Analysis of The Lost Legion
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
There's a Legion that never was 'listed,
That carries no colours or crest,
But, split in a thousand detachments,
Is breaking the road for the rest.
Our fathers they left us their blessing --
They taught us, and groomed us, and crammed;
But we've shaken the Clubs and the Messes
To go and find out and be damned
(Dear boys!),
To go and get shot and be damned.
So some of us chivy the slaver,
And some of us cherish the black,
And some of us hunt on the Oil Coast,
And some on -- the Wallaby track:
And some of us drift to Sarawak,
And some of us drift up The Fly,
And some share our tucker with tigers,
And some with the gentle Masai
(Dear boys!),
Take tea with the giddy Masai.
We've painted The Islands vermilion,
We've pearled on half-shares in the Bay,
We've shouted on seven-ounce nuggets,
We've starved on a Seedeeboy's pay;
We've laughed at the world as we found it --
Its women and cities and men --
From Sayyid Burgash in a tantrum
To the smoke-reddened eyes of Loben
(Dear boys!),
We've a little account with Loben.
The ends o' the Earth were our portion,
The ocean at large was our share.
There was never a skirmish to windward
But the Leaderless Legion was there:
Yes, somehow and somewhere and always
We were first when the trouble began,
From a lottery-row in Manila,
To an I.D.B. race on the Pan
(Dear boys!),
With the Mounted Police on the Pan.
We preach in advance of the Army,
We skirmish ahead of the Church,
With never a gunboat to help us
When we're scuppered and left in the lurch.
But we know as the cartridges finish,
And we're filed on our last little shelves,
That the Legion that never was 'listed
Will send us as good as ourselves
(Good men!),
Five hundred as good as ourselves.
Then a health (we must drink it in whispers)
To our wholly unauthorised horde --
To the line of our dusty foreloopers,
The Gentlemen Rovers abroad --
Yes, a health to ourselves ere we scatter,
For the steamer won't wait for the train,
And the Legion that never was 'listed
Goes back into quarters again!
'Regards!
Goes back under canvas again.
Hurrah!
The swag and the billy again.
Here's how!
The trail and the packhorse again.
Salue!
The trek and the laager again.
Scheme | abcbxdcdCd efxfxgccCc hicixjxhCh hexeckxkCk xlclxcacjc cxcxexajcjejxjgj |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010110110 1101111 1100101 11001101 1010111110 11101101 1110010010 11011011 11 11011011 1111101 01111001 011111011 01101001 011111100 01111101 0111010110 011010010 11 111010010 110010010 11111001 110110110 111011 111011111 11001001 11010010 1011111 11 10100111 0110101010 010111101 1110010110 101001011 110101 101101001 1010010010 1111101 11 101001101 110011010 11001101 11001111 11101001 1111010010 0111101101 1010110110 111111001 11 110111001 1011111010 1101011 101110101 01001001 10110011110 101011101 0010110110 11011001 01 11101001 01 01001001 11 0100101 1 0100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,333 |
Words | 413 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 16 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 277 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 67 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 2:07 min read
- 98 Views
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"The Lost Legion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33488/the-lost-legion>.
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