Analysis of Beast and Man in India
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
They killed a Child to please the Gods
In Earth's young penitence,
And I have bled in that Babe's stead
Because of innocence.
I bear the sins of sinful men
That have no sin of my own,
They drive me forth to Heaven's wrath
Unpastured and alone.
I am the meat of sacrifice,
The ransom of man's guilt,
For they give my life to the altar-knife
Wherever shrine is built.
Between the waving tufts of jungle-grass,
Up from the river as the twilight falls,
Across the dust-beclouded plain they pass
On to the village walls.
Great is the sword and mighty is the pen,
But over all the labouring ploughman's blade--
For on its oxen and its husbandmen
An Empire's strength is laid.
The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant,
The saplings reeling in the path he trod,
Declare his might--our lord the Elephant,
Chief of the ways of God.
The black bulk heaving where the oxen pant,
The bowed head toiling where the guns careen,
Declare our might--our slave the Elephant,
And servant of the Queen.
Dark children of the mere and marsh,
Wallow and waste and lea,
Outcaste they wait at the village gate
With folk of low degree.
Their pasture is in no man's land,
Their food the cattle's scorn;
Their rest is mire and their desire
The thicket and the thorn.
But woe to those that break their sleep,
And woe to those that dare
To rouse the herd-bull from his keep,
The wild boar from his lair!
Pigs and Buffaloes.
The beasts are very wise,
Their mouths are clean of lies,
They talk one to the other,
Bullock to bullock's brother
Resting after their labours,
Each in stall with his neighbours.
But man with goad and whip,
Breaks up their fellowship,
Shouts in their silky ears
Filling their soul with fears.
When he has ploughed the land,
He says: "They understand."
But the beasts in stall together,
Freed from the yoke and tether,
Say as the torn flanks smoke:
"Nay, 'twas the whip that spoke."
Scheme | AABX CDXD XEXE FGFG CHCH BIJI XKJK XLXL MNON PQPQ A RROOAASSTTMMOOUU |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 0111 01110111 011100 11011101 1111111 11111101 1001 1101110 010111 1111110101 010111 0101011101 110101011 01011111 110101 1101010101 11010111 11110011 1100111 0111010011 0101000111 01111010100 110111 0111010101 0111010101 011011010100 010101 11010101 100101 11110101 111101 11010111 11011 111101010 010001 11111111 011111 11011111 011111 101 011101 111111 1111010 1011010 101011 101111 111101 11110 101101 101111 111101 11101 10101010 1101010 110111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,864 |
Words | 351 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 16 |
Lines Amount | 57 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 122 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 1:47 min read
- 185 Views
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"Beast and Man in India" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33155/beast-and-man-in-india>.
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