Bagheera
In the cage my life began;Well I know the worth of Man.By the Broken Lock that freed--Man-cub, 'ware the Man-cub's breed!Scenting-dew or starlight pale,Choose no tangled tree-cat trail.Pack or council, hunt or den,Cry no truce with Jackal-Men.Feed them silence when they say:'Come with us an easy way.'Feed them silence when they seekHelp of thine to hurt the weak.Make no bandar's boast of skill;Hold thy peace above the kill.Let nor call nor song nor signTurn thee from thy hunting-line.(Morning mist or twilight clear,Serve him, Wardens of the Deer!)Wood and Water, Wind and Tree,Jungle-Favour go with thee!
Words in this poem
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- jungle n.
- A dense growth of brushwood, grasses, reeds, vines, etc.; an almost impenetrable thicket of trees, canes, and reedy vegetation, as in India, Africa, Australia, and Brazil. [Hind. jangal desert, forest, jungle; Skr. ja desert.]
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bagheera 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, Bagheera, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/bagheera.html, id L20315.
Form and metre
Bagheera is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ beganA · manA · freedB · breedB · paleC · trailC · denD · menD · sayE · wayE · seekF · weakF · skillG · killG · signH · lineH · clearI · deerI · treeJ · theeJ
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In the cage my life began; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Well I know the worth of Man. | 7 | ······· |
| By the Broken Lock that freed-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Man-cub, 'ware the Man-cub's breed! | 7 | ······· |
| Scenting-dew or starlight pale, | 7 | /˘··/·· |
| Choose no tangled tree-cat trail. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Pack or council, hunt or den, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Cry no truce with Jackal-Men. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Feed them silence when they say: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| 'Come with us an easy way.' | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Feed them silence when they seek | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Help of thine to hurt the weak. | 7 | ······· |
| Make no bandar's boast of skill; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Hold thy peace above the kill. | 7 | ······· |
| Let nor call nor song nor sign | 7 | ······· |
| Turn thee from thy hunting-line. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| (Morning mist or twilight clear, | 7 | /˘··/·· |
| Serve him, Wardens of the Deer!) | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Wood and Water, Wind and Tree, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Jungle-Favour go with thee! | 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.