Kipling's Vermont
The summer like a rajah dies,
And every widowed tree
Kindles for Congregationalist eyes
An alien suttee.
Commentary
A wonderful vignette - almost Imagist in intensity but escaping that label through its stylisation and sly allusion to Kipling. Appropriately, it is called “Kipling’s Vermont”. Notice the satire though in the congregationalist image, which reminds me of Kipling’s own weltanschaung in Kim -
Oh those who tread the narrow way
By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day
Be gentle when the heathen pray
To Buddha at Kamakura.
— Anustup
[thomas adds: ‘The Buddha at Kamakura’ can be read at poem #379]