Cities and Thrones and Powers

Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)



Cities and Thrones and Powers,
Stand in Time's eye,
Almost as long as flowers,
Which daily die:
But, as new buds put forth
To glad new men,
Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,
The Cities rise again.

This season's Daffodil,
She never hears,
What change, what chance, what chill,
Cut down last year's;
But with bold countenance,
And knowledge small,
Esteems her seven days' continuance,
To be perpetual.

So Time that is o'er -kind,
To all that be,
Ordains us e'en as blind,
As bold as she:
That in our very death,
And burial sure,
Shadow to shadow, well persuaded, saith,
"See how our works endure!"

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

34 sec read
192

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDXD EXEXFXFX GHGHXICI
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 587
Words 110
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

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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    Who wrote the 1892 poem Gunga Din?
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    C Ho Xuan Huong
    D Rudyard Kipling