The Rabbi's Song
If Thought can reach to Heaven,On Heaven let it dwell,For fear thy Thought be givenLike power to reach to Hell.For fear the desolationAnd darkness of thy mindPerplex an habitationWhich thou hast left behind.
Let nothing linger after--No whimpering ghost remain,In wall, or beam, or rafter,Of any hate or pain.Cleanse and call home thy spirit,Deny her leave to cast,On aught thy heirs inherit,The shadow of her past.For think, in all thy sadness,What road our griefs may take;Whose brain reflect our madness,Or whom our terrors shake.For think, lest any languishBy cause of thy distress--The arrows of our anguishFly farther than we guess.
Our lives, our tears, as water,Are spilled upon the ground;God giveth no man quarter,Yet God a means hath found,Though faith and hope have vanished,And even love grows dim--A means whereby His banishedBe not expelled from Him.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- rafter n.
- Originally, any rough and somewhat heavy piece of timber. Now, commonly, one of the timbers of a roof which are put on sloping, according to the inclination of the roof. See Illust. of Queen-post. [AS. ræfter; akin to E. raft, n. See Raft.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Rabbi'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 Rabbi's Song, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-rabbi-s-song.html, id L20374.
Form and metre
The Rabbi's Song is 32 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -A-ABCBC heaven · dwellA · given · hellA · desolationB · mindC · habitationB · behindC
- 2 ABAB-C-CDEDEFGFG afterA · remainB · rafterA · painB · spirit · castC · inherit · pastC · sadnessD · takeE · madnessD · shakeE · languishF · distressG · anguishF · guessG
- 3 -A-ABCBC water · groundA · quarter · foundA · vanishedB · dimC · banishedB · himC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If Thought can reach to Heaven, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| On Heaven let it dwell, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For fear thy Thought be given | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Like power to reach to Hell. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| For fear the desolation | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| And darkness of thy mind | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Perplex an habitation | 7 | ˘/··˘/˘ |
| Which thou hast left behind. | 6 | ······ |
| Let nothing linger after-- | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| No whimpering ghost remain, | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| In wall, or beam, or rafter, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Of any hate or pain. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Cleanse and call home thy spirit, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Deny her leave to cast, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| On aught thy heirs inherit, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| The shadow of her past. | 6 | ·/···· |
| For think, in all thy sadness, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| What road our griefs may take; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Whose brain reflect our madness, | 8 | ··˘//˘/˘ |
| Or whom our terrors shake. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| For think, lest any languish | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| By cause of thy distress-- | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The arrows of our anguish | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Fly farther than we guess. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Our lives, our tears, as water, | 9 | /˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Are spilled upon the ground; | 7 | ··˘···· |
| God giveth no man quarter, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Yet God a means hath found, | 6 | ······ |
| Though faith and hope have vanished, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And even love grows dim-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A means whereby His banished | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Be not expelled from Him. | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
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.