Analysis of The Ballad of Minepit Shaw
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
About the time that taverns shut
And men can buy no beer,
Two lads went up to the keepers' hut
To steal Lord Pelham's deer.
Night and the liquor was in their heads--
They laughed and talked no bounds,
Till they waked the keepers on their beds
And the keepers loosed the hounds.
They had killed a hart, they had killed a hind,
Ready to carry away,
When they heard a whimper down the wind
And they heard a bloodhound bay.
They took and ran across the fern,
Their crossbows in their hand,
Till they met a man with a green lantern
That called and bade 'em stand.
"What are ye doing, O Flesh and Blood,
And what's your foolish will,
That you must break into Minepit Wood
And wake the Folk of the Hill?"
"Oh, we've broke into Lord Pelham's park,
And killed Lord Pelham's deer,
And if ever you heard a little dog bark
You'll know why we come here.
"We ask you let us go our way,
As fast as we can flee,
For if ever you heard a bloodhound bay
You'll know how pressed we be."
"Oh, lay your crossbows on the bank
And drop the knives from your hand,
And though the hounds be at your flank
I'll save you where you stand!"
They laid their crossbows on the bank,
They threw their knives in the wood,
And the ground before them opened and sank
And saved 'em where they stood.
"Oh, what's the roaring in our ears
That strikes us well-nigh dumb?"
"Oh, that is just how things appears
According as they come."
"What are the stars before our eyes
That strike us well-nigh blind?"
"Oh, that is just how things arise
According as you find."
"And why's our bed so hard to the bones
Excepting where it's cold?"
"Oh, that's because it is precious stones
Excepting where 'tis gold.
"Think it over as you stand,
For I tell you without fail,
If you haven't got into Fairyland
You're not in Lewes Gaol."
All night long they thought of it,
And, come the dawn, they saw
They'd tumbled into a great old pit,
At the bottom of Minepit Shaw.
And the keeper's hound had followed 'em close,
And broke her neck in the fall;
So they picked up their knives and their crossbows
And buried the dog. That's all.
But whether the man was a poacher too
Or a Pharisee' so bold--
I reckon there's more things told than are true.
And more things true than are told!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH XIJI KBKX FLFL MHMH MJMJ NONO PEPE QRQR HXHI STST XUXU VRVR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (94%) |
Metre | 01011101 011111 111110101 11111 100101011 110111 111010111 0010101 1110111101 1011001 111010101 0110101 11010101 11011 1110110110 110111 111101101 011101 11110111 0101101 11101111 01111 01101101011 111111 111111101 111111 1110110101 111111 1111101 0101111 01011111 111111 1111101 1111001 0010111001 011111 110100101 111111 11111101 010111 110101101 111111 11111101 010111 0110111101 10111 110111101 10111 1110111 1111011 111010110 11011 1111111 010111 110010111 1010111 001111011 0101001 111111011 0100111 1100110101 10111 1101111111 0111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,162 |
Words | 435 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 2:13 min read
- 136 Views
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"The Ballad of Minepit Shaw" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33362/the-ballad-of-minepit-shaw>.
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