Analysis of Merrow Down
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
There runs a road by Merrow Down--
A grassy track to-day it is--
An hour out Guildford town,
Above the river Wey it is.
Here, when they heard the hors-bells ring,
The ancient Britons dressed and rode
To which the dark Phoenicians bring
Their goods along the Western Road.
Yes, here, or hereabouts, they met
To hold their racial talks and such--
To barter beads for Whitby jet,
And tin for gay shell torques and such.
But long ago before that time
(When bison used to roam on it)
Did Taffy and her Daddy climb
That Down, and had their home on it.
Then beavers built in Broadstonebrook
And made a swamp where Bramley stands;
And bears from Shere would come and look
For Taffimai where Shamley stands.
The Wey, that Taffy called Wagai,
Was more than six times bigger then;
And all the Tribe of Tegumai
They cut a noble figure then!
Of all the Tribe of Tegumai
Who cut that figure, none remain,--
On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry--
The silence and the sun remain.
But as the faithful years return
And hearts unwounded sing again,
Comes Taffy dancing through the fern
To lead the Surrey spring again.
Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds,
And golden elf-locks fly above;
Her eyes are bright as diamonds
And bluer than the sky above.
In moccasins and deer-skin cloak,
Unfearing, free and fair she flits,
And lights her little damp-wood smoke
To show her Daddy where she flits.
For far--oh, very far behind,
So far she cannot call to him,
Comes Tegumai alone to find
The daughter that was all to him!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH CIXI CJGJ GKXK LJLJ XMXM NBNB OPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11011101 01011111 110111 01010111 11110111 01010101 11010101 11010101 1111011 11110101 11011101 01111101 11010111 11011111 11000101 11011111 110101 01011101 01111101 11111 0111011 11111101 010111 11010101 110111 11110101 11010101 01000101 11010101 011101 11010101 11010101 01111101 01011101 0111110 01010101 01000111 110111 01010111 11010111 11110101 11110111 110111 01011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,463 |
Words | 276 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 77 Views
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"Merrow Down" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33280/merrow-down>.
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