Six Honest Serving Men

Six Honest Serving Men is a short poem by Rudyard Kipling. It’s a little puzzling and we wonder what it means. What do you think?

Six serving men

Six Honest Serving Men A puzzling poem by Rudyard Kipling, read by Richard Scott for Storynory Image: Butler Cartoon Set from Adobe Stock.

I KEEP six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five, For I am busy then, As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea, For they are hungry men. But different folk have different views; I know a person small— She keeps ten million serving-men, Who get no rest at all!

She sends’em abroad on her own affairs, From the second she opens her eyes— One million Hows, two million Wheres, And seven million Whys!