The Hyaenas

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The Hyaenas
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Historical context
Soldiers were buried in shallow graves quickly,
sometimes where they fell. It was too hot to keep
the corpses in field hospital morgues. Hyaenas
are natural scavengers they find meat to feed
on. Usually the hyaenas eat the remains of dead
animals anything they can find. Usually

• The Boer War 1899-1902
• It began as a struggle between the British and
  Dutch Boer settlers in South Africa for control
  of diamonds and gold. The British eventually won
  after they adopted a scorched earth policy,
  whereby farms were burned and women and children
  were rounded up in concentration camps.

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Story of the poem

• Soldiers are buried. At night, hyaenas scent the
  smell of dead meat and start digging. Scavenging
  for dead meat is much safer than hunting live
  animals than can attack back. The hyaenas drag
  the body out of the grave and then eat it.
  Kipling sees this as only natural he does not
  blame the animals as they act on instinct without
  any emotions. Humans, however, are the cause of
  war and they are to blame for the dead.

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Horror

• They snout the bushes and stones aside
• And dig until they come to it.
• They whoop and halloo and scatter the dirt
• Until their tushes white
• Take good hold in the army shirt,
• And tug the corpse to light.
• And the pitiful face is shewn again
• For an instant ere they close

• What Kipling describes is truly horrific. How
  does he express the horror at the hyaenas and
  their behaviour?

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Only natural

• The wise hyaenas come out at eve
• To take account of our dead.
• How he died and why he died
• Troubles them not a whit.
• They are only resolute they shall eat
• That they and their mates may thrive,
• And they know the dead are safer meat
• Than the weakest thing alive.
• Who, being soulless, are free from shame,
• Whatever meat they may find.

• Kipling does not blame the hyaenas. He cannot be
  truly repulsed by what they do because he does
  express an understanding of why they do it. Which
  words and phrases show this?

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Pathos

• (For a goat may butt, and a worm may sting,
• And a child will sometimes stand
• But a poor dead soldier of the King
• Can never lift a hand.)
• Nor do they defile the dead mans name
• That is reserved for his kind.

• We are reminded of the cost of war. Men are
  struck down in their prime . How does Kipling
  draw out the pathos?

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Form

• This poem has a tight structure. The first and
  third, and second and fourth line of each stanza
  rhyme. The rhythm is regular and constant. Each
  stanza is four lines long. Why is this form
  suited to the message of the poem?

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Anger?

• Who, being soulless, are free from shame,
• Whatever meat they may find,
• Nor do they defile the dead mans name
• That is reserved for his kind.

• Kipling doesnt blame the hyaenas. Who does he
  blame? Why is he angry? How effective is the
  final stanza in getting across his message?