Analysis of A Legend of Truth
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Once on a time, the ancient legends tell,
Truth, rising from the bottom of her well,
Looked on the world, but, hearing how it lied,
Returned to her seclusion horrified.
There she abode, so conscious of her worth,
Not even Pilate's Question called her forth,
Nor Galileo, kneeling to deny
The Laws that hold our Planet 'neath the sky.
Meantime, her kindlier sister, whom men call
Fiction, did all her work and more than all,
With so much zeal, devotion, tact, and care,
That no one noticed Truth was otherwhere.
Then came a War when, bombed and gassed and mined,
Truth rose once more, perforce, to meet mankind,
And through the dust and glare and wreck of things,
Beheld a phantom on unbalanced wings,
Reeling and groping, dazed, dishevelled, dumb,
But semaphoring direr deeds to come.
Truth hailed and bade her stand; the quavering shade
Clung to her knees and babbled, "Sister, aid!
I am--I was--thy Deputy, and men
Besought me for my useful tongue or pen
To gloss their gentle deeds, and I complied,
And they, and thy demands, were satisfied.
But this--" she pointed o'er the blistered plain,
Where men as Gods and devils wrought amain--
"This is beyond me! Take thy work again."
Tablets and pen transferred, she fled afar,
And Truth assumed the record of the War...
She saw, she heard, she read, she tried to tell
Facts beyond precedent and parallel--
Unfit to hint or breathe, much less to write,
But happening every minute, day and night.
She called for proof. It came. The dossiers grew.
She marked them, first, "Return. This can't be true."
Then, underneath the cold official word:
"This is not really half of what occurred."
She faced herself at last, the story runs,
And telegraphed her sister: "Come at once.
Facts out of hand. Unable overtake
Without your aid. Come back for Truth's own sake!
Co-equal rank and powers if you agree.
They need us both, but you far more than me!"
Scheme | AABBXXCCDDEE FFGGHH IIJJBBXCJ XXAAKKLLMM XXNNOO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010101 1101010101 1101110111 011001010 1101110101 110110101 101010101 01111010101 10110111 1011010111 1111010101 11110111 1101110101 1111011111 0101010111 101010101 10010111 111111 11010101001 1101010101 1111110001 111110111 1111010101 010101010 11110100101 111101011 1101111101 1001011101 0101001101 1111111111 101100010 0111111111 110010010101 111111011 1111011111 101010101 1111011101 1101110101 010010111 111101010 0111111111 11010101101 1111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,854 |
Words | 337 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 6, 9, 10, 6 |
Lines Amount | 43 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 291 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 219 Views
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