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 in South Africa during the Second Boer War. It has been suggested for the first four words of each line to be read slowly, at a rate of two words per second, to match with the cadence, or rhythm of a foot soldier marching.

Versions

The 1915 spoken-word recording of the poem by American actor Taylor Holmes has been used for its psychological effect in U.S. military SERE schools.

The poem was set to music for low male voice and orchestra by "P. J. McCall", and recorded in 1929 by Australian bass-baritone Peter Dawson. McCall was Dawson, publishing under a pseudonym. That setting was soon recorded by other singers, but seems largely to have fallen out of fashion, possibly because of World War II.

American-born British poet T. S. Eliot included the poem in his 1941 collection A Choice of Kipling's Verse.

A Russian version of the poem, Pyl' (Russian: Пыль, Dust), was set to music by Soviet bard Evgeny Agranovich during the Second World War, and used as a marching song in his unit. The unit's commissar enjoyed the song, but disapproved of the foreign lyrics. Because of this, Agranovich later added several verses of his own invention to the march.

In popular culture

Holmes' recitation was also used in the cinematic trailer for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies map "Terminus" and later in the first trailer for the 2025 horror film 28 Years Later, directed by Danny Boyle.