Analysis of My Rival
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
I go to concert, party, ball --
What profit is in these?
I sit alone against the wall
And strive to look at ease.
The incense that is mine by right
They burn before her shrine;
And that's because I'm seventeen
And She is forty-nine.
I cannot check my girlish blush,
My color comes and goes;
I redden to my finger-tips,
And sometimes to my nose.
But She is white where white should be,
And red where red should shine.
The blush that flies at seventeen
Is fixed at forty-nine.
I wish I had Her constant cheek;
I wish that I could sing
All sorts of funny little songs,
Not quite the proper thing.
I'm very gauche and very shy,
Her jokes aren't in my line;
And, worst of all, I'm seventeen
While She is forty-nine.
The young men come, the young men go
Each pink and white and neat,
She's older than their mothers, but
They grovel at Her feet.
They walk beside Her 'rickshaw wheels --
None ever walk by mine;
And that's because I'm seventeen
And She is foty-nine.
She rides with half a dozen men,
(She calls them "boys" and "mashers")
I trot along the Mall alone;
My prettiest frocks and sashes
Don't help to fill my programme-card,
And vainly I repine
From ten to two A.M. Ah me!
Would I were forty-nine!
She calls me "darling," "pet," and "dear,"
And "sweet retiring maid."
I'm always at the back, I know,
She puts me in the shade.
She introduces me to men,
"Cast" lovers, I opine,
For sixty takes to seventeen,
Nineteen to foty-nine.
But even She must older grow
And end Her dancing days,
She can't go on forever so
At concerts, balls and plays.
One ray of priceless hope I see
Before my footsteps shine;
Just think, that She'll be eighty-one
When I am forty-nine.
Scheme | ababxcDc xexefcdc xgxgxcdc hixixcDc jbxxxcfc xkhkjcdc hlhlfcxc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 110101 11010101 011111 00111111 110101 01011101 011101 11011101 110101 11011101 001111 11111111 011111 01111101 111101 11110101 111111 11110101 110101 11010101 0110011 01111101 111101 01110111 110101 11011101 110101 1101011 110111 01011101 01111 11110101 111101 11010101 11001010 1111111 01011 1111111 110101 11110101 010101 1110111 111001 1010111 110101 11011101 11111 11011101 010101 11110101 110101 11110111 01111 11111101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,615 |
Words | 318 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 180 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 15, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 196 Views
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"My Rival" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33292/my-rival>.
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