Analysis of Road Song of the Bandar-Log
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Here we go in a flung festoon,
Half-way up to the jealous moon!
Don't you envy our pranceful bands?
Don't you wish you had extra hands?
Would n't you like if your tails were -- so --
Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow?
Now you're angry, but -- never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
Here we sit in a branchy row,
Thinking of beautiful things we know;
Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do,
All complete, in a minute or two --
Something noble and grand and good,
Won by merely wishing we could.
Now we're going to -- never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
All the talk we ever have heard
Uttered by bat or beast or bird --
Hide or fin or scale or feather --
Jabber it quickly and all together!
Excellent! Wonderful! Once again!
Now we are talking just like men.
Let 's pretend we are... never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
This is the way of the Monkey-kind.
Scheme | aabbcxdD cceeffdD gghhiidDd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1110011 11110101 11101011 11111101 1111111101 10011011 11101101 10111101 1110011 101100111 101111111 101001011 10100101 11101011 11101101 10111101 10111011 10111111 11111110 111001010 100100101 11110111 110111101 10111101 110110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 879 |
Words | 174 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 9 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 222 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 227 Views
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"Road Song of the Bandar-Log" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33327/road-song-of-the-bandar-log>.
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