The Female of the Species (poem) The Female of the Species (poem) "The Female of the Species" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling originally published in 1911. The title and refrain have been used as a title for at least three other works (see The Female of the Species (disambiguation)). It begins with illustrations of the greater deadliness of the females of different species, the Himalayan bear, the cobra and the Native American, who frightened the Jesuits more than the men. It continues with the general thought that women, "must be deadlier than the male", as she is formed for the one purpose - motherhood. Woman,
The Grave (poem) of their anatomy is unimpeachable, and the moral expression dignified and masculine". However, Johnstone was not wholly positive in his criticism, observing that in the close of the poem there is "short-coming, if not absolute failure", and that the final triumph of Resurrection over the powers of Death and Hell were "felt to be wanting". Rather than "the rapturous exultation of the true poet", the close is "in that tone of sober confidence which might have found place in any eloquent sermon". The most famous publication of the poem was by Robert Hartley Cromek, in part because it occasioned an