Analysis of A Counting-Out Song
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
What is the song the children sing,
When doorway lilacs bloom in Spring,
And the Schools are loosed, and the games are played
That were deadly earnest when Earth was made?
Hear them chattering, shrill and hard,
After dinner-time, out in the yard,
As the sides are chosen and all submit
To the chance of the lot that shall make them "It."
(Singing) "Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo!
Catch a nigger by the toe!
(If he hollers let him go!)
Eenee, Meenee. Mainee, Mo!
You-are-It!"
Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, and Mo
Were the First Big Four of the Long Ago,
When the Pole of the Earth sloped thirty degrees,
And Central Europe began to freeze,
And they needed Ambassadors staunch and stark
To steady the Tribes in the gathering dark:
But the frost was fierce and flesh was frail,
So they launched a Magic that could not fail.
(Singing) "Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo!
Hear the wolves across the snow!
Some one has to kill 'em--so
Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo
Make--you--It!"
Slow ly the Glacial Epoch passed,
Central Europe thawed out at last;
And, under the slush of the melting snows
The first dim shapes of the Nations rose.
Rome, Britannia, Belgium, Gaul--
Flood and avalanche fathered them all;
And the First Big Four, as they watched the mess,
Pitied Man in his helplessness.
(Singing) "Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo!
Trouble starts When Nations grow,
Some one has to stop it--so
Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo!
Make-you-It!"
Thus it happened, but none can tell
What was the Power behind the spell--
Fear, or Duty, or Pride, or Faith--
That sent men shuddering out to death--
To cold and watching, and, worse than these,
Work, more work, when they looked for ease--
To the days discomfort, the nights despair,
In the hope of a prize that they never could share,
(Singing) "Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo!
Man is born to Toil and Woe.
One will cure another--so
Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo
Make--you--It!"
Once and again, as the Ice went North
The grass crept up to the Firth of Forth.
Once and again, as the Ice came South
The glaciers ground over Lossiemouth.
But, grass or glacier, cold or hot,
The men went out who would rather not,
And fought with the Tiger, the Pig and the Ape,
To hammer the world into decent shape.
(Singing) "Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo!
What's the use of doing so?
Ask the Gods, for we don't know;
But Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo
Make-us-It!"
Nothing is left of that terrible rune
But a tag of gibberish tacked to a tune
That ends the waiting and settles the claims
Of children arguing over their games;
For never yet has a boy been found
To shirk his turn when the turn came round;
Nor even a girl has been known to say
"If you laugh at me I shan't play."
For-- "Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo,
(Don't you let the grown-ups know!)
You may hate it ever so,
But if you're chose you're bound to go,
When Eenee, Meenee, Mainee, Mo
Make-you-It!"
Scheme | aabbccddEeeEd eeffgghhEeeED iijjkkxxEeeED llmxffnnEeeED ooxmppqqEeeed rrssttuueeeeeD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 111101 0011100111 1010101111 11100101 101011001 1011100101 10110111111 101111 1010101 1110111 1111 111 11101 0011110101 10110111001 010100111 01100100101 11001001001 101110111 1110101111 101111 1010101 1111111 1111 111 11010101 10101111 0100110101 011110101 10100101 10101011 0011111101 1101100 101111 1011101 1111111 1111 111 11101111 110100101 11101111 111100111 110100111 11111111 1010100101 001101111011 101111 1111101 1110101 1111 111 100110111 011110111 100110111 0101101 11110111 011111101 01101001001 1100101101 101111 1011101 1011111 11111 111 1011111001 10111001101 1101001001 1101001011 110110111 111110111 1100111111 111111111 11111 1110111 1111101 11111111 11111 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,756 |
Words | 518 |
Sentences | 30 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14 |
Lines Amount | 79 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 355 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 85 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 2:34 min read
- 235 Views
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"A Counting-Out Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33114/a-counting-out-song>.
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