Analysis of The American Rebellion
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Before
Twas not while England's sword unsheathed
Put half a world to flight,
Nor while their new-built cities breathed
Secure behind her might;
Not while she poured from Pole to Line
Treasure and ships and men--
These worshippers at Freedoms shrine
They did not quit her then!
Not till their toes were driven forth
By England o'er the main--
Not till the Frenchman from the North
Had gone with shattered Spain;
Not till the clean-swept oceans showed
No hostile flag unrolled,
Did they remember that they owed
To Freedom--and were bold!
The snow lies thick on Valley Forge,
The ice on the Delaware,
But the poor dead soldiers of King George
They neither know nor care.
Not though the earliest primrose break
On the sunny side of the lane,
And scuffling rookeries awake
Their England' s spring again.
They will not stir when the drifts are gone,
Or the ice melts out of the bay:
And the men that served with Washington
Lie all as still as they.
They will not stir though the mayflower blows
In the moist dark woods of pine,
And every rock-strewn pasture shows
Mullein and columbine.
Each for his land, in a fair fight,
Encountered strove, and died,
And the kindly earth that knows no spite
Covers them side by side.
She is too busy to think of war;
She has all the world to make gay;
And, behold, the yearly flowers are
Where they were in our fathers' day!
Golden-rod by the pasture-wall
When the columbine is dead,
And sumach leaves that turn, in fall,
Bright as the blood they shed.
Scheme | ABBBBCDCD EFEFBBBB GHGH IFID XJXJ KCKC BBBB AJXB LBLB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01 1111011 110111 11111101 010101 11111111 100101 11001101 111101 11110101 1101001 11010101 111101 11011101 11011 11010111 110001 01111101 011010 101110111 110111 11010011 10101101 0100101 1101101 111110111 10111101 001111100 111111 111110101 0011111 010011101 1010 11110011 010101 001011111 101111 111101111 11101111 001010101 110010101 10110101 101011 0111101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,628 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 133 Views
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"The American Rebellion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33353/the-american-rebellion>.
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