A Song to Mithras
Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall!'Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all!'Now as the names are answered and the guards are marched away,Mithras, also a soldier, give us strength for the day!
Mithras, God of the Noontide, the heather swims in the heat.Our helmets scorch our foreheads, our sandals burn our feet.Now in the ungirt hour--now ere we blink and drowse,Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows!
Mithras, God of the Sunset, low on the Western main--Thou descending immortal, immortal to rise again!Now when the watch is ended, now when the wine is drawn,Mithras, also a soldier, keep us pure till the dawn!
Mithras, God of the Midnight, here where the great bull dies,Look on thy children in darkness. Oh take our sacrifice!Many roads thou hast fashioned--all of them lead to the Light:Mithras, also a soldier, teach us to die aright!
Words in this poem
- mithras n.
- The sun god of the Persians.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- scorch v. t.
- To burn superficially; to parch, or shrivel, the surface of, by heat; to subject to so much heat as changes color and texture without consuming; as, to scorch linen. [OE. scorchen, probably akin to scorcnen; cf. Norw. skrokken shrunk up, skrekka, skrökka, to shrink, to become wrinkled up, dial. Sw. skråkkla to wrinkle (see Sh]
- blink v. i.
- To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye. [OE. blenken; akin to dan. blinke, Sw. blinka, G. blinken to shine, glance, wink, twinkle, D. blinken to shine; and prob. to D. blikken to glance, twinkle, G. bl]
- drowse v. i.
- To sleep imperfectly or unsoundly; to slumber; to be heavy with sleepiness; to doze. [AS. dr, dr, to sink, become slow or inactive; cf. OD. droosen to be sleepy, fall asleep, LG. dr, druusken, to slumber, fall down with a noise; prob, akin to AS.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song to Mithras 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 Song to Mithras, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/a-song-to-mithras.html, id L20311.
Form and metre
A Song to Mithras is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 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 AABB wallA · allA · awayB · dayB
- 2 AABB heatA · feetA · drowseB · vowsB
- 3 AABB mainA · againA · drawnB · dawnB
- 4 --AA dies · sacrifice · lightA · arightA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mithras, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall! | 14 | /˘···/˘//˘/˘·· |
| 'Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all!' | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Now as the names are answered and the guards are marched away, | 14 | ·····/˘·····˘/ |
| Mithras, also a soldier, give us strength for the day! | 13 | /˘/˘·/˘······ |
| Mithras, God of the Noontide, the heather swims in the heat. | 14 | /˘···/˘·/˘···· |
| Our helmets scorch our foreheads, our sandals burn our feet. | 13 | //˘·//·//˘·/· |
| Now in the ungirt hour--now ere we blink and drowse, | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows! | 13 | /˘/˘·/˘····/· |
| Mithras, God of the Sunset, low on the Western main-- | 13 | /˘···/····/˘· |
| Thou descending immortal, immortal to rise again! | 14 | ·˘/˘˘/˘˘/˘··˘/ |
| Now when the watch is ended, now when the wine is drawn, | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Mithras, also a soldier, keep us pure till the dawn! | 13 | /˘/˘·/˘······ |
| Mithras, God of the Midnight, here where the great bull dies, | 13 | /˘···/······· |
| Look on thy children in darkness. Oh take our sacrifice! | 14 | ···/˘·/˘··//˘· |
| Many roads thou hast fashioned--all of them lead to the Light: | 13 | /···/˘······· |
| Mithras, also a soldier, teach us to die aright! | 13 | /˘/˘·/˘····˘/ |
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.