The Spring Running
At the hole where he went inRed-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin.Hear what little Red-Eye saith:'Nag, come up and dance with death!'
Eye to eye and head to head,(Keep the measure, Nag.)This shall end when one is dead;(At thy pleasure, Nag.)
Turn for turn and twist for twist--(Run and hide thee, Nag.)Hah! The hooded Death has missed!(Woe betide thee, Nag!)
'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.'
Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,And black are the waters that sparkled so green.The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find usAt rest in the hollows that rustle between.Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow;Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- betide v. t.
- To happen to; to befall; to come to ; as, woe betide the wanderer. [OE. bitiden; pref. bi-, be- + tiden, fr. AS. tidan, to happen, fr. tid time. See Tide.]
- rustle v. i.
- To make a quick succession of small sounds, like the rubbing or moving of silk cloth or dry leaves. [AS. hristlan to rustle; or cf. Sw. rusta to stir, make a riot, or E. rush, v.]
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Spring Running 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 Spring Running, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-spring-running.html, id L20412.
Form and metre
The Spring Running is 21 lines in 5 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 5 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 inA · skinA · saithB · deathB
- 2 ABAB headA · nagB · deadA · nagB
- 3 ABAB twistA · nagB · missedA · nagB
- 5 ABAB-C-C usA · greenB · usA · betweenB · pillow · easeC · thee · seasC
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At the hole where he went in | 7 | ······· |
| Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin. | 8 | ···˘·/˘· |
| Hear what little Red-Eye saith: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| 'Nag, come up and dance with death!' | 7 | ······· |
| Eye to eye and head to head, | 7 | ······· |
| (Keep the measure, Nag.) | 5 | ··/˘· |
| This shall end when one is dead; | 7 | ······· |
| (At thy pleasure, Nag.) | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Turn for turn and twist for twist-- | 7 | ······· |
| (Run and hide thee, Nag.) | 5 | ····· |
| Hah! The hooded Death has missed! | 8 | ··/˘···˘ |
| (Woe betide thee, Nag!) | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.' | 6 | /˘···· |
| Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| And black are the waters that sparkled so green. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us | 11 | ····/˘·/··· |
| At rest in the hollows that rustle between. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow; | 12 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘ |
| Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease! | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas. | 11 | ˘/······/˘· |
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.