The Puzzler
The Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo,His mental processes are plain--one knows what he will do,And can logically predicate his finish by his start;But the English--ah, the English--they are quite a race apart.
Their psychology is bovine, their outlook crude and raw.They abandon vital matters to be tickled with a straw,But the straw that they were tickled with--the chaff that they were fed with--They convert into a weaver's beam to break their foeman's head with.
For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State,They arrive at their conclusions--largely inarticulate.Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none;But sometimes in a smoking-room, one learns why things were done.
Yes, sometimes in a smoking-room, through clouds of 'Ers' and 'Ums,'Obliquely and by inference illumination comes,On some step that they have taken, or some action they approve--Embellished with the argot of the Upper Fourth Remove.
In telegraphic sentences, half nodded to their friends,They hint a matter's inwardness--and there the matter ends.And while the Celt is talking from Valencia to Kirkwall,The English--ah, the English!--don't say anything at all!
Words in this poem
- outlook v. t.
- To face down; to outstare.
- argot n.
- A secret language or conventional slang peculiar to thieves, tramps, and vagabonds; flash. [F. Of unknown origin.]
- valencia n.
- A kind of woven fabric for waistcoats, having the weft of wool and the warp of silk or cotton. [Perhaps fr. Valence in France.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Puzzler 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 Puzzler, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-puzzler.html, id L20323.
Form and metre
The Puzzler is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 ballyhooA · doA · startB · apartB
- 2 --AA raw · straw · withA · withA
- 3 AABB stateA · inarticulateA · noneB · doneB
- 4 AABB umsA · comesA · approveB · removeB
- 5 AABB friendsA · endsA · kirkwallB · allB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo, | 14 | ·····/˘˘···/˘/ |
| His mental processes are plain--one knows what he will do, | 14 | ·/˘/˘˘········ |
| And can logically predicate his finish by his start; | 14 | ··/˘˘/˘··/˘··· |
| But the English--ah, the English--they are quite a race apart. | 15 | ··/˘··/˘·····˘/ |
| Their psychology is bovine, their outlook crude and raw. | 14 | ·˘/˘˘·/··/···· |
| They abandon vital matters to be tickled with a straw, | 15 | ·˘/˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| But the straw that they were tickled with--the chaff that they were fed with-- | 16 | ······/˘········ |
| They convert into a weaver's beam to break their foeman's head with. | 16 | ·˘/···/˘········ |
| For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State, | 14 | ··˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| They arrive at their conclusions--largely inarticulate. | 15 | ·˘/··˘/˘/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none; | 14 | /···˘/˘·˘/···· |
| But sometimes in a smoking-room, one learns why things were done. | 14 | ·/···/˘······· |
| Yes, sometimes in a smoking-room, through clouds of 'Ers' and 'Ums,' | 14 | ·/···/˘······· |
| Obliquely and by inference illumination comes, | 14 | ˘/˘··/˘˘˘·˘/˘· |
| On some step that they have taken, or some action they approve-- | 15 | ······/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Embellished with the argot of the Upper Fourth Remove. | 14 | ˘/˘··/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| In telegraphic sentences, half nodded to their friends, | 14 | ·····/˘˘·/˘··· |
| They hint a matter's inwardness--and there the matter ends. | 14 | ···/˘/˘˘···/˘· |
| And while the Celt is talking from Valencia to Kirkwall, | 14 | ·····/˘·˘/˘··· |
| The English--ah, the English!--don't say anything at all! | 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.