Boots

I first heard this poem in an ad for the movie “28 Years Later”, the next installment after "28 Days Later", of zombie movie acclaim. Regardless, I found it spooky and fascinating in equal measure and looked more into its meaning.

Background and Summary

“Boots” was written by Rudyard Kipling in 1903, during the Second Boer War between the British Empire and the Dutch Boers in South Africa.

The Boer War marked a transition from an older way of doing war to a new way.

The weapons were more efficient, and deadlier. The Boer War also saw the larger use of guerilla tactics, and concentration camps—yes, really—concentration camps. Gone were the days of marching neatly in file, meeting the enemy face-to-face. What replaced traditional war was the concept of the long-standing stalemate, which made combat more like an endurance exercise, and erased any concept of a short, summer war. This short video explains more about the background of the war.

Where does ”Boots” play into this? The poem doesn’t talk about any specific battle. Instead, it mimics the endless sound of marching — like literally. The line “Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up and down again” repeats like a heartbeat or a headache. It’s monotonous on purpose, and it gets under your skin.

Source: Boer War | The National Army Museum

So what is “Boots” actually saying?

It’s not about winning a war. It’s not even really about fighting one. It’s about what it feels like to be stuck in it—the endless marching, the sameness of every day, and the mental toll of knowing there’s “no discharge in the war.” In other words, the only way out… is death.

You get this eerie sense of being just one more body in the line, indistinguishable from the others. You’re not marching to meet an enemy face-to-face—you’re marching past trees that hide snipers, through dust and heat, and toward something unknown that you aren't sure is necessarily good.

The enemy isn’t even visible anymore. They’re just out there, waiting. And you keep marching, because that’s all you’re allowed to do.

Why it matters

Kipling wrote this poem over a decade before World War I, but when you read it today, it feels like it belongs in the trenches of that war. The repetition, the despair, the trauma, both physical and mental—it's an eerie reflection of how we see war in the 21st century.

Before this, war poetry was often about glory, bravery, and honor. But “Boots” gives us something different—something quiet and terrifying. It’s about what happens when you become a cog in a war machine, when you march not out of courage but because you have no choice.

It's warning society of what could be, and unfortunately it turned out to be an accurate warning.

Article: Boer War | National War Museum