“Epitaphs of the War” is a sequence of epigrams by Rudyard Kipling, published – in its first version, simply entitled “Epitaphs” – in his verse collection The Years Between (April 1919). Kipling referred to them in a letter as “sepulchral unchristian epigrams” (17 February 1918: Pinney 1999: 484). He added “of the War” to the title in the 1919 “Inclusive Edition” of his verse, and in the updated 1933 edition further added the parenthetic dates “(1914-1918)” as a subtitle. At that stage the sequence still comprised 31 epigrams; a further four that he had written during the 1920s were added when Kipling prepared the 33rd volume of the “Sussex Edition” of his Works, which appeared …
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Citation: Baldick, Chris. "Epitaphs of the War". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 April 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35614, accessed 22 November 2024.]
