Analysis of The Flight
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
When the grey geese heard the Fool's tread
Too near to where they lay,
They lifted neither voice nor head,
But took themselves away.
No water broke, no pinion whirred-
There went no warning call.
The steely, sheltering rushes stirred
A little--that was all.
Only the osiers understood,
And the drowned meadows spied
What else than wreckage of a flood
Stole outward on that tide.
But the far beaches saw their ranks
Gather and greet and grow
By myriads on the naked banks
Watching their sign to go;
Till, with a roar of wings that churned
The shivering shoals to foam,
Flight after flight took air and turned -
To find a safer home;
And far below their steadfast wedge,
They heard (and hastened on)
Men thresh and clamour through the sedge
Aghast that they were gone!
And, when men prayed them come anew
And nest where they were bred,
"Nay, fools foretell what knaves will do,"
Was all the grey geese said.
Scheme | ABAB ACXC XDXD EFEF GHGH IXIX JAJA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 10111011 111111 11010111 110101 11011101 111101 010100101 010111 100101 00111 11110101 110111 10110111 100101 1110101 101111 11011111 0100111 11011101 110101 0101111 110101 1101101 011101 01111101 011101 11011111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 887 |
Words | 166 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 15, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 65 Views
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"The Flight" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33433/the-flight>.
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