Analysis of The Songs of the Lathes
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
The fans and the beltings they roar round me.
The power is shaking the floor round me
Till the lathes pick up their duty and the midnight-shift takes over.
It is good for me to be here!
Guns in Flanders--Flanders guns!
(I had a man that worked 'em once!)
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!
Shells for guns in Flanders! Feeds the guns!
The cranes and the carriers they boom over me,
The bays and the galleries they loom over me,
With their quarter-mile of pillars growing little in the distance--
It is good for me to be here!
The Zeppelins and Gothas they raid over us.
Our lights give warning, and fade over us.
(Seven thousand women keeping quiet in the darkness!)
Oh, it's good for me to be here.
The roofs and the buildings they grow round me,
Eating up the fields I used to know round me;
And the shed that I began in is a sub-inspector's office--
So long have I been here!
I've seen six hundred mornings make our lamps grow dim,
Through the bit that isn't painted round our sky-light rim,
And the sunshine through the window slope according to the seasons,
Twice since I've been here.
The trains on the sidings they call to us
With the hundred thousand blanks that they haul to us;
And we send 'em what we've finished, and they take it where it's wanted,
For that is why we are here!
Man's hate passes as his love will pass.
God made Woman what she always was.
Them that bear the burden they will never grant forgiveness
So long as they are here!
Once I was a woman, but that's by with me.
All I loved and looked for, it must die with me;
But the Lord has left me over for a servant of the Judgment,
And I serve His Judgments here!
Guns in Flanders--Flanders guns!
(I had a son that worked 'em once!)
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!
Shells for guns in Flanders, Flanders!
Shells for guns in Flanders! Feeds the guns!
Scheme | aaxB CdEEC aadB fffb aafb ggcb ffxb xxfb aaxb CdEEC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010011111 0101100111 101111100011110 11111111 1010101 11011111 11101010 11101010 111010101 010010011101 010010011101 1110111010100010 11111111 010111101 10111001101 10101010100010 11111111 0100101111 10101111111 0011101010101010 111111 1111010110111 10111010110111 001101010101010 11111 011011111 101010111111 0111111001111110 1111111 111011111 11101111 11101011101010 111111 11101011111 11101111111 1011111010101010 0111101 1010101 11011111 11101010 11101010 111010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,979 |
Words | 357 |
Sentences | 29 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 73 Views
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"The Songs of the Lathes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33575/the-songs-of-the-lathes>.
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