Prophets at Home
Prophets have honour all over the Earth,Except in the village where they were born.Where such as knew them boys from birth,Nature-ally hold 'em in scorn.
When Prophets are naughty and young and vain,They make a won'erful grievance of it;(You can see by their writings how they complain),But O, 'tis won'erful good for the Prophet!
There's nothing Nineveh Town can give(Nor being swallowed by whales between),Makes up for the place where a man's folk live,Which don't care nothing what he has been.He might ha' been that, or he might ha' been this,But they love and they hate him for what he is.
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- naughty a.
- Having little or nothing.
- grievance n.
- A cause of uneasiness and complaint; a wrong done and suffered; that which gives ground for remonstrance or resistance, as arising from injustice, tyranny, etc.; injury. [OF. grcvance. See Grieve, v. t.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prophets at Home 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, Prophets at Home, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/prophets-at-home.html, id L20337.
Form and metre
Prophets at Home is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas.
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 ABAB earthA · bornB · birthA · scornB
- 2 ABAB vainA · itB · complainA · prophetB
- 3 A-A--- giveA · between · liveA · been · this · is
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Prophets have honour all over the Earth, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| Except in the village where they were born. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Where such as knew them boys from birth, | 8 | ········ |
| Nature-ally hold 'em in scorn. | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| When Prophets are naughty and young and vain, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| They make a won'erful grievance of it; | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| (You can see by their writings how they complain), | 11 | ·····/˘··˘/ |
| But O, 'tis won'erful good for the Prophet! | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| There's nothing Nineveh Town can give | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| (Nor being swallowed by whales between), | 8 | ·//˘···· |
| Makes up for the place where a man's folk live, | 10 | ·········· |
| Which don't care nothing what he has been. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| He might ha' been that, or he might ha' been this, | 11 | ··········· |
| But they love and they hate him for what he is. | 11 | ··········· |
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