Pig
'Stopped in the straight when the race was his own!Look at him cutting it--cur to the bone!'Ask ere the youngster be rated and chiddenWhat did he carry and how was he ridden?Maybe they used him too much at the start;Maybe Fate's weight-cloths are breaking his heart.
In the Pride of his Youth.
'And some are sulky, while some will plunge.(So ho! Steady! Stand still, you!)Some you must gentle, and some you must lunge.(There! There! Who wants to kill you?)Some--there are losses in every trade--Will break their hearts ere bitted and made,Will fight like fiends as the rope cuts hard,And die dumb-mad in the breaking-yard.'
Words in this poem
- youngster n.
- A young person; a youngling; a lad.
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pig 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, Pig, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/pig.html, id L20294.
Form and metre
Pig is 15 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines.
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 AABBCC ownA · boneA · chiddenB · riddenB · startC · heartC
- 3 ABABCCDD plungeA · youB · lungeA · youB · tradeC · madeC · hardD · yardD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Stopped in the straight when the race was his own! | 10 | ·········· |
| Look at him cutting it--cur to the bone!' | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Ask ere the youngster be rated and chidden | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| What did he carry and how was he ridden? | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Maybe they used him too much at the start; | 10 | /˘········ |
| Maybe Fate's weight-cloths are breaking his heart. | 10 | /˘····/˘·· |
| In the Pride of his Youth. | 6 | ······ |
| 'And some are sulky, while some will plunge. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| (So ho! Steady! Stand still, you!) | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Some you must gentle, and some you must lunge. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| (There! There! Who wants to kill you?) | 7 | ······· |
| Some--there are losses in every trade-- | 10 | ···/˘·/˘˘· |
| Will break their hearts ere bitted and made, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Will fight like fiends as the rope cuts hard, | 9 | ········· |
| And die dumb-mad in the breaking-yard.' | 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.