'Tis Orient Kipling, the reviewers' boast,
The darling of the Anglo-Indian coast,
Who, on cheap praise and cheaper conquest bent,
Imports slang 'notions' from the soldier's tent,
And crams his lines with 'Tommy Atkins' here
And 'Tommy Atkins' diction everywhere—
'Barrack-Room Ballads!' come, who'll buy! who'll buy!
The precious bargain's low! 'i faith, not I!
For Rudyard's verse, despite his 'boom,' is flat,
Though critics bloat him with 'log-rollers'' fat—