In the Neolithic Age
In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wageFor food and fame and woolly horses' pelt;I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man,And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt.
Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric springMade the piled Biscayan ice-pack split and shove;And the troll and gnome and dwerg, and the Gods of Cliff and BergWere about me and beneath me and above.
But a rival, of Solutr]/e, told the tribe my style was outr]/e --'Neath a tomahawk of diorite he fell.And I left my views on Art, barbed and tanged, below the heartOf a mammothistic etcher at Grenelle.
Then I stripped them, scalp from skull, and my hunting dogs fed full,And their teeth I threaded neatly on a thong;And I wiped my mouth and said, “It is well that they are dead,For I know my work is right and theirs was wrong.”
But my Totem saw the shame; from his ridgepole shrine he came,And he told me in a vision of the night: --“There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,And every single one of them is right!”
Then the silence closed upon me till They put new clothing on meOf whiter, weaker flesh and bone more frail;And I stepped beneath Time's finger, once again a tribal singer
Still they skirmish to and fro, men my messmates on the snow,When we headed off the aurochs turn for turn;When the rich Allobrogenses never kept amanuenses,And our only plots were piled in lakes at Berne.
Still a cultured Christian age sees us scuffle, squeak, and rage,Still we pinch and slap and jabber, scratch and dirk;Still we let our business slide -- as we dropped the half-dressed hide --To show a fellow-savage how to work.
Still the world is wondrous large, -- seven seas from marge to marge, --And it holds a vast of various kinds of man;And the wildest dreams of Kew are the facts of Khatmandhu,And the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban.
Here's my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the mooseAnd the reindeer roared where Paris roars to-night: --There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,And -- every -- single -- one -- of -- them -- is -- right!
Words in this poem 17
- neolithic a.
- Of or pertaining to, or designating, an era characterized by late remains in stone. [Neo- + -lith + -ic.]
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- biscayan a.
- Of or pertaining to Biscay in Spain.
- troll n.
- A supernatural being, often represented as of diminutive size, but sometimes as a giant, and fabled to inhabit caves, hills, and like places; a witch. Troll flower. (Bot.) Same as Globeflower (a). [Icel. troll. Cf. Droll, Trull.]
- gnome n.
- An imaginary being, supposed by the Rosicrucians to inhabit the inner parts of the earth, and to be the guardian of mines, quarries, etc. [F. gnome, prob. fr. Gr. i. e., of the treasures in the inner parts of the earth, or fr. Know.]
- berg n.
- A large mass or hill, as of ice. [sq. root95. See Barrow hill, and cf. Iceberg.]
- tomahawk n.
- A kind of war hatchet used by the American Indians. It was originally made of stone, but afterwards of iron. [Of American Indian origin; cf. Algonkin tomehagen, Mohegan tumnahegan, Delaware tamoihecan.]
- diorite n.
- An igneous, crystalline in structure, consisting essentially of a triclinic feldspar and hornblende. It includes part of what was called greenstone. [Cf. F. diorite. See Diorism.]
- etcher n.
- One who etches.
- totem n.
- A rude picture, as of a bird, beast, or the like, used by the Nord American Indians as a symbolic designation, as of a family or a clan. [Massachusetts Indian wutohtimoin that to which a person or place belongs.]
- ridgepole n.
- The timber forming the ridge of a roof, into which the rafters are secured.
- cultured a.
- Under culture; cultivated.
- squeak v. i.
- To utter a sharp, shrill cry, usually of short duration; to cry with an acute tone, as an animal; or, to make a sharp, disagreeable noise, as a pipe or quill, a wagon wheel, a door; to creak. [Probably of imitative origin; cf. Sw. sqväka to croak, Icel. skvakka to give a sound as of water shaken in a bottle.]
- dirk n.
- A kind of dagger or poniard; -- formerly much used by the Scottish Highlander. Dirk knife, a clasp knife having a large, dirklike blade. [Ir. duirc.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- marge n.
- Border; margin; edge; verge. [F. marge. See Margin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In the Neolithic Age is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verses 1889-1896, Project Gutenberg ebook #323; 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, In the Neolithic Age, in Verses 1889–1896 (1889–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #323, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-verses/in-the-neolithic-age.html, id L16828.
Form and metre
In the Neolithic Age is 39 lines in 10 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic heptameter. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A wage · peltA · man · feltA
- 2 -A-A spring · shoveA · berg · aboveA
- 3 -A-A outr]/e · fellA · heart · grenelleA
- 4 -A-A full · thongA · dead · wrongA
- 5 -A-A came · nightA · lays · rightA
- 7 -A-A snow · turnA · amanuenses · berneA
- 8 -A-A rage · dirkA · hide · workA
- 10 -A-A moose · nightA · lays · rightA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage | 13 | ······/˘/···· |
| For food and fame and woolly horses' pelt; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man, | 14 | ··/˘·········· |
| And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt. | 11 | ··········· |
| Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric spring | 14 | ··········˘/˘· |
| Made the piled Biscayan ice-pack split and shove; | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| And the troll and gnome and dwerg, and the Gods of Cliff and Berg | 14 | ·············· |
| Were about me and beneath me and above. | 11 | ··········· |
| But a rival, of Solutr]/e, told the tribe my style was outr]/e -- | 16 | ··/˘············ |
| 'Neath a tomahawk of diorite he fell. | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| And I left my views on Art, barbed and tanged, below the heart | 14 | ·············· |
| Of a mammothistic etcher at Grenelle. | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| Then I stripped them, scalp from skull, and my hunting dogs fed full, | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| And their teeth I threaded neatly on a thong; | 11 | ····/˘/˘··· |
| And I wiped my mouth and said, “It is well that they are dead, | 14 | ·············· |
| For I know my work is right and theirs was wrong.” | 11 | ··········· |
| But my Totem saw the shame; from his ridgepole shrine he came, | 14 | ··/˘·····/˘··· |
| And he told me in a vision of the night: -- | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| “There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, | 14 | ····/˘··˘/˘/˘· |
| And every single one of them is right!” | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Then the silence closed upon me till They put new clothing on me | 16 | ··/˘········/˘·· |
| Of whiter, weaker flesh and bone more frail; | 9 | ·//˘····· |
| And I stepped beneath Time's finger, once again a tribal singer | 16 | ······/˘·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Still they skirmish to and fro, men my messmates on the snow, | 14 | ··/˘·········· |
| When we headed off the aurochs turn for turn; | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| When the rich Allobrogenses never kept amanuenses, | 14 | ········/····· |
| And our only plots were piled in lakes at Berne. | 11 | ·//˘······· |
| Still a cultured Christian age sees us scuffle, squeak, and rage, | 14 | ··/˘/˘···/˘··· |
| Still we pinch and slap and jabber, scratch and dirk; | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Still we let our business slide -- as we dropped the half-dressed hide -- | 14 | ···//˘········ |
| To show a fellow-savage how to work. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Still the world is wondrous large, -- seven seas from marge to marge, -- | 13 | ····/˘·/····· |
| And it holds a vast of various kinds of man; | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| And the wildest dreams of Kew are the facts of Khatmandhu, | 14 | ··/˘·········· |
| And the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Here's my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the moose | 14 | ··/˘·········· |
| And the reindeer roared where Paris roars to-night: -- | 11 | ··/···/˘··· |
| There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, | 14 | ····/˘··˘/˘/˘· |
| And -- every -- single -- one -- of -- them -- is -- right! | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
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.