I can't verify that there really is a Rudyard Kipling poem called "Christmas in the Workhouse". There's the scene, of course, in "The Gathering" where Adam recites the poem with the other men joining in on Christmas Eve. Does anyone know if Kipling really wrote such a poem?
shareKipling didn't write the poem. It was written in 1881 by George Robert Sims, originally entitled "IN THE WORKHOUSE. CHRISTMAS DAY."
Adam qutes a considerably shorter version in "The Gathering." As to why it was attributed to Kipling, my best guess is that it does, after all, have a Kipling flair and feel. I think perhaps it may have been Kipling's parody of the original. As a Kipling parody of someone else's work, it would not, therefore, have been included in any volumes of his own.
George R Sims, guess they credited Kipling for name recognition.
shareAs I watched this again this year, I wondered if this is a poem that Ed Asner picked up at some point in his career and resurrected for this film. Not sure about his stage background but he has a long and illustrious career.
Then again, perhaps it was simply invented for the movie. Adam Thornton seems like the type to quote Kipling. But then again, he seems like the type to quote Hemingway, also.
Here's the link to the original Sims poem...
http://www.exclassics.com/ballads/xmas.htm
There are renditions of the bawdy version used in the movie but I cannot find an author. It sounds like Kipling but he wasn't usually that crude. Did not know the man, so I could obviously be wrong.
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