The Camel’s Hump[M1]

 

Literature does the culture-work for a community. It gets messages of what is accepted and what is not accepted across to the masses in an enjoyable, therefore more long-lasting way. The message the poet seems to want to convey is the importance of hard work and self-discipline and the danger of overindulgence at both personal and public levels.  

“The Camel’s Hump” was composed by the British poet, short story writer and novelist Rudyard Kipling at the very height of the British Empire. At the time British thinking was said to have been dominated by what is known as Protestant Work Ethics which privileged simple living and hard work. Idleness was frowned upon. “Idle mind is the devil’s workshop” and “early to bed early to rise makes you healthy, wealthy and wise” were some of the most popular sayings of the time. 

During this period British naturalists, civil servants, businesspeople and explores were touring the empire and sending back various things and animals they found exotic. These entered private and public collections, museums and zoological and botanical gardens for the edification and entertainment of both the scientific community and the masses. London Zoo was home to many such “specimen” sent by British nationals scattered to the four corners of the world.  

The poem contains 7 stanzas composed of 32 lines rhyming abcb bbddb efgf hbaab ijkj lbaab bbaab. In the first stanza the poet juxtaposes the images of a camel’s hump and the potbelly of a person who had “too little to do.” The poetic persona opines that the camel’s hump is an “ugly lump”. Then he helpfully suggests that the reader may be able to see it in the Zoo, a reference to the celebrated London Zoo which housed a large menagerie of exotic animals from the distant corners of the world. In the 3^rd and 4^th lines he compares the ugly lump of the camel with the “uglier … hump” people get due to inactivity. The camel does not have a choice as he is born with the hump, whereas, people are at fault for their hump.

 

The Camel's hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.       

In the second stanza, the poet tells us who was in danger of getting the uglier hump: both “[k]iddies and grownups” are at risk. The use of “Kiddies” to refer to children increases the sense of pathos. Then he includes himself among the numbers that are going to be affected by using the term “we”. He is at risk, too. The term “Cameelious” is an example of coinage. Kipling coins several words which add humorous tone to the poem. In the last line, the poet adds more details regarding the “uglier” hump: it is “black and blue”. Black and blue are the colours associated with pain and death. So, the hump would ultimately lead to pain and death.   

Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
If we haven't enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump-
Cameelious hump-
The hump that is black and blue!

In the third stanza, the poet describes the day of a person who either has or is about to have a black and blue hump: We get up from our beds confused and angry, and as a result we have “snarly-yarly” voices. The rest of the day is, too, spent unpleasantly: we “shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl/At our bath and our boots and our toys”. The terms “bath”, “boots” and “toys” are symbolic: “bath” can be a reference to people who are well-off and had time and the money for baths; “boots” can be a reference to the working class or soldiers; and “toys” could be a reference to children.      

We climb out of bed with a frouzly head,
And a snarly-yarly voice.
We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl
At our bath and our boots and our toys;

In the next stanza, the poet declares with certainty that there should be a place in the Zoo for him, too: “there ought to be a corner for me”. He is an oddity that should be put on display. Not stopping at that, he assures that there is a corner for the reader as well in an aside – the poet spends time at a desk writing and the reader is occupied reading poetry. Both occupations do not require much physical exertion! The use of the correlative conjunction “when” instead of “if”, underscores his certainty that it was only a matter of time before both the poet and the reader would end up in a corner of a zoo where they would be on display due to their black and blue Cameelious hump. 

And there ought to be a corner for me
(And I know' there is one for you)
When we get the hump-
Cameelious hump-
The hump that is black and blue!

In the fifth stanza, the poetic persona proposes the only certain cure for the disease: “not to sit still”. One has to exert oneself physically in order to prevent as well as to cure this dreadful disease. Interestingly, a writer discourages reading when he tells the reader not to “frowst with a book by the fire.” Instead he proposes that one has to take a hoe and a shovel and dig till one “gently perspire[d]”. He is not suggesting that he and the reader should work like a regular labourer sweating heavily. They should work hard enough to sweat “gently”.  

The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire;
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire;

In the penultimate stanza, the poet tells the reader how he would lose the dreadful hump. The sun, the wind and the Djinn of the Garden are the ones who would take away the “horrible hump”. The disappearance of the hump is made into a magical occurrence with the introduction of the term “Djinn”. The last line of this stanza is a repetition of the last line of the 4^th stanza.

And then you will find that the sun and the wind,
And the Djinn of the Garden too,
Have lifted the hump-
The horrible hump-
The hump that is black and blue!

The last stanza is almost a repetition of the second stanza. According to the poetic persona everyone who leads an inactive life is at the risk of getting the dreaded lumpy hump. 

I get it as well as you-oo-oo-
If I haven't enough to do-oo-oo!
We all get hump-
Cameelious hump-
Kiddies and grown-ups too!

Kipling offers social criticism through humour in this poem. In that sense, one might call the poem didactic. Kipling is pointing out that the empire had brought in so much wealth that people have forgotten the Protestant Work Ethics base on frugality, simple living and hard work that had made the British Empire possible. They have so much leisure which they spend on inactive pursuits such as writing and reading. Consequently, they develop humps – they become ugly and unhealthy.  The awful warning is that unless they shaped up they would find themselves in a corner of someone’s zoo locked up as curiosities for people to come and gawk at. A dreadful thought in deed! 

Questions:

1.      Kipling in “The Camel’s Hump” is illustrating the repercussions of lack of self-discipline in a humorous way. Discuss.

2.      “Humour” poems are not purely humourous. Do you agree? Take at least two of the poems in the syllabus and discus the above statement.   

 

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 [M1]Associated with ugliness, deformity