Mandalay is a famous poem by Rudyard Kipling that was first published in the collection Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses, the first series, published in 1892.
The Mandalay referred to in this poem was the sometime capital city of Burma, which was a British colony from 1885 to 1948. It mentions the old Moulmein pagoda, Moulmein being the Anglicised version of present-day Mawlamyine.
The British troops stationed in Burma were taken up (or down) the Irrawady River by paddle steamers. Rangoon to Mandalay was a 700 Km trip each way.
Song
Kipling's text was adapted for the song "On the Road to Mandalay" by Oley Speaks (among others). The song was popularised by Peter Dawson. It appears in the album Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra.
The song is published with only first, second and last verse of the poem, with the chorus; although singers sometimes omit the second verse. The Kipling family objected to Sinatra's version of the song. When the album was initially released in the UK, the song "French Foreign Legion" replaced "Mandalay", whilst apparently the song "Chicago" (and "It Happened in Monterey" on some pressings) were used in other parts of the British Commonwealth. Sinatra sang the song in Australia, in 1959, and relayed the story of the Kipling family objection to the song. In 2008, in the Family Guy episode Tales of a Third Grade Nothing, Sinatra's Son and Seth MacFarlane spoofed the song.
See also
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