'Though Lightly Made, Are Hard to Keep'

Even the most chillingly honest among us remain liars, at least to ourselves. Self-delusion is endemically human and not always a bad thing. It can serve as a useful motivator. Take the annual farce of New Year’s resolutions, those earnestly mustered plans for self-improvement made each January 1 and abandoned January 2. I have never bothered making them, as I know the feebleness of my own resolve.  

Rudyard Kipling, who had just turned twenty-one, published his poem “New Year Resolutions” in the Civil and Military Gazette, a newspaper in Lahore, India, on January 1, 1887. It remained unpublished again until 2013, in a collected edition of his poems. He resolves to give up gambling, dancing, flirting and smoking:

 

1.

“I am resolved throughout the year

To lay my vices on the shelf;

A godly, sober course to steer

And love my neighbours as myself --

Excepting always two or three

Whom I detest as they hate me.

 

2.

“I am resolved--that whist is low--

Especially with cards like mine--

It guts a healthy Bank-book--so

These earthly pleasures I resign,

Except--and here I see no sin--

When asked by others to ‘cut in.’

 

3.

“I am resolved--no more o’ dance

With ingenues--so help me Venus!

It gives the Chaperone her chance

For hinting Heaven knows what between us.

The Ballroom and the Altar stand

Too close in this suspicious land.

(N.B.) But will I (here ten names) abandon?

No, while I have a leg to stand on.

 

4.

“I am resolved--to sell my horses.

They cannot stay, they will not go;

They lead me into evil courses

Wherefore I mean to part with--No!

Cut out that resolution--I’ll

Try Jilt to-morrow on the mile.

 

5.

“I am resolved--to flirt no more,

 It leads to strife and tribulation;

 Not that I used to flirt before,

 But as a bar against temptation.

 Here I except (cut out the names)

 Perfectly Platonic flames.

 

6.

“I am resolved--to drop my smokes,

The Trichi has an evil taste;

I cannot buy the brands of Oakes,

But, lest I take a step in haste,

And so upset my health, I choose a

‘More perfect way’ in pipes and Poona.

 

7.

“I am resolved--that vows like these,

 Though lightly made, are hard to keep;

 Wherefore I’ll take them by degrees,

 Lest my back-slidings make me weep.

 One vow a year will see me through;

 And I’'ll begin with Number Two.”

 

The speaker’s final resolution recalls one of the slogans adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous -- “One Day at a Time” -- though he retains the delusion that he can maintain one resolution for a year. Human nature is perversely averse even to morally sound change, which comes incrementally, if at all. It helps that Kipling has a sense of humor.