Chapter Headings: The Naulahka
We meet in an evil landThat is near to the gates of hell.I wait for thy commandTo serve, to speed or withstand.And thou sayest, I do not well?
Oh Love, the flowers so redAre only tongues of flame,The earth is full of the dead,The new-killed, restless dead.There is danger beneath and o'erhead,And I guard thy gates in fearOf peril and jeopardy,Of words thou canst not hear,Of signs thou canst not see--And thou sayest 'tis ill that I came?
This I saw when the rites were done,And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone,And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone--Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see,And the Gods of the East made mouths at me.
Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,And the epitaph drear: 'A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.'
Beat off in our last fight were we?The greater need to seek the sea.For Fortune changeth as the moonTo caravel and picaroon.Then Eastward Ho! or Westward Ho!Whichever wind may meetest blow.Our quarry sails on either sea,Fat prey for such bold lads as we.And every sun-dried buccaneerMust hand and reef and watch and steer.And bear great wrath of sea and skyBefore the plate-ships wallow by.Now, as our tall bows take the foam,Let no man turn his heart to home,Save to desire treasure more,And larger warehouse for his store,When treasure won from Santos BayShall make our sea-washed village gay.
Because I sought it far from men,In deserts and alone,I found it burning overhead,The jewel of a Throne.
Because I sought--I sought it soAnd spent my days to find--It blazed one moment ere it leftThe blacker night behind.
When a lover hies abroad.Looking for his love,Azrael smiling sheathes his sword,Heaven smiles above.Earth and seaHis servants be,And to lesser compass round,That his love be sooner found.
There was a strife 'twixt man and maid--Oh that was at the birth of time!But what befell 'twixt man and maid,Oh that's beyond the grip of rhyme.'Twas, 'Sweet, I must not bide with you,'And 'Love, I cannot bide alone';For both were young and both were true,And both were hard as the nether stone.
There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay,When the artist's hand is potting it;There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay,When the poet's pad is blotting it;There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the lineAt the Royal Acade-my;But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to Cheddar cheeseWhen it comes to a well-made Lie:To a quite unwreckable Lie,To a most impeccable Lie!To a water-tight, fire-proof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock, steel-face Lie!Not a private hansom Lie,But a pair-and-brougham Lie,Not a little-place-at-Tooting, but a country-house-with-shootingAnd a ring-fence-deer-park Lie.
We be the Gods of the East--Older than all--Masters of Mourning and FeastHow shall we fall?
Will they gape for the husks that ye profferOr yearn to your song?And we--have we nothing to offerWho ruled them so long--In the fume of the incense, the clash of the cymbal, the blare of the conch and the gong?
Over the strife of the schoolsLow the day burns--Back with the kine from the poolsEach one returnsTo the life that he knows where the altar-flame glows and the tulsi is trimmed in the urns.
Words in this poem 20
- jeopardy n.
- Exposure to death, loss, or injury; hazard; danger. [OE. jupartie, juperti, jeuparti, OF. jeu parti an even game, a game in which the chances are even; OF. jeu, ju, F. jeu (L. jocus jest) + F. partier to divide, L]
- hustle v. t.
- To shake together in confusion; to push, jostle, or crowd rudely; to handle roughly; as, to hustle a person out of a room. [D. hustelen to shake, fr. husten to shake. Cf. Hotchpotch.]
- tombstone n.
- A stone erected over a grave, to preserve the memory of the deceased.
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- caravel n.
- A name given to several kinds of vessels. [F. caravelle (cf. It. caravella, Sp. carabela), fr. Sp. caraba a kind of vessel, fr. L. carabus a kind of light boat, fr. Gr. [written also caravel and caravell]
- picaroon n.
- One who plunders; especially, a plunderer of wrecks; a pirate; a corsair; a marauder; a sharper. Sir W. Temple. [Sp. picaron, aug. of picaro roguish, n., a rogue.]
- whichever pron.
- Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one (of two or more) which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
- buccaneer n.
