The Oxen
The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant,The saplings reeling in the path he trod,Declare his might--our lord the Elephant,Chief of the ways of God.
The black bulk heaving where the oxen pant,The bowed head toiling where the guns careen,Declare our might--our slave the ElephantAnd servant of the Queen.
Words in this poem
- aslant adv.
- Toward one side; in a slanting direction; obliquely. [Pref. a- + slant.]
- pant v. i.
- To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp. [Cf. F. panteler to gasp for breath, OF. panteisier to be breathless, F. pantois out of breath; perh. akin to E. phantom, the verb prob. orig. meaning, to have t]
- careen v. t.
- To cause (a vessel) to lean over so that she floats on one side, leaving the other side out of water and accessible for repairs below the water line; to case to be off the keel. [OF. cariner, F. caréner, fr. OF. carène, the bottom of a ship, keel, fr. L. carina.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Oxen 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 Oxen, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-oxen.html, id L20347.
Form and metre
The Oxen is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABAB aslantA · trodB · elephantA · godB
- 2 ABAB pantA · careenB · elephantA · queenB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The saplings reeling in the path he trod, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Declare his might--our lord the Elephant, | 11 | ˘/··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Chief of the ways of God. | 6 | ······ |
| The black bulk heaving where the oxen pant, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The bowed head toiling where the guns careen, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Declare our might--our slave the Elephant | 11 | ˘//·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And servant of the Queen. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.