Comments on: The Canadian Kipling

By: Phileas Frogg

Phileas Frogg — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 04:01:50 +0000

Isegoria,

Great article, and I agree wholeheartedly with its thesis.

Aimee was a chaotic dumpster fire in her personal life, but the rigor and discipline she imposed on us in class was nuts by modern standards. We had to memorize and give examples of over 75 literary devices, essays were edited and refined ad nauseam, and the end of the year poetry project was a bear; 12 poetic analyses, 2 pages each, 9 assigned, 3 of our own choosing, with strict guidelines and a rubric on how to undertake the writing, and one poem of our own making, also subject to the same analysis. At the time I only had my dad’s old Smith-Corona personal word processor, unlike all my friends who had computers, so it was late nights.

She was a kind of reverse Keating now that I think about it, imposing order on us, and we loved it.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 03:23:49 +0000

I’m reminded of the case against Dead Poets Society.

By: Phileas Frogg

Phileas Frogg — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 02:59:27 +0000

Isegoria,

I had a phenomenal 9th grade English teacher who introduced us to T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and W.H. Auden, and got my friends and I regularly writing short stories for fun in our spare time. Amazing woman.

She ended up pregnant with her 2nd child, abandoned by her boyfriend (who cleared out her bank accounts before leaving), addicted to drugs, got fired and ended up homeless. Best English teacher I’ve ever seen, but life just wrecked her. I’ll always be grateful for the solid foundation she gave me.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:24:42 +0000

I don’t remember any 20th-Century poetry being taught in school — except Robert Frost.

By: Albion

Albion — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:21:09 +0000

There is something about what might be called the ‘Golden age of popular poetry’ — alas, long since faded — where vaudeville and radio brought poems and ballads to the attention of millions. Robert Service was one, and of course, Rudyard Kipling another who made people listen. The appeal was these poems could be remembered because they had not only rhythm but also a certain cleverness, which appealed to many. I sometimes find myself reciting parts of these poems but alas, can only recall parts of them. However I do quite well with ‘The Lion and Albert’ because I know Blackpool in the UK and the sort of people who went there. If I lived near the Yukon, Dangerous Dan McGrew might come easily to me.

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:20:18 +0000

I am astonished you had to look up Robert Service. I suppose this reflects the death of poetry since WW II. The last refuge of the poet was popular music, but even that was replaced by Rap a generation ago.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 02:18:48 +0000

Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory mentions a British soldier who claimed to be Robert Service under an alias.

By: Will O.

Will O. — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 01:34:09 +0000

Interesting. Howard shows up in the most interesting places. If you are a Howard fan, you should check out my new biography: Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author (UNT Press, 2025).

By: Felix

Felix — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:47:20 +0000

My grandmother had a “complete works of” kind of book of his poems. The WWI poems were of the same wonderful ilk as Shooting and Cremation. When we had to memorize and present a poem in Jr. High School, I chose Cremation and can still remember much of it.

Our English text book had the *only* boring poem Service wrote. Something about the arctic sky maybe. It’s inclusion over a whole raft of great Service poems taught me something, that’s for sure.