- A robber upon the sea; a pirate; -- a term applied especially to the piratical adventurers who made depredations on the Spaniards in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. [F. boucanier, fr. boucaner to smoke or broil meat and fish, to hunt wild beasts for their skins, boucan a smoking place for meat or fish, gridiron for smoking: ]
- 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,]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- nether a.
- Situated down or below; lying beneath, or in the lower part; having a lower position; belonging to the region below; lower; under; -- opposed to upper. [OE. nethere, neithere, AS. ni, fr. the adv. ni downward; akin to neo below, beneath, D. neder down, G. nieder, Sw. nedre below, nether, a. & adv., and also to S]
- cheddar a.
- Of or pertaining to, or made at, Cheddar, in England; as, Cheddar cheese.
- impeccable a.
- Not liable to sin; exempt from the possibility of doing wrong. [L. impeccabilis; pref. im- not + peccare to err, to sin: cf. F. impeccable.]
- hansom n.
- A light, low, two-wheeled covered carriage with the driver's seat elevated behind, the reins being passed over the top. [From the name of the inventor.]
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- fume n.
- Exhalation; volatile matter (esp. noxious vapor or smoke) ascending in a dense body; smoke; vapor; reek; as, the fumes of tobacco. [L. fumus; akin to Skr. dh smoke, dh to shake, fan a flame, cf. Gr. fum smoke, F. fumée. Cf. Dust, n., Femerell, Thyme.]
- cymbal n.
- A musical instrument used by the ancients. It is supposed to have been similar to the modern kettle drum, though perhaps smaller. [OE. cimbale, simbale, OF. cimbale, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. kubha pot. Cf. Chime.]
- blare v. i.
- To sound loudly and somewhat harshly. [OE. blaren, bloren, to cry, woop; cf. G. plärren to bleat, D. blaren to bleat, cry, weep. Prob. an imitative word, but cf. also E. blast. Cf. Blore.]
- gong n.
- A privy or jakes. Chaucer. Gong farmer, Gong man, a cleaner of privies. [AS. gong, gang, a going, passage, drain. See Gang.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter Headings: The Naulahka 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, Chapter Headings: The Naulahka, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/chapter-headings-the-naulahka.html, id L20325.
Form and metre
Chapter Headings: The Naulahka is 95 lines in 13 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABAAB landA · hellB · commandA · withstandA · wellB
- 2 ABAAAC-C-B redA · flameB · deadA · deadA · o'erheadA · fearC · jeopardy · hearC · see · cameB
- 3 -AABB done · aloneA · stoneA · seeB · meB
- 4 AABB brownA · downA · deceasedB · eastB
- 5 AABBCCAADDEEFFGGHH weA · seaA · moonB · picaroonB · hoC · blowC · seaA · weA · buccaneerD · steerD · skyE · byE · foamF · homeF · moreG · storeG · bayH · gayH
- 6 -A-A men · aloneA · overhead · throneA
- 7 -A-A so · findA · left · behindA
- 8 -A-ABBCC abroad · loveA · sword · aboveA · seaB · beB · roundC · foundC
- 9 ABABCDCD maidA · timeB · maidA · rhymeB · youC · aloneD · trueC · stoneD
- 10 ABAB-C-CCCCCC-C clayA · itB · layA · itB · line · myC · cheese · lieC · lieC · lieC · lieC · lieC · lieC · shooting · lieC
- 11 ABAB eastA · allB · feastA · fallB
- 12 -A-AA proffer · songA · offer · longA · gongA
- 13 ABABB schoolsA · burnsB · poolsA · returnsB · urnsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We meet in an evil land | 7 | ····/˘· |
| That is near to the gates of hell. | 8 | ········ |
| I wait for thy command | 6 | ····˘/ |
| To serve, to speed or withstand. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And thou sayest, I do not well? | 7 | ······· |
| Oh Love, the flowers so red | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Are only tongues of flame, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The earth is full of the dead, | 7 | ······· |
| The new-killed, restless dead. | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| There is danger beneath and o'erhead, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And I guard thy gates in fear | 7 | ······· |
| Of peril and jeopardy, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘˘ |
| Of words thou canst not hear, | 6 | ······ |
| Of signs thou canst not see-- | 6 | ······ |
| And thou sayest 'tis ill that I came? | 8 | ········ |
| This I saw when the rites were done, | 8 | ········ |
| And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see, | 11 | ··········· |
| And the Gods of the East made mouths at me. | 10 | ·········· |
| Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown, | 17 | ·······/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down; | 18 | ··/˘···/˘···/˘·/˘· |
| And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, | 19 | ········/········˘/ |
| And the epitaph drear: 'A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.' | 17 | ··/˘·········/˘·· |
