Analysis of The Sea and the Hills
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Who hath desired the Sea? -- the sight of salt water unbounded --
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?
The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, grey, foamless, enormous, and growing --
Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing --
His Sea in no showing the same his Sea and the same 'neath each showing:
His Sea as she slackens or thrills?
So and no otherwise -- so and no otherwise -- hillmen desire their Hills!
Who hath desired the Sea? -- the immense and contemptuous surges?
The shudder, the stumble, the swerve, as the star-stabbing bow-sprit emerges?
The orderly clouds of the Trades, the ridged, roaring sapphire thereunder --
Unheralded cliff-haunting flaws and the headsail's low-volleying thunder --
His Sea in no wonder the same his Sea and the same through each wonder:
His Sea as she rages or stills?
So and no otherwise -- so and no otherwise -- hillmen desire their Hills.
Who hath desired the Sea? Her menaces swift as her mercies?
The in-rolling walls of the fog and the silver-winged breeze that disperses?
The unstable mined berg going South and the calvings and groans that declare it --
White water half-guessed overside and the moon breaking timely to bare it --
His Sea as his fathers have dared -- his Sea as his children shall dare it:
His Sea as she serves him or kills?
So and no otherwise -- so and no otherwise -- hillmen desire their Hills.
Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather
Than forecourts of kings, and her outermost pits than the streets where men gather
Inland, among dust, under trees -- inland where the slayer may slay him --
Inland, out of reach of her arms, and the bosom whereon he must lay him
His Sea from the first that betrayed -- at the last that shall never betray him:
His Sea that his being fulfils?
So and no otherwise -- so and no otherwise -- hillmen desire their Hills.
Scheme | aabbbcC xxdddcC xceeecC ddfffcC |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101001011110010 010010010011010110 011101111010010 11101101101011010 11011001110011110 11111011 1011010110101011 11010010010010010 010010011011011010 0100110101101001 010011010011110 11011001110011110 11111011 1011010110101011 1101001010011010 0010110100101111 001011101001011011 1101110011010111 11111011111110111 11111111 1011010110101011 1101001010010010 1111001011011110 101110111010111 1111101001011111 111011011011110011 1111101 1011010110101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,894 |
Words | 347 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 53 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 370 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 86 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:44 min read
- 303 Views
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