The Last Department

Durand recalls that: “In most parts of India it is practically impossible to grow turf. Graves are, therefore, often planted with marigolds?.( Durand , 9).

Here Kipling introduces the creative notion of death as ‘material’ resurgence of corpses by means of natural agents. In detail, these flowers are portrayed as the agents by which physically decaying corpses can be transformed into precious material (one of the most suggestive subtexts of this image may be "Full Fathom Five", one of the songs in Shakespeare’s The Tempest(1611) on the transformation of a corpse into precious coral and pearls by natural intervention, namely sea water).

Incidentally, this last statement is expanded on in strictly financial terms: beside the hints at ‘money’, ‘minting’ (ll. 15-16) and at ‘gold’ (as implied in ‘bullion’ (l. 16) and literally and chromatically evoked by the yellow marigolds (‘Mary’s gold’)), the flowers are presented as a generous ‘body’ which coins gold or silver, becoming thus a metaphorical ‘Treasury’ (l. 16).

As may also be noted, this is the point of the poem in which the statement ‘that pukka step, miscalled “decease?’(l. 12) seems to be most overtly proved and clarified. The representation of death as material resurgence, and not as final annihilation, conveys indeed the notion that death does not imply the act of coming “to an end?; for this reason, then, in the opinion of the Narrator death is ‘miscalled’ if referred to by a term, ‘decease’, which conveys the notion of a ‘departure from life’ which interrupts the life-cycle.

[Line 18] Each in his strait wood-scantled office pent Again Kipling associates the two above mentioned metaphorical levels: the dead are imagined as being confined, ‘pent’ (l. 18), in their narrow, ’strait’ (l. 18), ‘office’ (l. 18) and busy in activities that are significantly different from their former occupations. As may be noted, Kipling employs here again job-related imagery to hint at afterlife ‘subsistence’: ‘wood’ (l. 18) evokes the materiality of coffins and ‘strait’ (l. 18) their narrowness.

[Lines 19-20] No longer Brown reverses Smith’s appeals, / Or Jones records his Minute of Dissent. These images envisage afterlife as dominated by the stillness brought about by the disentanglement from professional duties and controversies which were predominantly present in life.

[Lines 21-24] And One long since a “pillar of the Court? / As mud between the beams thereof is wrought / And One who wrote on phosphates for the crops / Is subject-matter of his own report.Life and death are here considered as opposed experiences; however, unlike ll. 11-12, changes are now envisaged in depreciative terms: one who was a ‘pillar’ (l. 21) has now become ‘mud’ (l. 18), and phosphates that were once the substances ‘One ... wrote on’ (l. 19) are now actually one’s own remains (l. 24).

As may be noted, life/death imagery is here effectively hinged on the depiction of the transformation of the same element, ‘One’ (ll. 21, 23), as seen before and after death: One abandons a robust (‘pillar’) and active (‘wrote’) role and is decomposed (‘mud’, ‘phosphates’), metaphorically falling from being an exemplary ‘pillar’ to being undistinguished and scarcely significant material (As may be noted, these remarks indirectly hint at the traditional notion of ‘Levelling Death’).

[Line 25] These be the glorious ends whereto we passThis nostalgic statement provides an overall commentary on the multifaceted features of death portrayed so far: through this line the Narrator coalesces the various strands of imagery mentioned above around the semes of ‘death’ as ‘termination’ (‘end’) and of ‘life’ as a ‘progress’ towards the former (‘pass’); he also appears to express the disillusioned notion that ‘mud’ and‘phosphates’ (ll. 18-19) are the ‘delightful’, ‘ends’ (l. 25) to which man is bound.

[Lines 27-28] the mallie steals the slab / For currie-grinder and for goats the grass.The realistic description of the mischievous ‘mallie’(cemetery gardener) who steals ‘slab’ (l. 27) and ‘grass’ (l. 27) (all possibly connected with ‘cemeteries’) together with the reference to ‘currie-grinder’ and ‘goats’ (l. 28) replaces the meditative tone of the previous lines.

[Line 31] Sheristadarthe Clerk of the Court, who reads out depositions, etc.( Durand , 9).

[Stanza VII] Stanza VII displays subtle formal devices and elaborations in rhythm:

Lines 29-30 are composed of four parallel half lines: absence of verbs, the omission of linking participles, and a mostly monosyllabic texture, enhance the quick advancement of these lines; the alliteration of /b/ sounds (l. 29) evokes explosive actions (as with bullets); the alliteration of /f/ and /s/ sounds (ll. 29-30) conjures up in-/expiration (as with breaths and winds), while that of /t/ and /d/ sounds (ll. 29-30) breaks the flowing of the line fragmenting it;
this progression is then suddenly suspended by the end-line dash in l. 30;
the following line features a slowdown, insomuch as the mostly polysyllabic: ‘The droning of the fat Sheristadar’ (l. 31) flows into the subsequent ‘Ceases’ (l. 32):
finally, a monosyllabic pattern and a simplified syntactical structure, in ‘the punkah stops, and falls the night’ (l. 32), once more characterize the rhythm of the poem.

As may be noted, this rhetorical and rhythmic alternation accompanies the semantic progression of the stanza: death’s suddenness and disruptive quality (ll. 29-30) first; then the silence and stillness which death slowly infuses (ll. 31-32).

