A Death-Bed

"A Death-Bed" is a poem by English poet and writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). It was first published in April 1919, in the collection The Years Between. Later publications identified the year of writing as 1918. Kipling's only son, John, had been reported missing in action in 1915, during the Battle of Loos, leaving him grief-stricken. "A Death-Bed" has been variously described as "the most savage poem Kipling ever wrote", "the chilling and pitiless masterpiece" and as "overtly distasteful".