Analysis of The Deep-Sea Cables

Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)



The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar --
Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are.
There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep,
Or the great gray level plains of ooze where the shell-burred cables creep.

Here in the womb of the world -- here on the tie-ribs of earth
 Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat --
Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth --
 For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet.

They have wakened the timeless Things; they have killed their father Time;
 Joining hands in the gloom, a league from the last of the sun.
Hush!  Men talk to-day o'er the waste of the ultimate slime,
 And a new Word runs between:  whispering, "Let us be one!"


Scheme AABB CDCD EFEF
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 01010111111101 1101101011011111 1111110110010101 1011101111011101 10011011101111 1001111001001 101001101 101010011110111 11101011111101 10100101101101 111111001101001 00111011001111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 779
Words 149
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 49
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 197
Words per stanza (avg) 49
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

44 sec read
83

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India and his tales for children. more…

All Rudyard Kipling poems | Rudyard Kipling Books

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