Mr. Kipling has been called the “Laureate of the Music Hall.” If by that phrase it is meant that is merely a clever, slangy, and superficial expositor of the inherent qualities of human nature, then the phrase is unjust.
He is very much more than a maker of catch-penny jingles, though he is not above banjo strains. Some of his admirers would indignantly reject such a suggestion by recalling poems like the Recessional. His colloquial “dialect” verse are more reliable, and in place of disclaiming for him this epithet, seek to show how admirable a thing it is when rightly understood to call him Laureate of Music Hall.