Analysis of The Comforters
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Until thy feet have trod the Road
Advise not wayside folk,
Nor till thy back has borne the Load
Break in upon the broke.
Chase not with undesired largesse
Of sympathy the heart
Which, knowing her own bitterness,
Presumes to dwell apart.
Employ not that glad hand to raise
The God-forgotten head
To Heaven and all the neighbours' gaze--
Cover thy mouth instead.
The quivering chin, the bitten lip,
The cold and sweating brow,
Later may yearn for fellowship--
Not now, you ass, not now!
Time, not thy ne'er so timely speech,
Life, not thy views thereon,
Shall furnish or deny to each
His consolation.
Or, if impelled to interfere
Exhort, uplift, advise,
Lend not a base, betraying ear
To all the victim's cries.
Only the Lord can understand
When those first pangs begin,
How much is reflex action and
How much is really sin.
E'en from good words thyself refrain,
And tremblingly admit
There is no anodyne for pain
Except the shock of it.
So, when thine own dark hour shall fall,
Unchallenged canst thou say:
"I never worried you at all,
For God's sake go away!"
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG HXHX XIXI XJXJ KLKL MNMN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 01111101 01111 11111101 100101 111101 110001 11001100 011101 01111111 010101 11001011 101101 010010101 010101 1011110 111111 11111101 111101 11010111 1010 1101101 011001 11010101 110101 1001101 111101 11110100 111101 11111101 0101 111111 010111 111111011 010111 11010111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,032 |
Words | 191 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 92 Views
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"The Comforters" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33397/the-comforters>.
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