The Widow's Uniform - Part 6/15:

Danny Deever

NOTES: One of Kipling's "smash hits", it made a huge immediate impact when first published. Even those detractors who deem Kipling a versifier rather than a poet generally concede this to be an exception. Kipling witnessed and reported military executions, though the poem's eponymous victim is fictional. The routine was exactly as recorded here in fine, horrifying detail.