| Beat off in our last fight were we? | 8 | ···/···· |
| The greater need to seek the sea. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For Fortune changeth as the moon | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To caravel and picaroon. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Then Eastward Ho! or Westward Ho! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Whichever wind may meetest blow. | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Our quarry sails on either sea, | 8 | //˘··/˘· |
| Fat prey for such bold lads as we. | 8 | ········ |
| And every sun-dried buccaneer | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Must hand and reef and watch and steer. | 8 | ········ |
| And bear great wrath of sea and sky | 8 | ········ |
| Before the plate-ships wallow by. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Now, as our tall bows take the foam, | 8 | ··/····· |
| Let no man turn his heart to home, | 8 | ········ |
| Save to desire treasure more, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| And larger warehouse for his store, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| When treasure won from Santos Bay | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Shall make our sea-washed village gay. | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| Because I sought it far from men, | 8 | ········ |
| In deserts and alone, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| I found it burning overhead, | 8 | ···/˘/˘/ |
| The jewel of a Throne. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Because I sought--I sought it so | 8 | ········ |
| And spent my days to find-- | 6 | ······ |
| It blazed one moment ere it left | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The blacker night behind. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When a lover hies abroad. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Looking for his love, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Azrael smiling sheathes his sword, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Heaven smiles above. | 5 | /˘··· |
| Earth and sea | 3 | ··· |
| His servants be, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And to lesser compass round, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| That his love be sooner found. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| There was a strife 'twixt man and maid-- | 8 | ········ |
| Oh that was at the birth of time! | 8 | ········ |
| But what befell 'twixt man and maid, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Oh that's beyond the grip of rhyme. | 8 | ········ |
| 'Twas, 'Sweet, I must not bide with you,' | 8 | ········ |
| And 'Love, I cannot bide alone'; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| For both were young and both were true, | 8 | ········ |
| And both were hard as the nether stone. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| When the artist's hand is potting it; | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| When the poet's pad is blotting it; | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the line | 14 | ··/˘·····/˘··· |
| At the Royal Acade-my; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to Cheddar cheese | 14 | ··/˘·······/˘· |
| When it comes to a well-made Lie: | 8 | ········ |
| To a quite unwreckable Lie, | 8 | ········ |
| To a most impeccable Lie! | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| To a water-tight, fire-proof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock, steel-face Lie! | 17 | ··/˘·/·/˘/······· |
| Not a private hansom Lie, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| But a pair-and-brougham Lie, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Not a little-place-at-Tooting, but a country-house-with-shooting | 16 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And a ring-fence-deer-park Lie. | 7 | ······· |
| We be the Gods of the East-- | 7 | ······· |
| Older than all-- | 4 | /˘·· |
| Masters of Mourning and Feast | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| How shall we fall? | 4 | ···· |
| Will they gape for the husks that ye proffer | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Or yearn to your song? | 5 | ····· |
| And we--have we nothing to offer | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Who ruled them so long-- | 5 | ····· |
| In the fume of the incense, the clash of the cymbal, the blare of the conch and the gong? | 21 | ·····/·····/˘········ |
| Over the strife of the schools | 7 | ······· |
| Low the day burns-- | 4 | ···· |
| Back with the kine from the pools | 7 | ······· |
| Each one returns | 4 | ··˘/ |
| To the life that he knows where the altar-flame glows and the tulsi is trimmed in the urns. | 21 | ········/˘··········· |
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