Analysis of In the Matter of One Compass
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
When, foot to wheel and back to wind,
The helmsman dare not look behind,
But hears beyond his compass-light,
The blind bow thunder through the night,
And, like a harpstring ere it snaps,
The rigging sing beneath the caps;
Above the shriek of storm in sail
Or rattle of the blocks blown free,
Set for the peace beyond the gale,
This song the Needle sings the Sea;
Oh, drunken Wave! Oh, driving Cloud!
Rage of the Deep and sterile Rain,
By love upheld, by God allowed,
We go, but we return again!
When leagued about the 'wildered boat
The rainbow Jellies fill and float,
And, lilting where the laver lingers,
The Starfish trips on all her fingers;
Where, 'neath his myriad spines ashock,
The Sea-egg ripples down the rock,
An orange wonder dimly guessed
From darkness where the Cuttles rest,
Moored o'er the darker deeps that hide
The blind white Sea-snake and his bride,
Who, drowsing, nose the long-lost Ships
Let down through darkness to their lips --
Safe-swung above the glassy death,
Hear what the constant Needle saith:
Oh, lisping Reef! Oh, listless Cloud,
In slumber on a pulseless main!
By Love upheld, by God allowed,
We go, but we return again!
E'en so through Tropic and through Trade,
Awed by the shadow of new skies,
As we shall watch old planets fade
And mark the stranger stars arise,
So, surely, back through Sun and Cloud,
So, surely, from the outward main
By Love recalled, by God allowed,
Shall we return -- return again!
Yea, we return -- return again!
Scheme | aabbccdede fgFH iijjkkllmmnnoo fgFH pqpqfgfhh |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110111 0111101 11011101 01110101 0101111 01010101 01011101 11010111 11010101 11010101 11011101 11010101 11011101 11110101 1101011 0110101 01101010 01111010 11110011 01110101 11010101 1101011 110010111 01111011 1110111 11110111 11010101 11010101 1111101 0101011 11011101 11110101 111110011 1101111 11111101 01010101 11011101 11010101 11011101 11010101 11010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,440 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 4, 14, 4, 9 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 228 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 138 Views
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"In the Matter of One Compass" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33251/in-the-matter-of-one-compass>.
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