Boots (Infantry Columns of the Earlier War)
We’re foot--slog--slog--slog--sloggin’ over Africa!Foot--foot--foot--foot--sloggin’ over Africa--(Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again!)There’s no discharge in the war!
Seven--six--eleven--five--nine-an’-twenty mile to-day--Four--eleven--seventeen--thirty-two the day before--(Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again!)There’s no discharge in the war!
Don’t--don’t--don’t--don’t--look at what’s in front of you(Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again);Men--men--men--men--men go mad with watchin’ ’em,An’ there’s no discharge in the war.
Try--try--try--try--to think o’ something different--Oh--my--God--keep--me from goin’ lunatic!(Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again!)There’s no discharge in the war.
Count--count--count--count--the bullets in the bandoliers;If--your--eyes--drop--they will get atop o’ you(Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again)--There’s no discharge in the war!
We--can--stick--out--’unger, thirst, an’ weariness,But--not--not--not--not the chronic sight of ’em--Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again,An’ there’s no discharge in the war!
’Tain’t--so--bad--by--day because o’ company,But night--brings--long--strings o’ forty thousand millionBoots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again.There’s no discharge in the war!
I--’ave--marched--six--weeks in ’Ell an’ certifyIt--is--not--fire--devils dark or anythingBut boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again,An’ there’s no discharge in the war!
Words in this poem
- atop adv.
- On or at the top.
- certify v. t.
- To give cetain information to; to assure; to make certain. [F. certifier, LL. certificare; L. certus certain + facere to make. See Certain, and cf. Certificate, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Boots (Infantry Columns of the Earlier War) is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Five Nations, Volume II, Project Gutenberg ebook #60261; 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, Boots (Infantry Columns of the Earlier War), in The Five Nations, Volume II (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60261, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-five-nations-2/boots-infantry-columns-of-the-earlier-war.html, id L20266.
Form and metre
Boots (Infantry Columns of the Earlier War) is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 AA-- africaA · africaA · again · war
- 2 -A-A day · beforeA · again · warA
- 7 -AA- company · millionA · againA · war
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We’re foot--slog--slog--slog--sloggin’ over Africa! | 12 | ·········/˘˘ |
| Foot--foot--foot--foot--sloggin’ over Africa-- | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
| (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again!) | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| There’s no discharge in the war! | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| Seven--six--eleven--five--nine-an’-twenty mile to-day-- | 12 | /·˘/···/˘··· |
| Four--eleven--seventeen--thirty-two the day before-- | 13 | ·˘//˘//˘····· |
| (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again!) | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| There’s no discharge in the war! | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| Don’t--don’t--don’t--don’t--look at what’s in front of you | 11 | ··········· |
| (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again); | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| Men--men--men--men--men go mad with watchin’ ’em, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| An’ there’s no discharge in the war. | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| Try--try--try--try--to think o’ something different-- | 12 | ·······/˘/˘˘ |
| Oh--my--God--keep--me from goin’ lunatic! | 11 | ······/˘/˘· |
| (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again!) | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| There’s no discharge in the war. | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| Count--count--count--count--the bullets in the bandoliers; | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| If--your--eyes--drop--they will get atop o’ you | 11 | ·······˘/·· |
| (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again)-- | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| There’s no discharge in the war! | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| We--can--stick--out--’unger, thirst, an’ weariness, | 11 | ····/˘··/˘˘ |
| But--not--not--not--not the chronic sight of ’em-- | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| An’ there’s no discharge in the war! | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| ’Tain’t--so--bad--by--day because o’ company, | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
| But night--brings--long--strings o’ forty thousand million | 12 | ······/˘/˘/˘ |
| Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again. | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| There’s no discharge in the war! | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| I--’ave--marched--six--weeks in ’Ell an’ certify | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| It--is--not--fire--devils dark or anything | 11 | ···//˘··/˘· |
| But boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| An’ there’s no discharge in the war! | 8 | ···˘/··· |
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.