A Pict Song
Rome never looks where she treads.Always her heavy hooves fall,On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;And Rome never heeds when we bawl.Her sentries pass on--that is all,And we gather behind them in hordes,And plot to reconquer the Wall,With only our tongues for our swords.
We are the Little Folk--we!Too little to love or to hate.Leave us alone and you'll seeHow we can drag down the State!We are the worm in the wood!We are the rot at the root!We are the germ in the blood!We are the thorn in the foot!
Mistletoe killing an oak--Rats gnawing cables in two--Moths making holes in a cloak--How they must love what they do!Yes--and we Little Folk too,We are busy as they--Working our works out of view--Watch, and you'll see it some day!
No indeed! We are not strong,But we know Peoples that are.Yes, and we'll guide them along,To smash and destroy you in War!We shall be slaves just the same?Yes, we have always been slaves,But you--you will die of the shame,And then we shall dance on your graves!We are the Little Folk, we, etc.
Words in this poem
- bawl v. i.
- To cry out with a loud, full sound; to cry with vehemence, as in calling or exultation; to shout; to vociferate. [Icel. baula to low, bellow, as a cow; akin to Sw. böla; cf. AS bellan, G. bellen to bark, E. bellow, bull.]
- reconquer v. t.
- To conquer again; to recover by conquest; as, to reconquer a revolted province. [Pref. re- + conquer: cf. F. reconquérir.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- smash v. t.
- To break in pieces by violence; to dash to pieces; to crush. [Cf. Sw. smisk a blow, stroke, smiska to strike, dial. Sw. smaske to kiss with a noise, and E. smack a loud kiss, a slap.]
- 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
A Pict Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; 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, A Pict Song, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/a-pict-song.html, id L20332.
Form and metre
A Pict Song is 33 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCBC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas.
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 ABABBCBC treadsA · fallB · headsA · bawlB · allB · hordesC · wallB · swordsC
- 2 ABABC-C- weA · hateB · seeA · stateB · woodC · root · bloodC · foot
- 3 ABABBCBC oakA · twoB · cloakA · doB · tooB · theyC · viewB · dayC
- 4 A-A-BCBC- strongA · are · alongA · war · sameB · slavesC · shameB · gravesC · etc
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Rome never looks where she treads. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Always her heavy hooves fall, | 7 | /··/˘·· |
| On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads; | 9 | ·//˘/··/· |
| And Rome never heeds when we bawl. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Her sentries pass on--that is all, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And we gather behind them in hordes, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And plot to reconquer the Wall, | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| With only our tongues for our swords. | 8 | ·/˘/··/· |
| We are the Little Folk--we! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Too little to love or to hate. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Leave us alone and you'll see | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| How we can drag down the State! | 7 | ······· |
| We are the worm in the wood! | 7 | ······· |
| We are the rot at the root! | 7 | ······· |
| We are the germ in the blood! | 7 | ······· |
| We are the thorn in the foot! | 7 | ······· |
| Mistletoe killing an oak-- | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Rats gnawing cables in two-- | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Moths making holes in a cloak-- | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| How they must love what they do! | 7 | ······· |
| Yes--and we Little Folk too, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| We are busy as they-- | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Working our works out of view-- | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| Watch, and you'll see it some day! | 7 | ······· |
| No indeed! We are not strong, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| But we know Peoples that are. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Yes, and we'll guide them along, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| To smash and destroy you in War! | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| We shall be slaves just the same? | 7 | ······· |
| Yes, we have always been slaves, | 7 | ···/··· |
| But you--you will die of the shame, | 8 | ········ |
| And then we shall dance on your graves! | 8 | ········ |
| We are the Little Folk, we, etc. | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
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.