Analysis of The Gipsy Trail

Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)



The white moth to the closing bine,
The bee to the opened clover,
And the gipsy blood to the gipsy blood
Ever the wide world over.

Ever the wide world over, lass,
Ever the trail held true,
Over the world and under the world,
And back at the last to you.

Out of the dark of the gorgio camp,
Out of the grime and the gray
(Morning waits at the end of the world),
Gipsy, come away!

The wild boar to the sun-dried swamp
The red crane to her reed,
And the Romany lass to the Romany lad,
By the tie of a roving breed.

The pied snake to the rifted rock,
The buck to the stony plain,
And the Romany lass to the Romany lad,
And both to the road again.

Both to the road again, again!
Out on a clean sea-track -
Follow the cross of the gipsy trail
Over the world and back!

Follow the Romany patteran
North where the blue bergs sail,
And the bows are grey with the frozen spray,
And the masts are shod with mail.

Follow the Romany patteran
Sheer to the Austral Light,
Where the besom of God is the wild South wind,
Sweeping the sea-floors white.

Follow the Romany patteran
West to the sinking sun,
Till the junk-sails lift through the houseless drift.
And the east and west are one.

Follow the Romany patteran
East where the silence broods
By a purple wave on an opal beach
In the hush of the Mahim woods.

'The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky,
The deer to the wholesome wold,
And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid,
As it was in the days of old.'

The heart of a man to the heart of a maid -
Light of my tents, be fleet.
Morning waits at the end of the world,
And the world is all at our feet!


Scheme abxb cded xfEf xgHg xaHa aiji Ajfj Akxk Aaxa Acxx xlml mnEn
Poetic Form Quatrain  (83%)
Metre 01110101 01101010 00111011 1001110 10011101 100111 100101001 0110111 11011011 1101001 101101101 1101 01110111 011101 001001101001 10110101 0111011 0110101 001001101001 0110101 11010101 110111 10011011 100101 1001001 110111 0011110101 0011111 1001001 110101 1011110111 100111 1001001 110101 101111011 0010111 1001001 110101 1010111101 0011011 01110111 0110101 001101101101 11100111 01101101101 111111 101101101 001111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,548
Words 323
Sentences 16
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 48
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 101
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 21, 2023

1:36 min read
160

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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