Analysis of The Files
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Files
The Files -
Office Files !
Oblige me by referring to the Files.
Every question man can raise,
Every phrase of every phrase
Of that question is on record in the Files -
(Threshed out threadbare - fought and finished in the Files
Ere the Universe at large
Was our new-tipped arrows' targe -
Ere we rediscovered Mammon and his wiles
Faeza gentle reader, spent her-five-and-twentieth leader
(You will find him, and some others, in the Files).
Warn all coming Robert Brownings and Carlyles,
It will interest them to hunt among the Files
Where unvisited, a-cold,
Lie the crowded years of old
In that Kensal-Green of greatness called the Files
(In our newspaPère-la-Chaise the Office Files),
Where the dead men lay them down
Meekly sure of long renown,
And above them, sere and swift,
Packs the daily deepening drift
Of the all-recording, all-effacing Files
The obliterating, automatic Files.
Count the mighty men who slung
Ink, Evangel, Sword, or Tongue
When Reform and you were young
Made their boasts and spake according in the Files
(Hear the ghosts that wake applauding in the Files!)
Trace each all-forgot career
From long primer through brevier
Unto Death, a para minion in the Files
(Para minion-solid-bottom of the Files). . . .
Some successful Kings and Queens adorn the Files.
They were great, their views were leaded,
And their deaths were triple-headed,
So they catch the eye in running through the Files
(Show as blazes in the mazes of the Files);
For their 'paramours and priests,'
And their gross, jack-booted feasts,
And their 'epoch-marking actions' see the Files.
Was it Bomba fled the blue Sicilian isles?
Was it Saffi, a professor
Once of Oxford, brought redress or
Garibaldi? Who remembers
Forty-odd-year-old Septembers? -
Only sextons paid to dig among the Files (Such as I am, born and bred among the Files).
You must hack through much deposit
Ere you know for sure who was it
Came to burial with such honour in the Files (Only seven seasons back beneath the Files).
'Very great our loss and grievous - 'So our best and brightest leave us,
'And it ends the Age of Giants,' say the Files;
All the '60-'70-'80'-'90 Files
(The open-minded, opportunist Files ?
The easy ' 0 King, live for ever ' Files).
It is good to read a little in the Files;
'Tis a sure and sovereign balm
Unto philosophic calm,
Yea, and philosophic doubt when Life beguiles
When you know Success is Greatness,
When you marvel at your lateness
In apprehending facts so plain to Smiles
(Self-helpful, wholly strenuous Samuel Smiles).
When your Imp of Blind Desire
Bids you set the Thames afire,
You'll remember men have done so - in the Files.
You'll have seen those flames transpire - in the Files
(More than once that flood has run so - in the Files).
When the Conchimarian horns
Of the reboantic Norns
Usher gentlemen and ladies
With new lights on Heaven and Hades,
Guaranteeing to Eternity
All yesterday's modernity;
When Brocken-spectres made by
Some one's breath on ink parade by,
Very earnest and tremendous,
Let not shows of shows offend us.
When of everything we like we
Shout ecstatic: ' Quod ubique,
'Quod ab omnibus means semper!
Oh, my brother, keep your temper!
Light your pipe and take a look along the Files.
You've a better chance to guess
At the meaning of Success
(Which is Greatness - vide Press)
When you've seen it in perspective in the Files !
Scheme | AAAABBAACCADAAAEEAAFFGGAAHHHAAIDAAAJKAALLAADMNAAOOAPAAAAAQQAPPAADRAAASATTUUVVPPUHDDAWWWA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 01 101 0111010101 10010111 100111001 11101101001 1111010001 101011 11011101 1100101011 11010101010010 11110110001 111010101 11101110101 1101 1010111 0111110101 01011110101 1011111 1011101 0011101 10101001 10101010101 001000101 1010111 11111 1010101 11101010001 10111010001 1110101 111011 10101010001 10101010101 10101010101 10111010 01101010 11101010101 11100010101 11101 0111101 01101010101 111010101001 1110010 11101011 0101010 101111 101111010111111010101 11111010 11111111 1110011100110101010101 101101010110101011 01101110101 1011111 010100101 010111101 11111010001 1010101 100101 100101111 11101110 11101110 001011111 11010100101 11111010 1110101 10101111001 11111010001 11111111001 1011 1011 10100010 111110010 01010100 1100100 11111 11111011 10100010 11111011 1110111 101011 1110011 11101110 11101010101 1010111 1010101 111011 11110010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,294 |
Words | 580 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 88 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,619 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 581 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 07, 2023
- 2:55 min read
- 93 Views
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"The Files" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33430/the-files>.
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