At the outset of his long literary career, Rudyard Kipling was apparently content to recognise the distinction between verse and poetry, and, if we are to judge from his letter to Caroline Taylor of 9 December 1889, equally content to accept that his own place was below the salt: 'I am not a poet and never shall be - but only a writer who varies fiction with verse.'

LRB 6 August 1992 | PDF Download