Mandalay is a famous poem by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

 that was first published in the collection Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses

Barrack-Room Ballads

The Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses are a set of martial songs and poems by Rudyard Kipling originally published in two parts: the first set in 1892, the second in 1896...

, the first series, published in 1892.

The Mandalay

Mandalay

Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....

 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

Mawlamyine

Mawlamyine is the fourth largest city of Burma , situated 300 km south east of Yangon and 70 km south of Thaton, at the mouth of Thanlwin river...

.

The British troops stationed in Burma were taken up (or down) the Irrawaddy River by paddle steamers. Rangoon to Mandalay was a 700 km trip each way.

Film References

The poem is quoted in the movie "The Last of His Tribe" 1992. During a campfire, Dr. Saxton Pope, played by David Ogden Stiers

David Ogden Stiers

David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...

, quotes most of the poem in a dramatic fashion.

In The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

, the Cowardly Lion

Cowardly Lion

The Cowardly Lion is the main character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is a Lion, but he talks and interacts with humans....

 quotes Mandalay during his famous "Courage" speech. "And the dawn comes up like thunder."

A sung rendition of the poem is performed in an episode of Rumpole of the Bailey, "Rumpole and the Show Folk."

Songs

Kipling's text was adapted for the song "On the Road to Mandalay" by Oley Speaks

Oley Speaks

Oley Speaks was an accomplished composer and songwriter who was born in Canal Winchester, Franklin County, Ohio...

 (among others). The song was popularised by Peter Dawson. It appears in the album Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

.

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

Family Guy

Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

 episode Tales of a Third Grade Nothing

Tales of a Third Grade Nothing

"Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" is the sixth episode of the seventh season of Family Guy that aired on November 16, 2008 and ended the first half of the season. The episode's title is an allusion to the Judy Blume children's book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, whose narrator-protagonist is...

, Frank Sinatra Jr. and Seth MacFarlane

Seth MacFarlane

Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...

spoofed the song.

There is also a song of Russian singer Vera Matveeva "On the road to Mandalay" translated by E. Polonskaya.