The Prodigal Son

Rudyard Kipling

 Here come I to my own again,
 Fed, forgiven and known again,
 Claimed by bone of my bone again
 And cheered by flesh of my flesh.
 The fatted calf is dressed for me,
 But the husks have greater zest for me,
 I think my pigs will be best for me,
 So I'm off to the Yards afresh.

 I never was very refined, you see,
 (And it weighs on my brother's mind, you see)
 But there's no reproach among swine, d'you see,
 For being a bit of a swine.
 So I'm off with wallet and staff to eat
 The bread that is three parts chaff to wheat,
 But glory be! - there's a laugh to it,
 Which isn't the case when we dine.

 My father glooms and advises me,
 My brother sulks and despises me,
 And Mother catechises me
 Till I want to go out and swear.
 And, in spite of the butler's gravity,
 I know that the servants have it I
 Am a monster of moral depravity,
 And I'm damned if I think it's fair!

 I wasted my substance, I know I did,
 On riotous living, so I did,
 But there's nothing on record to show I did
 Worse than my betters have done.
 They talk of the money I spent out there -
 They hint at the pace that I went out there -
 But they all forget I was sent out there
 Alone as a rich man's son.

 So I was a mark for plunder at once,
 And lost my cash (can you wonder?) at once,
 But I didn't give up and knock under at once,
 I worked in the Yards, for a spell,
 Where I spent my nights and my days with hogs.
 And shared their milk and maize with hogs,
 Till, I guess, I have learned what pays with hogs
 And - I have that knowledge to sell!

 So back I go to my job again,
 Not so easy to rob again,
 Or quite so ready to sob again
 On any neck that's around.
 I'm leaving, Pater.  Good-bye to you!
 God bless you, Mater! I'll write to you!
 I wouldn't be impolite to you,
 But, Brother, you are a hound!

Commentary

Notes: Based on the New Testament parable of the prodigal son (see links)

Expanded version of a chapter heading from Kim

A delightfully original take on the Prodigal Son story - what I like is how consistent it is with the original parable. All it does is present matters from the son’s point of view - sure, he asked his father for his share of his inheritance, and squandered it all, but this is his story, and underscores, as the Biblical one doesn’t, that

… I didn’t give up and knock under at once, I worked in the Yards, for a spell

Indeed, the poem highlights both Kipling’s talent for presenting the other point of view, and the delightfully picaresque characters he creates. For such a short poem, the prodigal son’s character is developed with surprising vividness, and he’s definitely someone the reader can sympathise with and cheer for.

Formwise, the poem presents yet another approach to the triple rhyme, repeating entire words at the end of consecutive lines. While this may seem vaguely like ‘cheating’, it is a perfectly valid form of rhyming (indeed, a pure rhyme requires that all syllables after the rhyming one be identical, and what better way to accomplish that?), and quite a bit harder than it appears. There’s also a lot of variation on the basic form, including a run of quadruple rhymes at one point - not something I can remember seeing attempted elsewhere, though I’d be delighted to be corrected on that score. Unusual here is Kipling’s use of the triple rhyme in an essentially serious poem - he gets away with it, true, but the cleverness of the rhymes does obtrude itself upon the foreground in a manner a purist might balk at. The rest of us can, however, feel free to be entertained and charmed - I certainly was.

Links

  The original Prodigal Son parable (King James Version):
    [broken link] http://miraclevision.com/quakers/luke1511.html

  Biography of Kipling:
    See Poem #17

  Possibly my favourite example of today's sort of rhyme scheme is
  'Reviewing the Situation', from 'Oliver!':
    [broken link] http://users.bestweb.net/~foosie/oliver.htm
  (No internal links; you'll have to scroll down the page)

  And the theme so far:
    Poem #1023, W. S. Gilbert, 'The Soldiers of our Queen'
    Poem #1025, Newman Levy, 'Thais'

— Martin

The Wondering Minstrels, poem #1026 · 29 March 2002

Poem selected by Martin DeMello

Fair use

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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.

lsteima1 · 9 June 2002

I WOULDN’T SAY I LIKED IT MUCH
BECAUSE MY HEART IT DIDN’T TOUCH
THE TEARS OF FORGIVENESS DIDN’T FLOW
AND THE LOVE OF THE FATHER DIDN’T SHOW
SO I’M BACK TO STUDY THE TALE AGAIN
AND LEARN THAT THE PATH FROM GRACE TO SIN
AND BACK, IS SIMPLY REPENTING DEEP
AND COMING TOGETHER IN PEACE TO SLEEP.

Clayton Robert · 14 May 2003

I discovered this poem - the Prodigal Son (Western Version) - in a book of Kipling’s collected poetry, and found it so true to the character of both the protagonist and the author that I set it to a tune. I’m a singer and musician, and fond of the settings of Kipling’s verse that have been done by Peter Bellamy (of England) and others*, so when I didn’t find any other writer’s setting of this, I set it. I have made a couple of changes, some for universality (“Pater” is not a commonly-used term, I suspect even among the upper classes in Britain) and at least one for Biblical accuracy. Kipling says the son was “sent out there,” but the Biblical story makes it clear that he went on his own, so the “sending” isn’t right. I made it “They all forget what it meant out there / Alone, and a rich man’s son.” I know one is not supposed to do that, but I’m a folky, and the folk did that all the time, if unconsciously.

Your comment about the multiple triple-rhymes is right; as a lyricist, I can testify that such rhymes are actually quite difficult. Would that I were so facile in my own writing. Also would that modern sensibilities held rhyme in higher regard. Sigh. I have written some lovely nineteenth-Century lyrics, set to twentieth-Century tunes, alas. Writing in the contemporary fashion seems to be beyond me. Sigh again.

I’m now going back and bookmarking your site.

Thanks

Bob Clayton
Bureaucrat & songwriter

* If you’re not familiar with Peter Bellamy’s settings of Kipling’s poems, I recommend them. Bellamy as a performer was hard to get used to, to an ear tuned to popular music, at least, but his approach to Kipling - his basic premise is that Kipling may have had traditional tunes in mind when certain poems were written, even if it was unconsciously done - makes for some very memorable music.