‘Do those who live declineso 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:
The step that offers, or their work resign ?’ (ll. 33-34)
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.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.
(C. S. Lewis, “Kipling’s World?, in
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 uponIt seems very likely that Kipling had Omar Khayyam's masterpiece in mind when he was writing "The Last Department". (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 |