Analysis of The Man Who Could Write
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Shun -- shun the Bowl! That fatal, facile drink
Has ruined many geese who dipped their quills in 't;
Bribe, murder, marry, but steer clear of Ink
Save when you write receipts for paid-up bills in 't.
There may be silver in the "blue-black" -- all
I know of is the iron and the gall.
Boanerges Blitzen, servant of the Queen,
Is a dismal failure -- is a Might-have-been.
In a luckless moment he discovered men
Rise to high position through a ready pen.
Boanerges Blitzen argued therefore -- "I,
With the selfsame weapon, can attain as high."
Only he did not possess when he made the trial,
Wicked wit of C-lv-n, irony of L--l.
[Men who spar with Government need, to back their blows,
Something more than ordinary journalistic prose.]
Never young Civilian's prospects were so bright,
Till an Indian paper found that he could write:
Never young Civilian's prospects were so dark,
When the wretched Blitzen wrote to make his mark.
Certainly he scored it, bold, and black, and firm,
In that Indian paper -- made his seniors squirm,
Quated office scandals, wrote the tactless truth --
Was there ever known a more misguided youth?
When the Rag he wrote for praised his plucky game,
Boanerges Blitzen felt that this was Fame;
When the men he wrote of shook their heads and swore,
Boanerges Blitzen only wrote the more:
Posed as Young Ithuriel, resolute and grim,
Till he found promotion didn't come to him;
Till he found that reprimands weekly were his lot,
And his many Districts curiously hot.
Till he found his furlough strangely hard to win,
Boanerges Blitzen didn't care to pin:
Then it seemed to dawn on him something wasn't right --
Boanerges Blitzen put it down to "spite";
Languished in a District desolate and dry;
Watched the Local Government yearly pass him by;
Wondered where the hitch was; called it most unfair.
. . . . .
That was seven years ago -- and he still is there!
Scheme | ABABCC XDEE FFXX GG HHII JJKK LLMM NNOO DDHH FFP P |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110101 110101111101 1101011111 111101111101 1111000111 1111010001 11010101 10101010111 00101010101 11101010101 1101011 1011010111 1011101111010 1011111100111 111110011111 10111000101 101110011 111001011111 101110011 10101011111 10011110101 011001011101 1101010101 11101010101 10111111101 11011111 10111111101 11010101 11111001 11101010111 11111010011 01101010001 11111010111 11010111 111111110101 11011111 10001010001 101010010111 10101111101 1 111010101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,846 |
Words | 333 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 4, 4, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 193 Views
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