Analysis of The Voortrekker
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave break in fire,
He shall fulfill God's utmost will unknowing His desire;
And he shall see old planets pass and alien stars arise,
And give the gale his seaworn sail in shadow of new skies.
Strong lust of gear shall drive him forth and hunger arm his hand
To win his food from the desert rude, his foothold from the sand.
His neighbors' smoke shall vex his eyes, their voices break his rest,
He shall go forth till South is North, sullen and dispossessed.
He shall desire loneliness, and his desire shall bring
Hard on his heels a thousand wheels, a People, and a King;
He shall come back in his own track, and by his scarce cooled camp;
There shall he meet the roaring street, the derrick, and the stamp;
There he shall blaze a nation's ways with hatchet and with brand,
Till on his last-won wilderness an Empire's outposts stand!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011100110111010 11011110101010 011111010100101 010111101111 11111111010111 11111010111101 11011111110111 1111111110001 110101000101011 11110101010001 11110111011111 11110101010001 11110101110011 11111100110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 875 |
Words | 164 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 49 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 692 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 162 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 08, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 91 Views
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"The Voortrekker" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33601/the-voortrekker>.
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