The Palace
When I was a King and a Mason--a Master proven and skilled--I cleared me ground for a palace such as a King should build.I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently, under the silt,I came on the wreck of a palace such as a King had built.
There was no worth in the fashion--there was no wit in the plan--Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran--Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone:‘After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known.’
Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned ground-worksgrew,I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew.Lime I milled of the marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread;Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.
Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart,I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder’s heart.As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understandThe form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he hadplanned.
When I was a King and a Mason--in the open noon of my pride,They sent me a Word from the Darkness--They whispered and called measide.They said--‘The end is forbidden.’ They said--‘Thy use is fulfilled,‘And thy palace shall stand as that other’s--the spoil of a King whoshall build.’
I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and myshears.All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.Only I cut on the timber, only I carved on the stone:After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known!
Words in this poem
- presently adv.
- At present; at this time; now.
- silt n.
- Mud or fine earth deposited from running or standing water. [OE. silte gravel, fr. silen to drain, E. sile; probably of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. sila, prob. akin to AS. seón to filter, sigan to fall, sink, cause to sink, G.]
- aimless a.
- Without aim or purpose; as, an aimless life.
- carven a.
- Wrought by carving; ornamented by carvings; carved.
- reset v. t.
- To set again; as, to reset type; to reset copy; to reset a diamond.
- gloried a.
- Illustrious; honorable; noble. [See Glory.]
- razed a.
- Slashed or striped in patterns.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Palace 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, The Palace, in The Five Nations, Volume I (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60260, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-five-nations-1/the-palace.html, id L20238.
Form and metre
The Palace is 29 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB skilledA · buildA · siltB · builtB
- 2 AABB planA · ranA · stoneB · knownB
- 3 -AABB works · grewA · anewA · spreadB · deadB
- 4 AAB-B apartA · heartA · understandB · had · plannedB
- 5 A-AB-B prideA · me · asideA · fulfilledB · who · buildB
- 6 -AABB my · shearsA · yearsA · stoneB · knownB
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 I was a King and a Mason--a Master proven and skilled-- | 16 | ·······/˘·/˘/˘·· |
| I cleared me ground for a palace such as a King should build. | 14 | ······/˘······ |
| I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently, under the silt, | 16 | ·˘/·····/˘/˘···· |
| I came on the wreck of a palace such as a King had built. | 15 | ·······/˘······ |
| There was no worth in the fashion--there was no wit in the plan-- | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran-- | 13 | /˘·/˘/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone: | 13 | /˘·˘/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| ‘After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known.’ | 14 | ···/˘·/˘······ |
| Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned ground-works | 14 | ······/˘······ |
| grew, | 1 | · |
| I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew. | 17 | ·/˘·········˘/·˘/ |
| Lime I milled of the marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread; | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead. | 15 | /˘·/˘·/˘····/˘· |
| Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart, | 15 | ··˘/··/˘·····˘/ |
| I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder’s heart. | 15 | ·····˘/˘····/˘· |
| As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understand | 14 | ···/˘·/˘····˘/ |
| The form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had | 17 | ·······/˘········ |
| planned. | 1 | · |
| When I was a King and a Mason--in the open noon of my pride, | 17 | ·······/˘··/˘···· |
| They sent me a Word from the Darkness--They whispered and called me | 15 | ·······/˘·/˘··· |
| aside. | 2 | ˘/ |
| They said--‘The end is forbidden.’ They said--‘Thy use is fulfilled, | 14 | ·····/˘·····˘/ |
| ‘And thy palace shall stand as that other’s--the spoil of a King who | 16 | ··/˘····/˘······ |
| shall build.’ | 2 | ·· |
| I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my | 15 | ······/˘·/˘···· |
| shears. | 1 | · |
| All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years. | 16 | ·····˘/˘·····/˘· |
| Only I cut on the timber, only I carved on the stone: | 15 | /˘····/˘/˘····· |
| After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known! | 14 | ···/˘·/˘······ |
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.