Analysis of The Explorer
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
"There's no sense in going further --
it's the edge of cultivation,"
So they said, and I believed it --
broke my land and sowed my crop --
Built my barns and strung my fences
in the little border station
Tucked away below the foothills
where the trails run out and stop.
Till a voice, as bad as Conscience,
rang interminable changes
In one everlasting Whisper
day and night repeated -- so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it.
Go and look behind the Ranges --
Something lost behind the Ranges.
Lost and waiting for you. Go!"
So I went, worn out of patience;
never told my nearest neighbours --
Stole away with pack and ponies --
left 'em drinking in the town;
And the faith that moveth mountains
didn't seem to help my labours
As I faced the sheer main-ranges,
whipping up and leading down.
March by march I puzzled through 'em,
turning flanks and dodging shoulders,
Hurried on in hope of water,
headed back for lack of grass;
Till I camped above the tree-line --
drifted snow and naked boulders --
Felt free air astir to windward --
knew I'd stumbled on the Pass.
'Thought to name it for the finder;
but that night the Norther found me --
Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies;
so I called the camp Despair.
(It's the Railway Cap today, though.)
Then my whisper waked to hound me:
"Something lost behind the Ranges.
Over yonder! Go you there!"
Then I knew, the while I doubted --
knew His Hand was certain o'er me.
Still -- it might be self-delusion --
scores of better men had died --
I could reach the township living,
but ... He knows what terrors tore me ...
But I didn't ... but I didn't.
I went down the other side.
Till the snow ran out in flowers,
and the flowers turned to aloes,
And the aloes sprung to thickets
and a brimming stream ran by;
But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub,
and the water drained to shallows,
And I dropped again on
desert-blasted earth and blasting sky ...
I remember lighting fires;
I remember sitting by them;
I remember seeing faces,
hearing voices through the smoke;
I remember they were fancy --
for I threw a stone to try 'em.
"Something lost behind the Ranges"
was the only word they spoke.
I remember going crazy.
I remember that I knew it
When I heard myself hallooing
to the funny folk I saw.
Very full of dreams that desert;
but my two legs took me through it ...
And I used to watch 'em moving
with the toes all black and raw.
But at last the country altered --
White Man's country past disputing --
Rolling grass and open timber,
with a hint of hills behind --
There I found me food and water,
and I lay a week recruiting,
Got my strength and lost my nightmares.
Then I entered on my find.
Thence I ran my first rough survey --
chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em --
Week by week I pried and sampled --
week by week my findings grew.
Saul, he went to look for donkeys,
and by God he found a kingdom!
But by God, who sent His Whisper,
I had struck the worth of two!
Up along the hostile mountains,
where the hair-poised snowslide shivers --
Down and through the big fat marshes
that the virgin ore-bed stains,
Till I heard the mild-wide mutterings
of unimagined rivers,
And beyond the nameless timber
saw illimitable plains!
Plotted sites of future cities,
traced the easy grades between 'em;
Watched unharnessed rapids wasting
fifty thousand head an hour;
Counted leagues of water frontage
through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em --
Saw the plant to feed a people --
up and waiting for the power!
Well, I know who'll take the credit --
all the clever chaps that followed --
Came a dozen men together --
never knew my desert fears;
Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted,
used the water holes I'd hollowed.
They'll go back and do the talking.
They'll be called the Pioneers!
They will find my sites of townships --
not the cities that I set there.
They will rediscover rivers --
not my rivers heard at night.
By my own old marks and bearings
they will show me how to get there,
By the lonely cairns I builded
they will guide my feet aright.
Have I named one single river:
Have I claimed one single acre?
Have I kept one single nugget --
(barring samples?) No, not I!
Because my price was paid me
ten times over by my Maker.
Scheme | abcdebxd feagceEg fehijeei klamxlnm aohpgoEp xobqroxq lexsxexs lketokEt ocrxxcrx nrauarxu xkxvhxav jlewxlaw hkraxkxa xyazcyrz xplxxpcc aacsoa |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101010 1011010 11101011 1110111 11101110 00101010 1010101 1011101 10111110 10100010 0101010 1010101 10101011 10101010 10101010 1010111 11111110 1011101 10111010 1110001 0011110 1011111 11101110 1010101 11111011 10101010 10101110 1011111 11101011 10101010 1111110 1110101 11111010 11101011 10101110 1110101 1011011 11101111 10101010 1010111 11101110 111110101 11111010 1110111 11101010 11111011 11101110 1110101 10111010 0010111 0011110 0010111 10101111 0010111 011011 101010101 10101010 10101011 10101010 1010101 10101010 11101111 10101010 1010111 10101010 10101111 11111 1010111 10111110 11111111 01111110 1011101 11101010 11101010 10101010 1011101 11111010 01101010 1110111 1110111 11111101 11101011 11111010 1111101 11111110 01111010 11111110 1110111 10101010 1011110 10101110 1010111 111011100 101010 00101010 111 10111010 10101011 111010 10101110 10111010 10111111 10111010 10101010 11111010 10101110 10101010 1011101 1110111 10101110 11101010 111001 11111110 10101111 11001010 1110111 11111010 11111111 1010111 111111 11111010 11111010 11111010 1010111 0111111 11101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 4,114 |
Words | 780 |
Sentences | 44 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 126 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 199 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 3:57 min read
- 1,214 Views
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"The Explorer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33424/the-explorer>.
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