Singapore
Hail, Mother! East and West must seek my aidEre the spent gear may dare the ports afar.The second doorway of the wide world's tradeIs mine to loose or bar.
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- doorway n.
- The passage of a door; entrance way into a house or a room.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Singapore 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, Singapore, in Verses 1889–1896 (1889–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #323, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-verses/singapore.html, id L16796.
Form and metre
Singapore is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. The lines average 9.0 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 ABAB aidA · afarB · tradeA · barB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail, Mother! East and West must seek my aid | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Ere the spent gear may dare the ports afar. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The second doorway of the wide world's trade | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| Is mine to loose or bar. | 6 | ······ |
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.