Analysis of The Dutch in the Medway
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
If wars were won by feasting,
Or victory by song,
Or safety found in sleeping sound,
How England would be strong!
But honour and dominion
Are not maintainéd so,
They're only got by sword and shot,
And this the Dutchmen know!
The moneys that should feed us,
You spend on your delight,
How can you then have sailor-men
To aid you in your fight?
Our fish and cheese are rotten,
Which makes the scurvy grow—
We cannot serve you if we starve,
And this the Dutchmen know!
Our ships in every harbour
Be neither whole nor sound,
And, when we seek to mend a leak,
No oakum can be found,
Or, if it is, the caulkers,
And carpenters also,
For lack of pay have gone away,
And this the Dutchmen know!
Mere powder, guns, and bullets,
We scarce can get at all,
Their price was spent in merriment
And revel at Whitehall,
While we in tattered doublets
From ship to ship must row,
Beseeching friends for odds and ends—
And this the Dutchmen know!
No King will heed our warnings,
No Court will pay our claims—
Our King and Court for their disport
Do sell the very Thames!
For, now De Ruyter's topsails,
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet—
And this the Dutchmen know!
Scheme | xabacdxD xexecdxD xbxbddxD xfbfddxD xxbxddxD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 1101110 110011 11010101 110111 110010 110111 11011101 01011 0101111 111101 11111101 111011 10101110 11011 11011111 01011 101010010 110111 01111101 11111 111101 010010 11111101 01011 1101010 111111 111101 01011 110101 111111 01011101 01011 11111010 1111101 10101111 110101 11111 110101 111111101 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,156 |
Words | 222 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 182 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 185 Views
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"The Dutch in the Medway" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33414/the-dutch-in-the-medway>.
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