Episode 287: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, “Tiger, Tiger”

On today’s episode of The Literary Life podcast, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas wrap up their discussion of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling with the final Mowgli story–“Tiger, Tiger.” Before beginning to talk about the story, the chat a little about Kipling’s other works and his place in literary history and what sort of writer he was. In this section, Angelina points out the parallels to the first story, as well as the mythic qualities of the whole tale. Together they cover the various ideas in this section, including the ideas of belonging, freedom and boundaries, and heroism.

Join is next week for an episode on “Literary Milestones” in the life of a reader. After that we will begin a new series on Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.

Over at House of Humane Letters, a new webinar is now available for registration. It is taught by Heather Goodman and is titled “Coleridge’s Imagination: Restoring the Chain of Being.” Also, check out this year’s Back to School Online Conference, “Educating the Freeborn,” over at MorningTimeforMoms.com to get registered and hear all of this year’s amazing speakers!

Listen to The Literary Life:

Commonplace Quotes:

Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.

George Orwell

He preferred to like people, knowing this fact was the basis of his influence over them. The sense of his will to like gave them confidence: so they liked in return.

Olivia Manning, from The Spoilt City

As might be expected, the gardens made by aesthetes are considerably more pleasing to the eye than those made by moralists.

Michael Pollan, from Second Nature

The Way Through the Woods

by Rudyard Kipling

They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago. 
Weather and rain have undone it again, 
And now you would never know 
There was once a road through the woods 
Before they planted the trees. 
It is underneath the coppice and heath, 
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees 
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease, 
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods 
Of a summer evening late, 
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools 
Where the otter whistles his mate, 
(They fear not men in the woods, 
Because they see so few.) 
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet, 
And the swish of a skirt in the dew, 
Steadily cantering through 
The misty solitudes, 
As though they perfectly knew 
The old lost road through the woods...
But there is no road through the woods.

Books Mentioned:

Amazon Affiliate links follow

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Stalky and Co. by Rudyard Kipling

Kim by Rudyard Kipling

The Man Who Would be King by Rudyard Kipling

Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling

Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley

The Waterbabies by Charles Kingsley

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Connect with Us:

You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/.

You can find Cindy Rollins at MorningTimeforMoms.com, over on her podcast The New Mason Jar, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CindyRollinsWriter. You can also check out her Patreon for additional content.

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