You English, " said Steenhold."You Americans, " said Rud."When you aren't as fresh as paint, " he said, "you Americans are as stale as old cabbage leaves. I'm amazed at your Labour leaders, at the sort of things you can still take seriously as Presidential Candidates. These leonine reverberators tossing their manes back in order to keep their eyes on the White House -- they belong to the Pleistocene. We dropped that sort of head in England after John Bright. When the Revolution is over and I retire, I shall retire as Hitler did, to some remote hunting-lodge, and we'll have the heads of Great Labour Leaders and Presidential Hopes stuck all round the Hall. Hippopotami won't be in it. H.G. Wells
About This Quote

Rudyard Kipling is, in many ways, the father of the English-speaking world. His writing is still offered in schools across the globe. He was an amazing writer who wrote about everything from animals to politics to adventure stories. He also wrote about war and politics.

In his poem "Harp Song of the War" he talks about the time when Great Britain went to war with Germany and the American Civil War broke out shortly after. This poem is a salute to both sides of the war by saying that they are all one side. The British are not better than the Americans because they are not as fresh as paint.

Some of Kipling's poems are appropriate for school assignments but this one is definitely not one of them.

Source: The Holy Terror

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