Analysis of Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Before a midnight breaks in storm,
Or herded sea in wrath,
Ye know what wavering gusts inform
The greater tempest's path;
Till the loosed wind
Drive all from mind,
Except Distress, which, so will prophets cry,
O'ercame them, houseless, from the unhinting sky.
Ere rivers league against the land
In piratry of flood,
Ye know what waters steal and stand
Where seldom water stood.
Yet who will note,
Till fields afloat,
And washen carcass and the returning well,
Trumpet what these poor heralds strove to tell?
Ye know who use the Crystal Ball
(To peer by stealth on Doom),
The Shade that, shaping first of all,
Prepares an empty room.
Then doth It pass
Like breath from glass,
But, on the extorted Vision bowed intent,
No man considers why It came or went.
Before the years reborn behold
Themselves with stranger eye,
And the sport-making Gods of old,
Like Samson slaying, die,
Many shall hear
The all-pregnant sphere,
Bow to the birth and sweat, but--speech denied--
Sit dumb or--dealt in part--fall weak and wide.
Yet instant to fore-shadowed need
The eternal balance swings;
That winged men, the Fates may breed
So soon as Fate hath wings.
These shall possess
Our littleness,
And in the imperial task (as worthy) lay
Up our lives' all to piece one giant Day.
Scheme | ABABCCDD EXEXFFGG HIHIJJKK LDLDXXMM NONOXJPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (25%) Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 0101101 110101 111100101 01011 1011 1111 0101111101 1111011 11010101 0111 11110101 110101 1111 1101 0110000101 1011110111 11110101 111111 01110111 011101 1111 1111 11001010101 1101011111 01011101 011101 00110111 110101 1011 01101 1101011101 1111011101 11011101 0010101 1110111 111111 1101 101 000010011101 11011111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,236 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 198 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 147 Views
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"Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33156/before-a-midnight-breaks-in-storm>.
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