Analysis of A Smuggler's Song
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street.
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark --
Brandy for the Parson,
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play.
Put the brishwood back again -- and they'll be gone next day!
If you see the stable-door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm -- don't you ask no more!
If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be carefull what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you "pretty maid," and chuck you 'neath the chin,
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!
Knocks and footsteps round the house -- whistles after dark --
You've no call for running out till the house-dogs bark.
Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb they lie --
They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by!
If you do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance,
You'll be given a dainty doll, all the way from France,
With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood --
A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good!
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark --
Brandy for the Parson,
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie --
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Scheme | aabBCDEFbb xxgg hhii jjkk ddbb llmmCDEFbB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111010101 1110101110001 11111010101 1011101010011 101010 10101 101010 1101 10101010101 01011101010011 1010111111 1010101111101 1111101111111 101101011111 111010110101 111010110101 111010110101 10110111111 111110110101 111111010111 1111101011101 1111111111111 10110110101 111110110111 11011011111 1111101010011 111111110101 1110010110111 1011100101 01010100011101 101010 10101 101010 1101 11111010101 1011101010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,685 |
Words | 329 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 4, 4, 4, 4, 10 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 635 Views
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"A Smuggler's Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33133/a-smuggler%27s-song>.
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