Analysis of The Glory of the Garden
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
For where the thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You will find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all;
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dungpits and the tanks,
The rollers, carts and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.
And there you'll see the gardners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and to it without noise;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:--"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade,
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick,
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.
Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,
It it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.
Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away!
For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away!
Scheme | aabb ccdd eeff ggxx hhxx iijj kkjj llmMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101010101111101 11010101010 111010001101 101010101011101 1101101010111 11101011110111 0110011001001 01010111010001 011101010101 11111111011011 101111100111101 010101011101 0111010011101 0111011111011 11110101010101 101010101111 101010100110111 11011100010001 11011111011101 1111101110101 11011111110111 11011101110111 11111101110111 1010101011001 1111110111010 111010101101110 011111001101110 1110101000101010 11010100011111 110101001110111 11111101111101 101010101111101 101010101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,977 |
Words | 377 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 1,275 Views
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