KIPLING, Rudyard.

The Five Nations.

London: Methuen and Co. , 1903.

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"Who hath desired the sea? - the sight of salt water unbounded": First edition of Rudyard Kipling's The Five Nations

First edition, first issue of Kipling's notable poetry collection with 'David' for 'Saul' on p.56 and ads dated July 1903. Octavo, original cloth. In good condition.

First published in 1903, Kipling's The Five Nations included a number of new poems as well as several that had been previously published (notably Recessional of 1897). In 1903, the United Kingdom consisted of four nations: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was soon suggested that Kipling's "five nations" were the "five free nations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa [i.e. Cape Colony], and 'the islands of the sea' [i.e. the British Isles]" - all dominated by Britons; and except in the last case, by recent settlers. That suggestion was endorsed some one hundred years later.