Rudyard Kipling
First published in Limits and Renewals
London: Macmillan, 1932
After a visit to Bermuda in 1894, Kipling developed a theory that Shakespeare may have gotten the idea for The Tempest from stories of castaways told by sailors in London pubs. In this poem, Shakespeare, the playwright on the lookout for a good yarn, gives food and drink to a band of seamen in return for their wild stories, which become the inspiration for his play (The Tempest, we presume). He bids them farewell, telling them he is a “coiner” who will “turn your lead pieces to metal as rare / As shall fill him this globe, and leave something to spare.” —VH