Analysis of The Roman Centurion's Song
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Roman Occupation of Britain, A.D. 300
Legate, I had the news last night --my cohort ordered home
By ships to Portus Itius and thence by road to Rome.
I've marched the companies aboard, the arms are stowed below:
Now let another take my sword. Command me not to go!
I've served in Britain forty years, from Vectis to the Wall,
I have none other home than this, nor any life at all.
Last night I did not understand, but, now the hour draws near
That calls me to my native land, I feel that land is here.
Here where men say my name was made, here where my work was done;
Here where my dearest dead are laid--my wife--my wife and son;
Here where time, custom, grief and toil, age, memory, service, love,
Have rooted me in British soil. Ah, how can I remove?
For me this land, that sea, these airs, those folk and fields surffice.
What purple Southern pomp can match our changeful Northern skies,
Black with December snows unshed or pearled with August haze--
The clanging arch of steel-grey March, or June's long-lighted days?
You'll follow widening Rhodanus till vine an olive lean
Aslant before the sunny breeze that sweeps Nemausus clean
To Arelate's triple gate; but let me linger on,
Here where our stiff-necked British oaks confront Euroclydon!
You'll take the old Aurelian Road through shore-descending pines
Where, blue as any peacock's neck, the Tyrrhene Ocean shines.
You'll go where laurel crowns are won, but--will you e'er forget
The scent of hawthorn in the sun, or bracken in the wet?
Let me work here for Britain's sake--at any task you will--
A marsh to drain, a road to make or native troops to drill.
Some Western camp (I know the Pict) or granite Border keep,
Mid seas of heather derelict, where our old messmates sleep.
Legate, I come to you in tears--My cohort ordered home!
I've served in Britain forty years. What should I do in Rome?
Here is my heart, my soul, my mind--the only life I know.
I cannot leave it all behind. Command me not to go!
Scheme | X AABB CCXX DDXX EEEE FFXD EEGG HHII AABB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 100101101 10110111110101 11111011111 11010001011101 11010111011111 1101010111101 11110111110111 11111011101011 11111101111111 11111111111111 11110111111101 111101011100101 11010101111101 1111111111011 11010111101101 1101011111101 01011111111101 1101001111101 10101011111 11101111101 111011101011 110111110101 111101101101 111101111111001 0111001110001 11111101110111 01110111110111 11011101110101 1111010110111 10111101110101 11010101111101 11111111010111 11011101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,941 |
Words | 357 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 755 Views
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"The Roman Centurion's Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33547/the-roman-centurion%27s-song>.
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