Kaa
Anger is the egg of Fear--Only lidless eyes are clear.Cobra-poison none may leech,Even so with Cobra-speech.Open talk shall call to theeStrength, whose mate is Courtesy.Send no lunge beyond thy length;Lend no rotten bough thy strength.Gauge thy gape with buck or goat,Lest thine eye should choke thy throatAfter gorging, wouldst thou sleep?Look thy den be hid and deep,Lest a wrong, by thee forgot,Draw thy killer to the spot.East and West and North and South,Wash thy hide and close thy mouth.(Pit and rift and blue pool-brim,Middle-Jungle follow him!)Wood and Water, Wind and Tree,Jungle-Favour go with thee!
Words in this poem
- lidless a.
- Having no lid, or not covered with the lids, as the eyes; hence, sleepless; watchful.
- 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,]
- 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
Kaa 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, Kaa, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/kaa.html, id L20314.
Form and metre
Kaa is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines. 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 AABBC-DDEEFFGGHHIICC fearA · clearA · leechB · speechB · theeC · courtesy · lengthD · strengthD · goatE · throatE · sleepF · deepF · forgotG · spotG · southH · mouthH · brimI · himI · treeC · theeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Anger is the egg of Fear-- | 7 | /˘····· |
| Only lidless eyes are clear. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Cobra-poison none may leech, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Even so with Cobra-speech. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Open talk shall call to thee | 7 | /˘····· |
| Strength, whose mate is Courtesy. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Send no lunge beyond thy length; | 7 | ······· |
| Lend no rotten bough thy strength. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Gauge thy gape with buck or goat, | 7 | ······· |
| Lest thine eye should choke thy throat | 7 | ······· |
| After gorging, wouldst thou sleep? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Look thy den be hid and deep, | 7 | ······· |
| Lest a wrong, by thee forgot, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Draw thy killer to the spot. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| East and West and North and South, | 7 | ······· |
| Wash thy hide and close thy mouth. | 7 | ······· |
| (Pit and rift and blue pool-brim, | 7 | ······· |
| Middle-Jungle follow him!) | 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.