Darzee's Chaunt
Singer and tailor am I--Doubled the joys that I know--Proud of my lilt to the sky,Proud of the house that I sew--Over and under, so weave I my music--so weave I the house that I sew.
Sing to your fledglings again,Mother, O lift up your head!Evil that plagued us is slain,Death in the garden lies dead.Terror that hid in the roses is impotent--flung on the dung-hill and dead!
Who hath delivered us, who?Tell me his nest and his name.Rikki, the valiant, the true,Tikki, with eyeballs of flame,Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of flame.
Give him the Thanks of the Birds,Bowing with tail-feathers spread!Praise him with nightingale-words--Nay, I will praise him instead.Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed Rikki, with eyeballs of red!
Words in this poem
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Darzee's Chaunt 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, Darzee's Chaunt, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/darzee-s-chaunt.html, id L20432.
Form and metre
Darzee's Chaunt is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABB.
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 ABABB iA · knowB · skyA · sewB · sewB
- 2 ABABB againA · headB · slainA · deadB · deadB
- 3 ABABB whoA · nameB · trueA · flameB · flameB
- 4 ABABB birdsA · spreadB · wordsA · insteadB · redB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Singer and tailor am I-- | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Doubled the joys that I know-- | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| Proud of my lilt to the sky, | 7 | ······· |
| Proud of the house that I sew-- | 7 | ······· |
| Over and under, so weave I my music--so weave I the house that I sew. | 18 | ········/˘········ |
| Sing to your fledglings again, | 7 | ···/˘˘/ |
| Mother, O lift up your head! | 7 | /˘····· |
| Evil that plagued us is slain, | 8 | /˘··˘··· |
| Death in the garden lies dead. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Terror that hid in the roses is impotent--flung on the dung-hill and dead! | 18 | /˘····/˘·/˘······· |
| Who hath delivered us, who? | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| Tell me his nest and his name. | 7 | ······· |
| Rikki, the valiant, the true, | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Tikki, with eyeballs of flame, | 7 | ···/··· |
| Rik-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of flame. | 17 | ······/˘··/˘·/··· |
| Give him the Thanks of the Birds, | 7 | ······· |
| Bowing with tail-feathers spread! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Praise him with nightingale-words-- | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Nay, I will praise him instead. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Hear! I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed Rikki, with eyeballs of red! | 19 | ·········/˘·/˘·/··· |
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.