Analysis of The Vampire
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair
(Even as you and I!)
Oh the years we waste and the tears we waste
And the work of our head and hand,
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand.
A fool there was and his goods he spent
(Even as you and I!)
Honor and faith and a sure intent
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),
(Even as you and I!)
Oh the toil we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent things we planned,
Belong to the woman who didn't know why
(And now we know she never knew why)
And did not understand.
The fool we stripped to his foolish hide
(Even as you and I!)
Which she might have seen when she threw him aside --
(But it isn't on record the lady tried)
So some of him lived but the most of him died --
(Even as you and I!)
And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame
That stings like a white hot brand.
It's coming to know that she never knew why
(Seeing at last she could never know why)
And never could understand.
Scheme | aBaaaB xcddC eBeeeB xcbbC fBfffB xcbbc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011101111 101101 10100100111 1100101111 1011101101 101101 1011100111 001110101 0110101111 0111111011 01101 011101111 101101 100100101 10111011001 01100110101 101101 1011100111 00100111 01101011011 011111011 01101 011111101 101101 11111111101 11101010101 11111101111 101101 011001011001 1110111 11011111011 1011111011 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,195 |
Words | 261 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 149 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 432 Views
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"The Vampire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33595/the-vampire>.
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