The Elephant's Child
This is the mouth-filling song of the race that was run by a Boomer.Run in a single burst--only event of its kind--Started by Big God Nqong from Warrigaborrigarooma,Old Man Kangaroo first, Yellow-Dog Dingo behind.
Kangaroo bounded away, his back-legs working like pistons--Bounded from morning till dark, twenty-five feet at a bound.Yellow-Dog Dingo lay like a yellow cloud in the distance--Much too busy to bark. My! but they covered the ground!
Nobody knows where they went, or followed the track that they flew in,For that Continent hadn't been given a name.They ran thirty degrees, from Torres Straits to the Leeuwin(Look at the Atlas, please), then they ran back as they came.
S'posing you could trot from Adelaide to the Pacific,For an afternoon's run--half what these gentlemen did--You would feel rather hot, but your legs would develop terrific--Yes, my importunate son, you'd be a Marvellous Kid!
Words in this poem
- boomer n.
- One who, or that which, booms.
- dingo n.
- A wild dog found in Australia, but supposed to have introduced at a very early period. It has a wolflike face, bushy tail, and a reddish brown color.
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- continent a.
- Serving to restrain or limit; restraining; opposing. [L. continens, -entis, prop., p. pr. of continere to hold together, to repress: cf. F. continent. See Contain.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Elephant's Child 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 Elephant's Child, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-elephant-s-child.html, id L20381.
Form and metre
The Elephant's Child is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is dactylic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
See other poems in dactylic pentameter.
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 -A-A boomer · kindA · warrigaborrigarooma · behindA
- 2 -A-A pistons · boundA · distance · groundA
- 3 -A-A in · nameA · leeuwin · cameA
- 4 ABAB pacificA · didB · terrificA · kidB
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 dactylic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This is the mouth-filling song of the race that was run by a Boomer. | 17 | ····/˘·········/˘ |
| Run in a single burst--only event of its kind-- | 13 | ···/˘·/˘˘/··· |
| Started by Big God Nqong from Warrigaborrigarooma, | 15 | /˘············· |
| Old Man Kangaroo first, Yellow-Dog Dingo behind. | 13 | ···˘/·/˘·/˘·· |
| Kangaroo bounded away, his back-legs working like pistons-- | 15 | ·˘//˘˘/···/˘·/˘ |
| Bounded from morning till dark, twenty-five feet at a bound. | 14 | /˘·/˘··/˘····· |
| Yellow-Dog Dingo lay like a yellow cloud in the distance-- | 15 | /˘·/˘···/˘···/˘ |
| Much too busy to bark. My! but they covered the ground! | 13 | ··/˘·····/˘·· |
| Nobody knows where they went, or followed the track that they flew in, | 16 | /·······/˘······ |
| For that Continent hadn't been given a name. | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/·· |
| They ran thirty degrees, from Torres Straits to the Leeuwin | 14 | ··/·˘/·/······ |
| (Look at the Atlas, please), then they ran back as they came. | 13 | ···/˘········ |
| S'posing you could trot from Adelaide to the Pacific, | 14 | ······/˘···˘/˘ |
| For an afternoon's run--half what these gentlemen did-- | 12 | ···˘/····/˘· |
| You would feel rather hot, but your legs would develop terrific-- | 16 | ···/˘·····˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Yes, my importunate son, you'd be a Marvellous Kid! | 14 | ··˘/˘˘········ |
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.