The Children's Song
Land of our Birth, we pledge to theeOur love and toil in the years to be;When we are grown and take our place,As men and women with our race.
Father in Heaven who lovest all,Oh help Thy children when they call;That they may build from age to age,An undefiled heritage.
Teach us to bear the yoke in youth,With steadfastness and careful truth;That, in our time, Thy Grace may giveThe Truth whereby the Nations live.
Teach us to rule ourselves alway,Controlled and cleanly night and day;That we may bring, if need arise.No maimed or worthless sacrifice.
Teach us to look in all our ends,On Thee for judge, and not our friends;That we, with Thee, may walk uncowedBy fear or favour of the crowd.
Teach us the Strength that cannot seek,By deed or thought, to hurt the weak;That, under Thee, we may possessMan's strength to comfort man's distress.
Teach us Delight in simple things,And Mirth that has no bitter springs;Forgiveness free of evil done,And Love to all men 'neath the sun!
Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride,For whose dear sake our fathers died;O Motherland, we pledge to thee,Head, heart, and hand through the years to be!
Words in this poem
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- steadfastness n.
- The quality or state of being steadfast; firmness; fixedness; constancy.
- cleanly a.
- Habitually clean; pure; innocent. [From Clean.]
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- motherland n.
- The country of one's ancestors; -- same as fatherland.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Children's Song 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, The Children's Song, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-children-s-song.html, id L20358.
Form and metre
The Children's Song is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 6 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic 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 AABB theeA · beA · placeB · raceB
- 2 AABB allA · callA · ageB · heritageB
- 3 AABB youthA · truthA · giveB · liveB
- 5 AA-- endsA · friendsA · uncowed · crowd
- 6 AABB seekA · weakA · possessB · distressB
- 7 AABB thingsA · springsA · doneB · sunB
- 8 AABB prideA · diedA · theeB · beB
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee | 8 | ··/····· |
| Our love and toil in the years to be; | 9 | /········ |
| When we are grown and take our place, | 8 | ······/· |
| As men and women with our race. | 8 | ···/˘·/· |
| Father in Heaven who lovest all, | 8 | /˘·/···· |
| Oh help Thy children when they call; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That they may build from age to age, | 8 | ········ |
| An undefiled heritage. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Teach us to bear the yoke in youth, | 8 | ········ |
| With steadfastness and careful truth; | 8 | ·/·˘·/˘· |
| That, in our time, Thy Grace may give | 8 | ··/····· |
| The Truth whereby the Nations live. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Teach us to rule ourselves alway, | 9 | ····˘˘//˘ |
| Controlled and cleanly night and day; | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| That we may bring, if need arise. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| No maimed or worthless sacrifice. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Teach us to look in all our ends, | 8 | ······/· |
| On Thee for judge, and not our friends; | 8 | ······/· |
| That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed | 8 | ········ |
| By fear or favour of the crowd. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Teach us the Strength that cannot seek, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| By deed or thought, to hurt the weak; | 8 | ········ |
| That, under Thee, we may possess | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Man's strength to comfort man's distress. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Teach us Delight in simple things, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And Mirth that has no bitter springs; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Forgiveness free of evil done, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| And Love to all men 'neath the sun! | 8 | ········ |
| Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride, | 8 | ··/·/·/· |
| For whose dear sake our fathers died; | 8 | ····//˘· |
| O Motherland, we pledge to thee, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Head, heart, and hand through the years to be! | 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.