Analysis of The Last Department
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Twelve hundred million men are spread
About this Earth, and I and You
Wonder, when You and I are dead,
"What will those luckless millions do?"
None whole or clean, " we cry, "or free from stain
Of favour." Wait awhile, till we attain
The Last Department where nor fraud nor fools,
Nor grade nor greed, shall trouble us again.
Fear, Favour, or Affection -- what are these
To the grim Head who claims our services?
I never knew a wife or interest yet
Delay that pukka step, miscalled "decease";
When leave, long overdue, none can deny;
When idleness of all Eternity
Becomes our furlough, and the marigold
Our thriftless, bullion-minting Treasury
Transferred to the Eternal Settlement,
Each in his strait, wood-scantled office pent,
No longer Brown reverses Smith's appeals,
Or Jones records his Minute of Dissent.
And One, long since a pillar of the Court,
As mud between the beams thereof is wrought;
And One who wrote on phosphates for the crops
Is subject-matter of his own Report.
These be the glorious ends whereto we pass --
Let Him who Is, go call on Him who Was;
And He shall see the mallie steals the slab
For currie-grinder, and for goats the grass.
A breath of wind, a Border bullet's flight,
A draught of water, or a horse's firght --
The droning of the fat Sheristadar
Ceases, the punkah stops, and falls the night
For you or Me. Do those who live decline
The step that offers, or their work resign?
Trust me, To-day's Most Indispensables,
Five hundred men can take your place or mine.
Scheme | ABAB CCDX XXXX XEXE XFXF GXXG HXXH IAXI JJDJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (33%) |
Metre | 11010111 01110101 10110111 11110101 1111111111 111011101 0101011111 1111110101 111010111 10111110100 1101011101 01111101 1111011101 1100110100 0110100010 1011010100 0110010100 101111101 1101010101 1101110101 0111010101 110101111 0111110101 1011011101 1101001111 1111111111 0111010101 1101001101 011101011 0111010101 0101011 100110101 1111111101 0111011101 111111 1101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,470 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 129 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 157 Views
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"The Last Department" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33473/the-last-department>.
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