Lyr Add: I Learned About Women from Her -Kipling

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LADIES (Rudyard Kipling)
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 04:53 PM

This is included as a song on the old 78s CDs I offered in the Found Musical Treasures thread. My brother reminded me is it a poem by Kipling entitled "The Ladies."

Rudyard Kipling: The Ladies

I've taken my fun where I've found it;
I've rogued an' I've ranged in my time;
I've 'ad my pickin' o' sweet'earts,
An' four o' the lot was prime.
One was an 'arf-caste widow,
One was a woman at Prome,
One was the wife of a jemadar-sais,
An' one is a girl at 'ome.

    Now I aren't no 'and with the ladies,
      For, takin' 'em all along,
    You never can say till you've tried 'em,
      An' then you are like to be wrong.
    There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,
      There's times when you'll know that you might;
    But the things you will learn from the Yellow an' Brown,
      They'll 'elp you a lot with the White!

I was a young un at 'Oogli,
Shy as a girl to begin;
Aggie de Castrer she made me,
An' Aggie was clever as sin;
Older than me, but my first un --
More like a mother she were --
Showed me the way to promotion an' pay,
An' I learned about women from 'er!

Then I was ordered to Burma,
Actin' in charge o' Bazar,
An' I got me a tiddy live 'eathen
Through buyin' supplies off 'er pa.
Funny an' yellow an' faithful --
Doll in a teacup she were,
But we lived on the square, like a true-married pair,
An' I learned about women from 'er!

Then we was shifted to Neemuch
(Or I might ha' been keepin' 'er now),
An' I took with a shiny she-devil,
The wife of a nigger at Mhow;
'Taught me the gipsy-folks' bolee;                              
Kind o' volcano she were,
For she knifed me one night 'cause I wished she was white,
And I learned about women from 'er!

Then I come 'ome in the trooper,
'Long of a kid o' sixteen --
Girl from a convent at Meerut,
The straightest I ever 'ave seen.
Love at first sight was 'er trouble,
She didn't know what it were;
An' I wouldn't do such, 'cause I liked 'er too much,
But -- I learned about women from 'er!

I've taken my fun where I've found it,
An' now I must pay for my fun,
For the more you 'ave known o' the others
The less will you settle to one;
An' the end of it's sittin' and thinkin',
An' dreamin' Hell-fires to see;
So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not),
An' learn about women from me!

    What did the Colonel's Lady think?
      Nobody never knew.
    Somebody asked the Sergeant's wife,
      An' she told 'em true!
    When you get to a man in the case,
      They're like as a row of pins --
    For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
      Are sisters under their skins!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Learned About Women from Her -Kipling
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 08:10 PM

Kat, this does not appear to have made it to the DT, but there are numerous citings in forum threads. Previously, Art Thieme posted the Kweskin version that came from Frank Crumit's recording and I posted Goebel Reeve's variant: CLICK HERE. In the same thread, Dale posted a parody, 'I learned about horses from him', which I feel sure your father would have enjoyed.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Learned About Women from Her -Kipling
From: Bert
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 10:07 PM

It's in the DT here

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Learned About Women from Her -Kipli
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 12:01 AM

Thanks, Stewie and Bert! We had discussed it a bit in the other thread I mentioned, but didn't know the title was "The Ladies" as noted in the DT link Bert provided . I wonder if the search was working right, though,as I did do a search on the longer title, the one I used for this thread, and nothing came up for the forum or the DT.

At any rate, thanks a bunch!

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Learned About Women from Her -Kipling
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 07:44 AM

Like many of Kipling poems, Peter Bellamy set it to music.

The last two stanzas are rather echoed in another Kipling poem "The Liner She's a Lady" in which "The Liner" refers to the equivalent of "The Colonel's Lady" and "Little Cargo boats" refers to the Portsmouth ladies who purveyed "Horizontal Refreshment" around the docks. You can find my setting of that here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Learned About Women from Her -Kipling
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 03:16 PM

Well, VERY worthy of being in the D.T. as is, I.M.H.O. anything by Mr. Kipling....