The Deep-Sea Cables
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar --
Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are.
There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep,
Or the great gray level plains of ooze where the shell-burred cables creep.
Here in the womb of the world -- here on the tie-ribs of earth
Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat --
Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth --
For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet.
They have wakened the timeless Things; they have killed their father Time;
Joining hands in the gloom, a league from the last of the sun.
Hush! Men talk to-day o'er the waste of the ultimate slime,
And a new Word runs between: whispering, "Let us be one!"
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 83 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABB CDCD EFEF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 779 |
Words | 149 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Deep-Sea Cables" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/33409/the-deep-sea-cables>.
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