False Dawn
Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide,By the hot sun emptied, and blistered and dried;Log in the reh-grass, hidden and lone;Bund where the earth-rat's mounds are strown;Cave in the bank where the sly stream steals;Aloe that stabs at the belly and heels,Jump if you dare on a steed untried--Safer it is to go wide--go wide!Hark, from in front where the best men ride;--'Pull to the off, boys! Wide! Go wide!'
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- bund n.
- League; confederacy; esp. the confederation of German states. [G.]
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
False Dawn 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, False Dawn, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/false-dawn.html, id L20302.
Form and metre
False Dawn is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABBCCAAAA hideA · driedA · loneB · strownB · stealsC · heelsC · untriedA · wideA · rideA · wideA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| By the hot sun emptied, and blistered and dried; | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Log in the reh-grass, hidden and lone; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Bund where the earth-rat's mounds are strown; | 8 | ········ |
| Cave in the bank where the sly stream steals; | 9 | ········· |
| Aloe that stabs at the belly and heels, | 10 | /·····/˘·· |
| Jump if you dare on a steed untried-- | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Safer it is to go wide--go wide! | 9 | /˘······· |
| Hark, from in front where the best men ride;-- | 9 | ········· |
| 'Pull to the off, boys! Wide! Go wide!' | 8 | ········ |
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.