Song of the Wise Children
When the darkened Fifties dip to the North,And frost and the fog divide the air,And the day is dead at his breaking-forth,Sirs, it is bitter beneath the Bear!
Far to Southward they wheel and glance,The million molten spears of morn--The spears of our deliveranceThat shine on the house where we were born.
Flying-fish about our bows,Flying sea-fires in our wake:This is the road to our Father’s House,Whither we go for our soul’s sake!
We have forfeited our birthright,We have forsaken all things meet;We have forgotten the look of light,We have forgotten the scent of heat.
They that walk with shaded brows,Year by year in a shining land,They be men of our Father’s House,They shall receive us and understand.
We shall go back by boltless doors,To the life unaltered our childhood knew--To the naked feet on the cool, dark floors,And the high-ceiled rooms that the Trade blows through:
To the trumpet-flowers and the moon beyond,And the tree-toad’s chorus drowning all--And the lisp of the split banana-frondThat talked us to sleep when we were small.
The wayside magic, the threshold spells,Shall soon undo what the North has done--Because of the sights and the sounds and the smellsThat ran with our youth in the eye of the sun!
And Earth accepting shall ask no vows,Nor the Sea our love nor our lover the Sky.When we return to our Father’s HouseOnly the English shall wonder why!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- lisp v. i.
- To pronounce the sibilant letter s imperfectly; to give s and z the sound of th; -- a defect common among children. [OE. lispen, lipsen, AS. wlisp stammering, lisping; akin to D. & OHG. lispen to lisp, G. lispeln, Sw. läspa, Dan. lespe.]
- wayside n.
- The side of the way; the edge or border of a road or path.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of the Wise Children is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Five Nations, Volume I, Project Gutenberg ebook #60260; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, Song of the Wise Children, in The Five Nations, Volume I (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60260, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-five-nations-1/song-of-the-wise-children.html, id L20240.
Form and metre
Song of the Wise Children is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB northA · airB · forthA · bearB
- 2 ABAB glanceA · mornB · deliveranceA · bornB
- 3 -A-A bows · wakeA · house · sakeA
- 4 ABAB birthrightA · meetB · lightA · heatB
- 5 -A-A brows · landA · house · understandA
- 6 ABAB doorsA · knewB · floorsA · throughB
- 7 ABAB beyondA · allB · frondA · smallB
- 8 ABAB spellsA · doneB · smellsA · sunB
- 9 -A-A vows · skyA · house · whyA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the darkened Fifties dip to the North, | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| And frost and the fog divide the air, | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| And the day is dead at his breaking-forth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sirs, it is bitter beneath the Bear! | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Far to Southward they wheel and glance, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| The million molten spears of morn-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The spears of our deliverance | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘˘ |
| That shine on the house where we were born. | 9 | ········· |
| Flying-fish about our bows, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Flying sea-fires in our wake: | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| This is the road to our Father’s House, | 9 | ·····//˘· |
| Whither we go for our soul’s sake! | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| We have forfeited our birthright, | 9 | ··/˘˘/˘/· |
| We have forsaken all things meet; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| We have forgotten the look of light, | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| We have forgotten the scent of heat. | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| They that walk with shaded brows, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Year by year in a shining land, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| They be men of our Father’s House, | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| They shall receive us and understand. | 9 | ··˘/···˘/ |
| We shall go back by boltless doors, | 8 | ········ |
| To the life unaltered our childhood knew-- | 10 | ···˘/˘//·· |
| To the naked feet on the cool, dark floors, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And the high-ceiled rooms that the Trade blows through: | 10 | ·········· |
| To the trumpet-flowers and the moon beyond, | 10 | ··/˘/····· |
| And the tree-toad’s chorus drowning all-- | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| And the lisp of the split banana-frond | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That talked us to sleep when we were small. | 9 | ········· |
| The wayside magic, the threshold spells, | 9 | ·/·/˘·/·· |
| Shall soon undo what the North has done-- | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| Because of the sights and the sounds and the smells | 11 | ··········· |
| That ran with our youth in the eye of the sun! | 11 | ···/······· |
| And Earth accepting shall ask no vows, | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| Nor the Sea our love nor our lover the Sky. | 11 | ···/··//˘·· |
| When we return to our Father’s House | 9 | ··˘/·//˘· |
| Only the English shall wonder why! | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.