L'Envoi
When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an ]aeon or two,Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew!
And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair;They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair;They shall find real saints to draw from -- Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!
And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- aeon n.
- An immeasurable or infinite space of time; eternity; a long space of time; an age. [L. aeon, fr. Gr. a'iwn space or period of time, lifetime, age; akin to L. aevum. See Age.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
L'Envoi 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, L'Envoi, in Verses 1889–1896 (1889–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #323, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-verses/l-envoi-2.html, id L16852.
Form and metre
L'Envoi is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. 72% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 16.2 syllables.
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 driedA · diedA · twoB · anewB
- 2 AABB chairA · hairA · paulB · allB
- 3 AABB blameA · fameA · starB · areB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried, | 16 | ···/˘·/˘····/˘·· |
| When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died, | 17 | ··/˘/˘·/˘··/˘/˘·· |
| We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an ]aeon or two, | 16 | ················ |
| Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew! | 16 | ··/˘···/˘·····˘/ |
| And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair; | 17 | ·······/˘·····/˘· |
| They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair; | 16 | ·······/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| They shall find real saints to draw from -- Magdalene, Peter, and Paul; | 15 | ········/˘·/˘·· |
| They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all! | 16 | ········/˘·/·/·· |
| And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame; | 17 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘·/˘·· |
| And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame, | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star, | 17 | ·······/˘····/˘·· |
| Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are! | 16 | ················ |
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.