Analysis of Route Marchin'
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
We're marchin' on relief over Injia's sunny plains,
A little front o' Christmas-time an' just be'ind the Rains;
Ho! get away you bullock-man, you've 'eard the bugle blowed,
There's a regiment a-comin' down the Grand Trunk Road;
With its best foot first
And the road a-sliding past,
An' every bloomin' campin'-ground exactly like the last;
While the Big Drum says,
With 'is "~rowdy-dowdy-dow!~" --
"~Kiko kissywarsti~ don't you ~hamsher argy jow?~"*
* Why don't you get on?
Oh, there's them Injian temples to admire when you see,
There's the peacock round the corner an' the monkey up the tree,
An' there's that rummy silver grass a-wavin' in the wind,
An' the old Grand Trunk a-trailin' like a rifle-sling be'ind.
While it's best foot first, . . .
At half-past five's Revelly, an' our tents they down must come,
Like a lot of button mushrooms when you pick 'em up at 'ome.
But it's over in a minute, an' at six the column starts,
While the women and the kiddies sit an' shiver in the carts.
An' it's best foot first, . . .
Oh, then it's open order, an' we lights our pipes an' sings,
An' we talks about our rations an' a lot of other things,
An' we thinks o' friends in England, an' we wonders what they're at,
An' 'ow they would admire for to hear us sling the ~bat~.*
An' it's best foot first, . . .
* Language. Thomas's first and firmest conviction is that
he is a profound Orientalist and a fluent speaker of Hindustani.
As a matter of fact, he depends largely on the sign-language.
It's none so bad o' Sunday, when you're lyin' at your ease,
To watch the kites a-wheelin' round them feather-'eaded trees,
For although there ain't no women, yet there ain't no barrick-yards,
So the orficers goes shootin' an' the men they plays at cards.
Till it's best foot first, . . .
So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore,
There's worser things than marchin' from Umballa to Cawnpore;
An' if your 'eels are blistered an' they feels to 'urt like 'ell,
You drop some tallow in your socks an' that will make 'em well.
For it's best foot first, . . .
We're marchin' on relief over Injia's coral strand,
Eight 'undred fightin' Englishmen, the Colonel, and the Band;
Ho! get away you bullock-man, you've 'eard the bugle blowed,
There's a regiment a-comin' down the Grand Trunk Road;
With its best foot first
And the road a-sliding past,
An' every bloomin' campin'-ground exactly like the last;
While the Big Drum says,
With 'is "~rowdy-dowdy-dow!~" --
"~Kiko kissywarsti~ don't you ~hamsher argy jow?~"
Scheme | aaBBCDDEFG h iixbc jjkkC llmmC mhg nnooc ppqqc rrBBCDDEFG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101101101 0101110111101 11011101110101 101000110111 11111 0010101 1100111010101 10111 1110101 11111011 11111 111110101111 10110101010101 1111010101001 1011101101011 11111 1111111011111 101110101111111 111000101110101 101000101110001 11111 111101011110111 1110110101011101 111110101110111 1111011111101 11111 10100101001011 11001100101011 1010111011010110 111111111111 110101111011 11111101111101 101111011111 11111 111111011111 111111111 11111101111111 11110011111111 11111 11101101101 11110010001 11011101110101 101000110111 11111 0010101 1100111010101 10111 1110101 11111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,548 |
Words | 439 |
Sentences | 32 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 1, 5, 5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 10 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 205 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 131 Views
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"Route Marchin'" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33329/route-marchin%27>.
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