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. During the Advance on Pretoria in 1900, in which British troops marched more than 300 miles from Bloemfontein to Pretoria over the course of a month, averaging 11 miles a day, it was reported that many troops felt fatigued and extremely exhausted. During the latter half of the war, when the Boers had resorted to guerrilla warfare, the British would often go on long marches in an attempt to pursue them, often with no success, leading to further exhaustion. 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.