Analysis of The Wage-Slaves
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Oh, glorious are the guarded heights
Where guardian souls abide--
Self-exiled from our gross delights--
Above, beyond, outside:
An ampler arc their spirit swings--
Commands a juster view--
We have their word for all these things,
No doubt their words are true.
Yet we, the bond slaves of our day,
Whom dirt and danger press--
Co-heirs of insolence, delay,
And leagued unfaithfulness--
Such is our need must seek indeed
And, having found, engage
The men who merely do the work
For which they draw the wage.
From forge and farm and mine and bench,
Deck, altar, outpost lone--
Mill, school, battalion, counter, trench,
Rail, senate, sheepfold, throne--
Creation's cry goes up on high
From age to cheated age:
"Send us the men who do the work
"For which they draw the wage!"
Words cannot help nor wit achieve,
Nor e'en the all-gifted fool,
Too weak to enter, bide, or leave
The lists he cannot rule.
Beneath the sun we count on none
Our evil to assuage,
Except the men that do the work
For which they draw the wage.
When through the Gates of Stress and Strain
Comes forth the vast Event--
The simple, sheer, sufficing, sane
Result of labour spent--
They that have wrought the end unthought
Be neither saint nor sage,
But only men who did the work
For which they drew the wage.
Wherefore to these the Fates shall bend
(And all old idle things )
Werefore on these shall Power attend
Beyond the grip of kings:
Each in his place, by right, not grace,
Shall rule his heritage--
The men who simply do the work
For which they draw the wage.
Not such as scorn the loitering street,
Or waste, to earth its praise,
Their noontide's unreturning heat
About their morning ways;
But such as dower each mortgaged hour
Alike with clean courage--
Even the men who do the work
For which they draw the wage--
Men, like to Gods, that do the work
For which they draw the wage--
Begin-continue-close that work
For which they draw the wage!
Scheme | ababcdcd exeaxfgF hihixfgF jkjkxfgF lmlmbfgf ncncxogF pqpqxogFgFgF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) Tetractys (22%) |
Metre | 110010101 1100101 11110101 010111 1111101 010101 11111111 111111 110111101 110101 11110001 011 111011101 010101 01110101 111101 11010101 11011 11010101 11011 111111 111101 11011101 111101 11011101 11101101 11110111 011101 01011111 1010101 01011101 111101 11011101 110101 010111 01111 1111011 110111 11011101 111101 1110111 011101 11111001 010111 10111111 111100 01110101 111101 111101001 111111 1111 011101 111111010 011110 10011101 111101 11111101 111101 01010111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,926 |
Words | 346 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 12 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 211 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:44 min read
- 143 Views
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"The Wage-Slaves" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33602/the-wage-slaves>.
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