Analysis of The Necessitarian

Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)



I know not in Whose hands are laid
To empty upon earth
From unsuspected ambuscade
The very Urns of Mirth;

Who bids the Heavenly Lark arise
And cheer our solemn round--
The Jest beheld with streaming eyes
And grovellings on the ground;

Who joins the flats of Time and Chance
Behind the prey preferred,
And thrones on Shrieking Circumstance
The Sacredly Absurd,

Till Laughter, voiceless through excess,
Waves mute appeal and sore,
Above the midriff's deep distress,
For breath to laugh once more.

No creed hath dared to hail Him Lord,
No raptured choirs proclaim,
And Nature's strenuous Overword
Hath nowhere breathed His Name.

Yet, it must be, on wayside jape,
The selfsame Power bestows
The selfsame power as went to shape
His Planet or His Rose.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH XIAI JKJK
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11101111 110011 10101 010111 110100101 0110101 0111101 01101 11011101 010101 0111010 0101 1101011 110101 0101101 111111 11111111 11101 0101001 11111 1111111 011001 01101111 110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 731
Words 129
Sentences 4
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 100
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
108

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India and his tales for children. more…

All Rudyard Kipling poems | Rudyard Kipling Books

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