Analysis of The French Wars
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
The boats of Newhaven and Folkestone and Dover
To Dieppe and Boulogne and to Calais cross over;
And in each of those runs there is not a square yard
Where the English and French haven't fought and fought hard!
If the ships that were sunk could be floated once more,
They'd stretch like a raft from the shore to the shore,
And we'd see, as we crossed, every pattern and plan
Of ship that was built since sea-fighting began.
There'd be biremes and brigantines, cutters and sloops,
Cogs, carracks and galleons with gay gilded poops--
Hoys, caravels, ketches, corvettes and the rest,
As thick as regattas, from Ramsgate to Brest.
But the galley's of Caesar, the squadrons of Sluys,
And Nelson's crack frigates are hid from our eyes,
Where the high Seventy-fours of Napoleon's days
Lie down with Deal luggers and French chasse-marees.
They'll answer no signal--they rest on the ooze,
With their honey-combed guns and their skeleton crews--
And racing above them, through sunshine or gale,
The Cross-Channel packets come in with the Mail.
Then the poor sea-sick passengers, English and French,
Must open their trunks on. the Custom-house bench,
While the officers rummage for smuggled cigars
And nobody thinks of our blood-thirsty wars!
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF EEEE EEGG HHEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 011101010 11010101110 001111111011 101001101011 101101111011 11101101101 0111111001001 11111111001 111011001 11010011101 1111001 1110101111 10111001011 010110111101 1011001101001 111110111 11011011101 111011011001 0100111111 01101010101 101111001001 11011101011 101001011001 0111101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,226 |
Words | 208 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 41 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 24, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 161 Views
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"The French Wars" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33437/the-french-wars>.
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