The Sailor
I tell this tale, which is stricter true,Just by way of convincing youHow very little, since things was made,Things have altered in the shipwright's trade.
In Blackwall Basin yesterdayA China barque re-fitting lay,When a fat old man with snow-white hairCame up to watch us working there.
Now there wasn't a knot which the riggers knewBut the old man made it--and better too;Nor there wasn't a sheet, or a lift, or a brace.But the old man knew its lead and place.
Then up and spoke the caulkyers bold,Which was packing the pump in the afterhold:'Since you with us have made so free,Will you kindly tell what your name might be?'
The old man kindly answered them:'It might be Japheth, it might be Shem,Or it might be Ham (though his skin was dark),Whereas it is Noah, commanding the Ark.
'Your wheel is new and your pumps are strange,But otherwise I perceive no change,And in less than a week, if she did not ground,I'd sail this hooker the wide world round!'
Words in this poem
- barque n.
- Formerly, any small sailing vessel, as a pinnace, fishing smack, etc.; also, a rowing boat; a barge. Now applied poetically to a sailing vessel or boat of any kind. [F. barque, fr. Sp. or It. barca, fr. LL. barca for barica. See Barge.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- whereas adv.
- At which place; where.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sailor 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 Sailor, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-sailor.html, id L20419.
Form and metre
The Sailor is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
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 trueA · youA · madeB · tradeB
- 2 AABB yesterdayA · layA · hairB · thereB
- 3 AABB knewA · tooA · braceB · placeB
- 4 AABB boldA · afterholdA · freeB · beB
- 5 --AA them · shem · darkA · arkA
- 6 AABB strangeA · changeA · groundB · roundB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I tell this tale, which is stricter true, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Just by way of convincing you | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| How very little, since things was made, | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| Things have altered in the shipwright's trade. | 9 | ··/˘··/·· |
| In Blackwall Basin yesterday | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| A China barque re-fitting lay, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When a fat old man with snow-white hair | 9 | ········· |
| Came up to watch us working there. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Now there wasn't a knot which the riggers knew | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| But the old man made it--and better too; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor there wasn't a sheet, or a lift, or a brace. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| But the old man knew its lead and place. | 9 | ········· |
| Then up and spoke the caulkyers bold, | 8 | ········ |
| Which was packing the pump in the afterhold: | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| 'Since you with us have made so free, | 8 | ········ |
| Will you kindly tell what your name might be?' | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| The old man kindly answered them: | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| 'It might be Japheth, it might be Shem, | 9 | ········· |
| Or it might be Ham (though his skin was dark), | 10 | ·········· |
| Whereas it is Noah, commanding the Ark. | 11 | ˘/··/˘˘/˘·· |
| 'Your wheel is new and your pumps are strange, | 9 | ········· |
| But otherwise I perceive no change, | 9 | ·/˘··˘/·· |
| And in less than a week, if she did not ground, | 11 | ··········· |
| I'd sail this hooker the wide world round!' | 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.