Gunga Din is a famous poem by the British short-story writer, novelist, and poet Rudyard Kipling. It was published in the collection Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses in 1892. Several of the poems from the collection had already gained recognition in 1890, when they appeared in the literary weekly The Scots Observer. Barrack-Room Ballads was an outstanding success. For several decades, it was the most popular book of verse in the English language. Although Kipling was still only in his twenties, he soon became one of the most popular poets in British history.
“Gunga Din” is probably the most familiar poem among the group. Like many of the others, it is a ballad, a poem that tells a story. Its subject is Gunga Din, a bhisti (water-carrier) for a British regiment in India. The narrator is an ordinary soldier, who speaks in a Cockney dialect.
