The Instructor (Corporals)
At times when under cover I ’ave said,To keep my spirits up an’ raise a laugh,’Earin’ ’im pass so busy over-’ead--Old Nickel Neck, ’oo isn’t on the Staff--‘There’s one above is greater than us all.’
Before ’im I ’ave seen my Colonel fall,An’ watched ’im write my Captain’s epitaph,So that a long way off it could be read--He ’as the knack o’ makin’ men feel small--Old Whistle Tip, ’oo isn’t on the Staff.
There is no sense in fleein’ (I ’ave fled),Better go on an’ do the belly-crawl,An’ ’ope ’e’ll ’it some other man insteadOf you ’e seems to ’unt so speshual--Fitzy van Spitz, ’oo isn’t on the Staff.
An’ thus in mem’ry’s gratis biograph,Now that the show is over, I recallThe peevish voice an’ ’oary mushroom ’eadOf ’im we owned was greater than us all,’Oo give instruction to the quick an’ the dead--The Shudderin’ Beggar not upon the Staff.
Words in this poem
- knack v. i.
- To crack; to make a sharp, abrupt noise to chink. [Obs. or Prov. [Prob. of imitative origin; cf. G. knacken to break, Dan. knage to crack, and E. knock.]
- crawl v. i.
- To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and kness; to creep. [Dan. kravle, or Icel. krafla, to paw, scrabble with the hands; akin to Sw. kr to crawl; cf. LG. krabbeln, D. krabbelen to scratch.]
- gratis adv.
- For nothing; without fee or recompense; freely; gratuitously. [L., contr. fr. gratiis out of favor or kindness, without recompense, for nothing, fr. gratia favor. See Grace.]
- biograph n.
- An animated picture machine for screen projection; a cinematograph.
- oary a.
- Having the form or the use of an oar; as, the swan's oary feet.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Instructor (Corporals) 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, The Instructor (Corporals), in The Five Nations, Volume II (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60261, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-five-nations-2/the-instructor-corporals.html, id L20265.
Form and metre
The Instructor (Corporals) is 21 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABC saidA · laughB · eadA · staffB · allC
- 2 CBACB fallC · epitaphB · readA · smallC · staffB
- 3 ACA-B fledA · crawlC · insteadA · speshual · staffB
- 4 BCACAB biographB · recallC · eadA · allC · deadA · staffB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At times when under cover I ’ave said, | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘· |
| To keep my spirits up an’ raise a laugh, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| ’Earin’ ’im pass so busy over-’ead-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Old Nickel Neck, ’oo isn’t on the Staff-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| ‘There’s one above is greater than us all.’ | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Before ’im I ’ave seen my Colonel fall, | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| An’ watched ’im write my Captain’s epitaph, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| So that a long way off it could be read-- | 10 | ·········· |
| He ’as the knack o’ makin’ men feel small-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Old Whistle Tip, ’oo isn’t on the Staff. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| There is no sense in fleein’ (I ’ave fled), | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Better go on an’ do the belly-crawl, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| An’ ’ope ’e’ll ’it some other man instead | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Of you ’e seems to ’unt so speshual-- | 9 | ········· |
| Fitzy van Spitz, ’oo isn’t on the Staff. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| An’ thus in mem’ry’s gratis biograph, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Now that the show is over, I recall | 10 | ········/· |
| The peevish voice an’ ’oary mushroom ’ead | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Of ’im we owned was greater than us all, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| ’Oo give instruction to the quick an’ the dead-- | 11 | ··˘/˘······ |
| The Shudderin’ Beggar not upon the Staff. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
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