Page 2 - LESSON NOTE-1

ABOUT THE POET:

Rudyard Kipling(1865-1936)

Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai in 1865. At the age of six he was

sent to England for his schooling. Later, he returned to India and
worked as a reporter. Kipling travelled widely and worked in many parts
of the world. His books Kim, The Jungle Book and Just-so Stories for
Little Children are well known throughout the world. He also wrote a
number of volumes of poetry. In 1907, Kipling received the Nobel Prize
for Literature. He died in 1936.The themes of many of Kipling's stories
and poems are children, Indian life and animals. ‘The Way Through the
Woods’ was first published in Kipling’s book Rewards and

Fairies(1910).The poem describes a scene of a forest.

GLOSSARY:

Words to Know :

• Anemones : kinds of plants
• Canter : easy gallop (of horse)
• Coppice : small wood of undergrowth and small trees
• Heath : bare flat piece of land, covered with shrubs
• Keeper : the game-keeper or watchman who sees that no outsiders
come into the woods to shoot the animals
INTRODUCTION:

This lovely poem - The Way Through the Woods by
Rudyard Kipling - is an excellent choice for children.
Its lyrical rhythm and exciting rhyme scheme helps it
trips off the tongue, if you read it aloud - making it a
good one for learning and reciting, too. The hint of a
ghost, or a memory, in the woods adds to the appeal.

Poem’s Background:

• Nature overpowers man.
• Mankind has lost its way.

• ‘The keeper’ represents the Almighty.
• Evolution (70 years)
• Rhythm of the poem
• Written in early 1900s
• After the death of his son in World War-I
• Kipling was at first patriotic but later changed