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About this quote

What does it mean?
Kipling describes the British Empire as a vast, diverse entity encompassing all roles, particularly military ones.
In plain terms
The empire is huge and includes everyone, especially soldiers and sailors.
What can you take from it?
National identity often centers on military service across diverse roles.

Where it applies

  • discussions of national character
  • military service contexts

Putting it to work

  • analyzing national myths
  • understanding historical propaganda

Questions to consider

  • How do nations define themselves through military roles?
  • What groups are excluded from such broad identities?

Another view

The quote reflects imperialist ideology that excludes colonized peoples.

More from Rudyard Kipling

  1. We have fed our sea for a thousand years And she calls us, still unfed, Though there's never a wave of all her waves But marks our English dead.

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  2. A Nation spoke to a Nation, A Queen sent word to a Throne: 'Daughter am I in my mother's house, But mistress in my own. The gates are mine to open, As the gate…

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  3. It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world, Which you can read and care for just so long, But presently you feel that you will die Unless you get the page …

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