Service Songs
’Tommy’ you was when it began,But now that it is o’erYou shall be called The Service Man’Enceforward, evermore.
Batt’ry, brigade, flank, centre, van,Defaulter, Army corps--From first to last The Service Man’Enceforward, evermore.
From ’Alifax to ’Industan,From York to Singapore--’Orse, foot, an’ guns, The Service Man’Enceforward, evermore!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- brigade n.
- A body of troops, whether cavalry, artillery, infantry, or mixed, consisting of two or more regiments, under the command of a brigadier general. [F. brigade, fr. It. brigata troop, crew, brigade, originally, a contending troop, fr. briga trouble, quarrel. See Brigand.]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- defaulter n.
- One who makes default; one who fails to appear in court when court when called.
- corps n.
- The human body, whether living or dead. See Corpse, 1. [F., fr. L. corpus body. See Corpse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Service Songs 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, Service Songs, in The Five Nations, Volume II (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60261, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-five-nations-2/service-songs.html, id L20259.
Form and metre
Service Songs is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 A-A- beganA · o'er · manA · evermore
- 2 ABAB vanA · corpsB · manA · evermoreB
- 3 ABAB industanA · singaporeB · manA · evermoreB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ’Tommy’ you was when it began, | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| But now that it is o’er | 6 | ······ |
| You shall be called The Service Man | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| ’Enceforward, evermore. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Batt’ry, brigade, flank, centre, van, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Defaulter, Army corps-- | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| From first to last The Service Man | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| ’Enceforward, evermore. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From ’Alifax to ’Industan, | 8 | ········ |
| From York to Singapore-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| ’Orse, foot, an’ guns, The Service Man | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| ’Enceforward, evermore! | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.