was born there in Bombay (Mumbai) on December 30th, 1865, and after a brief and unhappy schooling in England returned home to India with unabashed joy. His father Lockwood was Principal and Professor of Architectural Sculpture at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art in the city, founded in 1857. Rudyard is writing, as he so often does, from the perspective of others as much as from his own.
Précis
Rudyard Kipling’s poem is a celebration of the postal service carrying mail between England and India in the days of the Raj. Adopting a lightly tripping rhythm, he praises the runners for braving difficult terrain, wild animals and weather of all kinds to meet tight deadlines, to keep British civil servants in India in touch with family back home. (59 / 60 words)
Rudyard Kipling’s poem is a celebration of the postal service carrying mail between England and India in the days of the Raj. Adopting a lightly tripping rhythm, he praises the runners for braving difficult terrain, wild animals and weather of all kinds to meet tight deadlines, to keep British civil servants in India in touch with family back home.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, because, besides, despite, if, or, unless, whereas.
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