Bloomsbury Poetry Classics are selections from the work of some of our greatest poets. The series is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist and carries no critical or explanatory apparatus. This can be found elsewhere. In the series the poems introduce themselves, on an uncluttered page and in a format that is both attractive and convenient. The selections have been made by the distinguished poet, critic and biographer Ian Hamilton. Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 in India. Educated in England he returned to India for a brief period to become a journalist. In 1889 he finally settled in England where he found success as a poet and novelist. His collections of verses Barrack Room Ballads and The Seven Seas were both successful. He died in 1936.