Analysis of The Playmate

Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)



She is not Folly -- that I know.
Her steadfast eyelids tell me so
When, at the hour the lights divide,
She steals as summonsed to my side.

When, finger on the pursed lip
In secret, mirthful fellowship,
She, heralding new -- framed delights,
Breathes, "This shall be a Night of Nights!"

Then, out of Time and out of Space,
Is built an Hour and a Place
Where all an earnest, baffled Earth
Blunders and trips to make us mirth;

Whence from the trivial flux of Things,
Rise inconceived miscarryings,
Outrageous but immortal, shown,
Of Her great love, to me alone...

She is not Wisdom, but, maybe,
Wiser than all the Norns is She:
And more than Wisdom I prefer
To wait on Her, -- to wait on Her!


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF XDGG HHII
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11110111 011111 110100101 11110111 1101011 010110 11001101 11110111 11110111 11110001 11110101 10011111 110100111 111 01010101 10111101 11110110 10110111 01110101 11101110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 679
Words 132
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 105
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

39 sec read
141

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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