Analysis of The Captive
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Not with an outcry to Allah nor any complaining
He answered his name at the muster and stood to the chaining.
When the twin anklets were nipped on the leg-bars that held them,
He brotherly greeted the armourers stooping to weld them.
Ere the sad dust of the marshalled feet of the chain-gang swallowed him,
Observing him nobly at ease, I alighted and followed him,
Thus we had speech by the way, but not touching his sorrow--
Rather his red Yesterday and his regal To-morrow,
Wherein he statelily moved to the clink of his chains unregarded,
Nowise abashed but contented to drink of the potion awarded
Saluting aloofly his Fate, he made haste with his story,
And the words of his mouth were as slaves spreading carpets of glory
Embroidered with names of the Djinns--a miraculous weaving--
But the cool and perspicuous eye overbore unbelieving.
So I submitted myself to the limits of rapture--
Bound by this man we had bound, amid captives his capture--
Till he returned me to earth and the visions departed.
But on him be the Peace and the Blessing; for he was greathearted!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFAAGGEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110110010 110111010011010 10110011011111 1100100110111 1011101011011101 01011011110101 11111011110110 1011100110110 011111011111 1011010111010010 0101111111110 0011110111010110 010111010010010 1010111010 1101011010110 11111110110110 11011110010010 11110100101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,065 |
Words | 190 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 18 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 48 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 858 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 188 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 95 Views
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