Analysis of Lichtenberg
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
(New South Wales Contingent)
Smells are surer than sounds or sights
To make your heart-strings crack--
They start those awful voices o' nights
That whisper, " Old man, come back! "
That must be why the big things pass
And the little things remain,
Like the smell of the wattle by Lichtenberg,
Riding in, in the rain.
There was some silly fire on the flank
And the small wet drizzling down--
There were the sold-out shops and the bank
And the wet, wide-open town;
And we were doing escort-duty
To somebody's baggage-train,
And I smelt wattle by Lichtenberg--
Riding in, in the rain.
It was all Australia to me--
All I had found or missed:
Every face I was crazy to see,
And every woman I'd kissed:
All that I should n't ha' done, God knows!
(As He knows I'll do it again),
That smell of the wattle round Lichtenberg,
Riding in, in the rain!
And I saw Sydney the same as ever,
The picnics and brass-bands;
And my little homestead on Hunter River
And my new vines joining hands.
It all came over me in one act
Quick as a shot through the brain--
With the smell of the wattle round Lichtenberg,
Riding in, in the rain.
I have forgotten a hundred fights,
But one I shall not forget--
With the raindrops bunging up my sights
And my eyes bunged up with wet;
And through the crack and the stink of the cordite
(Ah Christ! My country again!)
The smell of the wattle by Lichtenberg,
Riding in, in the rain!
Scheme | a bcbcxdeD fgfghdeD hihixjeD klklxdeD bmbmajeD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111010 11101111 111111 111101011 1101111 11110111 0010101 10110101100 100001 1111010101 00111001 100111001 0011101 010100110 110101 011101100 100001 11101011 111111 1001111011 01001011 1111111111 11111101 1110101100 100001 0111001110 01011 0110111010 0111101 111101011 1101101 10110101100 100001 110100101 1111101 1011111 0111111 0101001101 1111001 0110101100 100001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,364 |
Words | 264 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 178 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 166 Views
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"Lichtenberg" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33266/lichtenberg>.
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