Boots (poem) Boots (poem) "Boots" is a poem by English author and poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). It was first published in 1903, in his collection "The Five Nations". "Boots" imagines the repetitive thoughts of a British Army infantryman marching by forced marches in South Africa during the Second Boer War (which had ended in 1902). It has been said that if the first four words in each line are read at the rate of two words to the second, that gives the time to which the British foot soldier was accustomed to march. The poem was set to music for low male
The Wallace (poem) chivalrous. The English are depicted throughout as the natural and irreconcilable enemies of the Scots. In the early texts of the poem, the author of "The Wallace" is referred to as "Hary" or "Blind Hary" but little is known for certain about the poet. A man referred to as 'Blind Hary' is recorded as having received payments from King James IV on five occasions between 1490 and 1492. The reasons for the payments are not specified. A 'Blind Hary' is also mentioned by the near-contemporary poet William Dunbar in his Lament for the Makaris. In this poem Hary is included