Analysis of The Changelings
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
R.N.V.R, Sea Constables
Or ever the battered liners sank
With their passengers to the dark
I was head of a Walworth Bank,
And you were a grocer's clerk.
I was a dealer in stocks and shares,
And you in butters and teas;
And we both abandoned our own affairs
And took to the dreadful seas.
Wet and worry about our ways--
Panic, onset and flight--
Had us in charge for a thousand days
And thousand-year-long night.
We saw more than the nights could hide--
More than the waves could keep--
And--certain faces over the side
Which do not go from our sleep.
We were more tired than words can tell
While the pied craft fled by,
And the swinging mounds of the Western swell
Hoisted us Heavens-high...
Now there is nothing -- not even our rank--
To witness what we have been;
And I am returned to my Walworth Bank
And you to your margarine!
Scheme | X AXAX BCBC DEDE FGFG HIHI AXAX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11100 110010101 11100101 11110101 0100101 110100101 0101001 01101010101 0110101 101001101 10101 110110101 010111 11110111 110111 010101001 11111101 101101111 101111 0010110101 101101 11110110101 1101111 0110111101 0111100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 816 |
Words | 160 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 91 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 173 Views
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"The Changelings" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33389/the-changelings>.
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