Analysis of Song of the Fifth River
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Where first by Eden Tree
The Four Great Rivers ran,
To each was appointed a Man
Her Prince and Ruler to be.
But after this was ordained
(The ancient legends' tell),
There came dark Israel,
For whom no River remained.
Then He Whom the Rivers obey
Said to him: "Fling on the ground
A handful of yellow clay,
And a Fifth Great River shall run,
Mightier than these Four,
In secret the Earth around;
And Her secret evermore,
Shall be shown to thee and thy Race."
So it was said and done.
And, deep in the veins of Earth,
And, fed by a thousand springs
That comfort the market-place,
Or sap the power of King,
The Fifth Great River had birth,
Even as it was foretold--
The Secret River of Gold!
And Israel laid down
His sceptre and his crown,
To brood on that River bank
Where the waters flashed and sank
And burrowed in earth and fell
And bided a season below,
For reason that none might know,
Save only Israel
He is Lord of the Last--
The Fifth, most wonderful, Flood.
He hears Her thunder past
And Her Song is in his blood.
He can foresay: "She will fall,"
For he knows which fountain dries
Behind which desert-belt
A thousand leagues to the South.
He can foresay: "She will rise."
He knows what far snows melt
Along what mountain-wall
A thousand leagues to the North,
He snuffs the coming drouth
As he snuffs the coming rain,
He knows what each will bring forth,
And turns it to his gain.
A Ruler without a Throne,
A Prince without a Sword,
Israel follows his quest.
In every land a guest,
Of many lands a lord,
In no land King is he.
But the Fifth Great River keeps
The secret of Her deeps
For Israel alone,
As it was ordered to be.
Scheme | ABBA CDEC FGFHIGIJ HKXJXKLL MMNNDOOE PQPQRSTX STRUKVUV WXYYXAXJWA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101 011101 11101001 0101011 1101101 010101 111100 1111001 11101001 1111101 011101 00111011 100111 0100101 001010 11111011 111101 0100111 0110101 1100101 1101011 0111011 1011101 0101011 010011 110011 1111101 1010101 010101 0101001 1101111 110100 111101 0111001 110101 0011011 111111 1111101 011101 0101101 111111 111111 011101 0101101 110101 1110101 1111111 011111 0100101 010101 1001011 0100101 110101 011111 1011101 010101 110001 1111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,582 |
Words | 316 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10 |
Lines Amount | 58 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 158 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 87 Views
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