The Wet Litany
When the water's countenanceBlurrs 'twixt glance and second glance;When our tattered smokes forerun.Ashen 'neath a silvered sun;When the curtain of the hazeShuts upon our helpless ways--Hear the Channel Fleet at sea;Libera nos Domine!
When the engines' bated pulseScarcely thrills the nosing hulls;When the wash along the sideSounds, a sudden, magnified;When the intolerable blastMarks each blindfold minute passed;
When the fog-buoy's squattering flightGuides us through the haggard night;When the warning bugle blows;When the lettered doorways close;When our brittle townships press,Impotent, on emptiness;
When the unseen leadsmen leanQuestioning a deep unseen;When their lessened count they tellTo a bridge invisible;When the hid and perilousCliffs return our cry to us;
When the treble thickness spreadSwallows up our next-ahead;When her siren's frightened whineShows her sheering out of line;When, her passage undiscerned,We must turn where she has turned,Hear the Channel Fleet at sea:Libera nos Domine!
Words in this poem
- forerun v. t.
- To turn before; to precede; to be in advance of (something following).
- ashen a.
- Of or pertaining to the ash tree. [See Ash, the tree.]
- domine n.
- A name given to a pastor of the Reformed Church. The word is also applied locally in the United States, in colloquial speech, to any clergyman. [See Dominie.]
- bated a.
- Reduced; lowered; restrained; as, to speak with bated breath.
- nosing n.
- That part of the treadboard of a stair which projects over the riser; hence, any like projection, as the projecting edge of a molding.
- blindfold v. t.
- To cover the eyes of, as with a bandage; to hinder from seeing. [OE. blindfolden, blindfelden, blindfellen; AS. blind blind + prob. fellan, fyllan, to fell, strike down.]
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
- lettered a.
- Literate; educated; versed in literature.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- ahead adv.
- In or to the front; in advance; onward. [Pref. a- + head.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wet Litany 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 Wet Litany, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-wet-litany.html, id L20423.
Form and metre
The Wet Litany is 34 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 76% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCC-- countenanceA · glanceA · forerunB · sunB · hazeC · waysC · sea · domine
- 2 --AABB pulse · hulls · sideA · magnifiedA · blastB · passedB
- 3 AABB-B flightA · nightA · blowsB · closeB · press · emptinessB
- 4 AABBCC leanA · unseenA · tellB · invisibleB · perilousC · usC
- 5 AABBCC-- spreadA · aheadA · whineB · lineB · undiscernedC · turnedC · sea · domine
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the water's countenance | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Blurrs 'twixt glance and second glance; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| When our tattered smokes forerun. | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Ashen 'neath a silvered sun; | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| When the curtain of the haze | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Shuts upon our helpless ways-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Hear the Channel Fleet at sea; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Libera nos Domine! | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| When the engines' bated pulse | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| Scarcely thrills the nosing hulls; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| When the wash along the side | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Sounds, a sudden, magnified; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| When the intolerable blast | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘· |
| Marks each blindfold minute passed; | 8 | ··/·/˘·˘ |
| When the fog-buoy's squattering flight | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Guides us through the haggard night; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| When the warning bugle blows; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| When the lettered doorways close; | 8 | ··/˘˘/·· |
| When our brittle townships press, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Impotent, on emptiness; | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| When the unseen leadsmen lean | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| Questioning a deep unseen; | 7 | /˘˘··˘/ |
| When their lessened count they tell | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| To a bridge invisible; | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| When the hid and perilous | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Cliffs return our cry to us; | 8 | ·˘//˘··· |
| When the treble thickness spread | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Swallows up our next-ahead; | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| When her siren's frightened whine | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Shows her sheering out of line; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| When, her passage undiscerned, | 8 | ··/˘···˘ |
| We must turn where she has turned, | 8 | ·······˘ |
| Hear the Channel Fleet at sea: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Libera nos Domine! | 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.