Analysis of Sappers
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
When the Waters were dried an' the Earth did appear,
("It's all one," says the Sapper),
The Lord He created the Engineer,
Her Majesty's Royal Engineer,
With the rank and pay of a Sapper!
When the Flood come along for an extra monsoon,
'Twas Noah constructed the first pontoon
To the plans of Her Majesty's, etc.
But after fatigue in the wet an' the sun,
Old Noah got drunk, which he wouldn't ha' done
If he'd trained with, etc.
When the Tower o' Babel had mixed up men's ~bat~,
Some clever civilian was managing that,
An' none of, etc.
When the Jews had a fight at the foot of a hill,
Young Joshua ordered the sun to stand still,
For he was a Captain of Engineers, etc.
When the Children of Israel made bricks without straw,
They were learnin' the regular work of our Corps,
The work of, etc.
For ever since then, if a war they would wage,
Behold us a-shinin' on history's page --
First page for, etc.
We lay down their sidings an' help 'em entrain,
An' we sweep up their mess through the bloomin' campaign,
In the style of, etc.
They send us in front with a fuse an' a mine
To blow up the gates that are rushed by the Line,
But bent by, etc.
They send us behind with a pick an' a spade,
To dig for the guns of a bullock-brigade
Which has asked for, etc.
We work under escort in trousers and shirt,
An' the heathen they plug us tail-up in the dirt,
Annoying, etc.
We blast out the rock an' we shovel the mud,
We make 'em good roads an' -- they roll down the ~khud~,
Reporting, etc.
We make 'em their bridges, their wells, an' their huts,
An' the telegraph-wire the enemy cuts,
An' it's blamed on, etc.
An' when we return, an' from war we would cease,
They grudge us adornin' the billets of peace,
Which are kept for, etc.
We build 'em nice barracks -- they swear they are bad,
That our Colonels are Methodist, married or mad,
Insultin', etc.
They haven't no manners nor gratitude too,
For the more that we help 'em, the less will they do,
But mock at, etc.
Now the Line's but a man with a gun in his hand,
An' Cavalry's only what horses can stand,
When helped by, etc.
Artillery moves by the leave o' the ground,
But ~we~ are the men that do something all round,
For ~we~ are, etc.
I have stated it plain, an' my argument's thus
("It's all one," says the Sapper),
There's only one Corps which is perfect -- that's us;
An' they call us Her Majesty's Engineers,
Her Majesty's Royal Engineers,
With the rank and pay of a Sapper!
Scheme | aBaaB ccd eed ffd ggd xxd hhd cxd iid jjd kkd xfd lld mmd nnd ood ppd qqd rBrssB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101001101101 1111010 0110100101 010010101 101011010 101101111001 1100100101 10110100100 11001001101 11011111011 1111100 101011011111 11001011001 111100 101101101101 11001001111 1110101101100 1010110011011 101010011101 011100 11011101111 0110111001 111100 111111111 11111110101 0011100 11101101101 11101111101 111100 11101101101 11101101001 1111100 11100101001 101011111001 010100 11101111001 11111111101 010100 11111011111 10101001001 1111100 11101111111 111101011 1111100 11111011111 1101011001011 1100 1101101101 101111101111 111100 101101101011 111011011 111100 01001101101 11101111011 111100 111011111001 1111010 11011110111 11110100101 010010101 101011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,414 |
Words | 468 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 19 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 6 |
Lines Amount | 62 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 2:25 min read
- 436 Views
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"Sappers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33331/sappers>.
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