[Stanza VIII] The conclusive quatrain, while completing the previous run-on line with: 'For You or Me’(l. 33), imposes ‘grave’ falling tone and rhythm which also signal a surprising change in semantic interest. The second half of l. 33 introduces a straight-forward question (which flows over into the following line) that recuperates the down-to-earth professional focus of the poem:

‘Do those who live decline
The step that offers, or their work resign ?’ (ll. 33-34)

so that this question seems to divert the poem away from the notion of ‘death’ to that of ‘life’. With respect to this aspect, C. S. Lewis proposes that in this conclusive question Kipling may want to counterbalance the sense of human vulnerability which has pervaded the poem so far with a final statement of resistance:

Whatever corruptions there may be at the top, the work must go on; frontiers must be protected, epidemics fought, bridges built, marshes drained, famine relief administered. ... “the unforgiving minute? is upon us fourteen hundred and forty times a day. This is the truest and finest element in Kipling; his version of ... gospel of work.
(C. S. Lewis, “Kipling’s World?, in

Elliot L. Gilbert (ed.), Kipling and the Criticsp. 109). [Line 35] To-days’ “Most Indispensables? / Five hundred men can take your place or mine. The final address by the Narrator to: ‘To-days’ “Most Indispensables?’(l. 35) may apparently give the impression that he is praising them. The sardonic statement: ‘Trust me ... / Five hundred men can take your place or mine’(ll. 35-36) makes clear at once, however, that the Narrator intends to warn them against their proud attitude, instead: no one is ‘Indispensable’, as the cycle of life, careless of anyone’s ‘departure’, will effortlessly continue.

It must also be noted that the apparent discontinuity between the opening of the poem and the conclusive remarks about life is finally resolved by a complex structure which links the pronominal and adjectival elements of both heading and final stanza (‘I and You’ (heading, l. 2), ‘You and I’ (heading, l. 3), ‘You or Me’ (l. 33) ‘your ... or mine’ (l. 36), and a circular structure in which the statement “Five hundred men can take your place or mine’ (l. 36) is actually the answer to ‘“What will those luckless millions do??’ (heading, l. 4).

[R.B.]

©Roberta Baldi 2006 All rights reserved

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version for printing

the poem

"The Last
Department"

(notes by Roberta Baldi)

[Jan 10 2007]

Publication

First printed in the Civil and Military Gazette, April 13th, 1886. Collected in Departmental Ditties and Other Verses, 1886; I.V., 1919; D.V., 1940; Sussex Edition, Vol. 32, page 108; Burwash Edition, Vol. 25 (ORG entry: no. 177, page 5112).

Background to the poem

This is a meditative poem in which Kipling manages to intertwine job-related language [see below] with a further semantic strand, that of ‘eschatology’ (the study of death and final destiny). Accordingly, "The Last Department" becomes a metaphorical investigation into the final stage of human life.

In style and mood it carries distinct echoes of the "Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam" written in the 12th century in quatrains, a classical Persian form, and translated by the English poet Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. The "Rubáiyát" was in vogue among the pre-Raphaelite circle of artists, to whom Kipling was related, and Kipling mentions it in Stalky & Co. (p. 218) as recommended to him by the Head as 'a poem not yet come to its own' .

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes–or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face,
Lighting a little hour or two–is gone.
[16th quatrain]

It seems very likely that Kipling had Omar Khayyam's masterpiece in mind when he was writing "The Last Department".

Notes on the Text

(The line numbers refer to the whole poem,
heading lines included)

[passim] there are many instances throughout the poem of job-related terminology: ‘grade’ (l. 8); ‘Head’ and ‘services’ (l. 10); ‘leave’ (l. 13) and ‘furlough’ (l. 15); ‘transferred’ and ‘Settlement’ (l. 17); ‘office’ (l. 18); ‘reverses’ and ‘appeal’ (l. 19); ‘records’, ‘Minute’, ‘Dissent’ (l. 20) and ‘Report’ (l. 24); ‘pillar of the Court’ (l. 21) and ‘Sheristadar’ (l. 31); ‘work’ (l. 34), ‘resign’ (l. 34), and ‘place’ (l. 36).

[Lines 7-8] nor fraud nor fools, / Nor grade nor greed. This crosswise layout connects the eschatological perspective with a dense critique of social customs: here Kipling refers to two common flaws (‘fraud’ and ‘greed’) that have been repeatedly portrayed in the Departmental Ditties, and formally reconciles them with their victims and purposes (‘fools’ and ‘grade’).

[Line 10] The grim Head who claims our services. This is the first significant instance of Kipling’s semantic re-elaboration of job-related terms into death-related imagery: in detail, ‘grim’, itself evoking a ghastly, sinister and ferocious atmosphere, accompanies the capitalized ‘Head’ calling to mind the expression ‘Grim Reaper’, i.e. the cloaked man or skeleton carrying a scythe, the traditional iconographic rendering of Death.

[Lines 11-12] I never knew a wife or interest yet / Delay ... decease. The Narrator focuses here on death’s unrestrainable character; the end-line adverb ‘yet’ emphasizes the absolute lack of ‘evidence to the contrary’ so far.

[Lines 12-15] decease ... leave ... furlough The semantic reference to ‘departure’ in ‘decease’ (l. 12) and in the job-related ‘leave’ (l. 13) and ‘furlough’ (l. 15) depicts death as a temporal and spatial removal from routine and as a moment of ‘idleness’ (l. 14).

[Line 13] long over-due The idea that ‘permission to be absent’ (leave) is expected or required but not yet come about portrays death as a long craved-for and inexorable event; as may be noted, this aspect has already been suggested in the reference to waiting ‘till we attain’ (l. 6), i.e. gain or arrive at, the ‘Last Department’.

[Line 13] none can deny In this reference to death’s inevitability Kipling puns on a verb of many meanings, ‘deny’ (l. 13), which may be simultaneously construed in job-related terms – one can give a refusal to one’s permission to leave --, and in eschatological terms – no one can, i.e., is able to, refuse the occurrence of death, one’s ‘final leave’.

[Line 15] marigolds