Analysis of Song of the Galley Slaves
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
We pulled for you when the wind was against us and the sails
were low.
Will you never let us go?
We ate bread and onions when you took towns, or ran aboard
quickly when you were beaten back by the foe.
The Captains walked up and down the deck in fair weather sing-
ing songs, but we were below.
We fainted with our chins on the oars and you did not see that
we were idle, for we still swung to and fro.
Will you never let us go?
The solt made the oar-hands like shark-skin; our knees were
cut to the bone with salt-cracks; our hair was stuck to
our foreheads; and our lips were cut to the gums, and you
whipped us because we could not row.
Will you never let us go?
But, in a little time, we shall run out of the port-holes as the water
runs along the oar-blade, and though you tell the others
to row after us you will never catch us till you catch the
oar-thresh and tie up the winds in the belly of the sail.
Aho!
Will you never let us go?
Scheme | abBcbdbebBfggbBfhijbB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111011011001 01 1110111 11101011111101 10110101101 01011010101101 1111001 1101101101011111 10101111101 1110111 0110111111010 1101111101111 10101010110101 11011111 1110111 100101111110111010 1010110111010 111011110111110 11011010010101 10 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,022 |
Words | 195 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 21 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 721 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 194 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 98 Views
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