Analysis of The Derelict
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
~And reports the derelict ~Mary Pollock~ still at sea.~
SHIPPING NEWS.
I was the staunchest of our fleet
Till the sea rose beneath our feet
Unheralded, in hatred past all measure.
Into his pits he stamped my crew,
Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw,
Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure.
Man made me, and my will
Is to my maker still,
Whom now the currents con, the rollers steer --
Lifting forlorn to spy
Trailed smoke along the sky,
Falling afraid lest any keel come near!
Wrenched as the lips of thirst,
Wried, dried, and split and burst,
Bone-bleached my decks, wind-scoured to the graining;
And jarred at every roll
The gear that was my soul
Answers the anguish of my beams' complaining.
For life that crammed me full,
Gangs of the prying gull
That shriek and scrabble on the riven hatches!
For roar that dumbed the gale,
My hawse-pipes guttering wail,
Sobbing my heart out through the uncounted watches!
Blind in the hot blue ring
Through all my points I swing --
Swing and return to shift the sun anew.
Blind in my well-known sky
I hear the stars go by,
Mocking the prow that cannot hold one true!
White on my wasted path
Wave after wave in wrath
Frets 'gainst his fellow, warring where to send me.
Flung forward, heaved aside,
Witless and dazed I bide
The mercy of the comber that shall end me.
North where the bergs careen,
The spray of seas unseen
Smokes round my head and freezes in the falling;
South where the corals breed,
The footless, floating weed
Folds me and fouls me, strake on strake upcrawling.
I that was clean to run
My race against the sun --
Strength on the deep, am bawd to all disaster --
Whipped forth by night to meet
My sister's careless feet,
And with a kiss betray her to my master!
Man made me, and my will
Is to my maker still --
To him and his, our peoples at their pier:
Lifting in hope to spy
Trailed smoke along the sky,
Falling afraid lest any keel come near!
Scheme | ax bbcddc EEfgGF hhijji xxxkkx iidggd llamma nniooi ppcbbc EEfgGF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0010101010111 101 110101101 101101101 01000101110 01111111 0110101 10110101110 111011 111101 1101010101 100111 110101 1001110111 110111 110101 1111110101 0111001 011111 10010111010 111111 110101 11010101010 111101 1111001 10111101010 100111 111111 1001110101 101111 110111 1001110111 111101 110101 11110101111 110101 100111 01010101111 110101 011101 11110100010 110101 01101 110111111 111111 110101 11011111010 111111 110101 01010101110 111011 111101 11011010111 100111 110101 1001110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,041 |
Words | 356 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 148 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:47 min read
- 130 Views
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"The Derelict" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33410/the-derelict>.
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