Butterflies
Eyes aloft, over dangerous places,The children follow the butterflies,And, in the sweat of their upturned faces,Slash with a net at the empty skies.
So it goes they fall amid brambles,And sting their toes on the nettle-tops,Till, after a thousand scratches and scrambles,They wipe their brows and the hunting stops.
Then to quiet them comes their fatherAnd stills the riot of pain and grief,Saying, 'Little ones, go and gatherOut of my garden a cabbage-leaf.
'You will find on it whorls and clots ofDull grey eggs that, properly fed,Turn, by way of the worm, to lots ofGlorious butterflies raised from the dead...,'
'Heaven is beautiful, Earth is ugly,'The three-dimensioned preacher saith,So we must not look where the snail and the slug lieFor Psyche's birth.... And that is our death!
Words in this poem
- slash v. t.
- To cut by striking violently and at random; to cut in long slits. [OE. slaschen, of uncertain origin; cf. OF. esclachier to break, esclechier, esclichier, to break, and E. slate, slice, slit, v. t.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Butterflies 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, Butterflies, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/butterflies.html, id L20397.
Form and metre
Butterflies is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
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 ABAB placesA · butterfliesB · facesA · skiesB
- 2 ABAB bramblesA · topsB · scramblesA · stopsB
- 3 -A-A father · griefA · gather · leafA
- 4 ABAB ofA · fedB · ofA · deadB
- 5 -A-A ugly · saithA · lie · deathA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Eyes aloft, over dangerous places, | 9 | ·˘/·/˘˘/˘ |
| The children follow the butterflies, | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| And, in the sweat of their upturned faces, | 10 | ······˘//˘ |
| Slash with a net at the empty skies. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| So it goes they fall amid brambles, | 9 | ·····˘//˘ |
| And sting their toes on the nettle-tops, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Till, after a thousand scratches and scrambles, | 11 | ····/˘/˘·/˘ |
| They wipe their brows and the hunting stops. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Then to quiet them comes their father | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And stills the riot of pain and grief, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Saying, 'Little ones, go and gather | 9 | /˘/˘···/˘ |
| Out of my garden a cabbage-leaf. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| 'You will find on it whorls and clots of | 9 | ········· |
| Dull grey eggs that, properly fed, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Turn, by way of the worm, to lots of | 9 | ········· |
| Glorious butterflies raised from the dead...,' | 9 | /˘/˘····· |
| 'Heaven is beautiful, Earth is ugly,' | 9 | /·/˘˘··/˘ |
| The three-dimensioned preacher saith, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| So we must not look where the snail and the slug lie | 12 | ············ |
| For Psyche's birth.... And that is our death! | 9 | ·/˘····/· |
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.