Analysis of Possibilities
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Ay, lay him 'neath the Simla pine --
A fortnight fully to be missed,
Behold, we lose our fourth at whist,
A chair is vacant where we dine.
His place forgets him; other men
Have bought his ponies, guns, and traps.
His fortune is the Great Perhaps
And that cool rest-house down the glen,
Whence he shall hear, as spirits may,
Our mundance revel on the height,
Shall watch each flashing 'rickshaw-light
Sweep on to dinner, dance, and play.
Benmore shall woo him to the ball
With lighted rooms and braying band;
And he shall hear and understand
"Dream Faces" better than us all.
For, think you, as the vapours flee
Across Sanjaolie after rain,
His soul may climb the hill again
To each of field of victory.
Unseen, who women held so dear,
The strong man's yearning to his kind
Shall shake at most the window-blind,
Or dull awhile the card-room's cheer.
In his own place of power unkown,
His Light o' Love another's flame,
And he and alien and alone!
Yet may he meet with many a friend --
Shrewd shadows, lingering long unseen
Among us when "God save the Queen"
Shows even "extras" have an end.
And, when we leave the heated room,
And, when at four the lights expire,
The crew shall gather round the fire
And mock our laughter in the gloom;
Talk as we talked, and they ere death --
Flirt wanly, dance in ghostly-wise,
With ghosts of tunes for melodies,
And vanish at the morning's breath.
Scheme | ABBA CDDC EFFE GHHG IXCI JKKJ AXX LMML NXXN OXXO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011 0110111 011110111 01110111 11011101 11110101 11010101 01111101 11111101 10110101 1111011 11110101 1111101 1101011 0111001 11010111 1111011 011101 11110101 11111100 01110111 01110111 11110101 11010111 01111101 11110101 010100001 111111001 11100101 01111101 11010111 01110101 01110101 011101010 011010001 11110111 1110101 11111100 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,353 |
Words | 255 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 68 Views
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"Possibilities" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33313/possibilities>.
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