Analysis of The Undertaker's Horse..
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
The eldest son bestrides him,
And the pretty daughter rides him,
And I meet him oft o' mornings on the Course;
And there kindles in my bosom
An emotion chill and gruesome
As I canter past the Undertaker's Horse.
Neither shies he nor is restive,
But a hideously suggestive
Trot, professional and placid, he affects;
And the cadence of his hoof-beats
To my mind this grim reproof beats: --
"Mend your pace, my friend, I'm coming. Who's the next?"
Ah! stud-bred of ill-omen,
I have watched the strongest go -- men
Of pith and might and muscle -- at your heels,
Down the plantain-bordered highway,
(Heaven send it ne'er be my way!)
In a lacquered box and jetty upon wheels.
Answer, sombre beast and dreary,
Where is Brown, the young, the cheery,
Smith, the pride of all his friends and half the Force?
You were at that last dread dak
We must cover at a walk,
Bring them back to me, O Undertaker's Horse!
With your mane unhogged and flowing,
And your curious way of going,
And that businesslike black crimping of your tail,
E'en with Beauty on your back, Sir,
Pacing as a lady's hack, Sir,
What wonder when I meet you I turn pale?
It may be you wait your time, Beast,
Till I write my last bad rhyme, Beast --
Quit the sunlight, cut the rhyming, drop the glass --
Follow after with the others,
Where some dusky heathen smothers
Us with marigolds in lieu of English grass.
Or, perchance, in years to follow,
I shall watch your plump sides hollow,
See Carnifex (gone lame) become a corse --
See old age at last o'erpower you,
And the Station Pack devour you,
I shall chuckle then, O Undertaker's Horse!
But to insult, jibe, and quest, I've
Still the hideously suggestive
Trot that hammers out the unrelenting text,
And I hear it hard behind me
In what place soe'er I find me: --
"'Sure to catch you sooner or later. Who's the next?"
Scheme | AABCCB DDXEEF XXGHHG IIBXXB JJKLLK MMNOON PPBQQB XDFIIF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010111 00101011 01111110101 0110110 10101010 11101011 10111110 101000010 10100010101 00101111 1111111 11111110101 1111110 11101011 1101010111 1010101 10111111 00101010011 1011010 11101010 10111110101 1011111 1110101 11111111 1111010 011001110 0110110111 111101111 10101011 1101111111 11111111 11111111 1011010101 10101010 1111010 1110011101 10101110 11111110 11110101 1111111 001010101 11101111 11011011 101000010 1110100101 01111011 0111111 111110110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,832 |
Words | 340 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 174 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:45 min read
- 192 Views
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"The Undertaker's Horse.." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33594/the-undertaker%27s-horse..>.
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