The Explanation
Love and Death once ceased their strifeAt the Tavern of Man's Life.Called for wine, and threw -- alas! --Each his quiver on the grass.When the bout was o'er they foundMingled arrows strewed the ground.Hastily they gathered thenEach the loves and lives of men.Ah, the fateful dawn deceived!Mingled arrows each one sheaved;Death's dread armoury was storedWith the shafts he most abhorred;Love's light quiver groaned beneathVenom-headed darts of Death.
Thus it was they wrought our woeAt the Tavern long ago.Tell me, do our masters know,Loosing blindly as they fly,Old men love while young men die?
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- fateful a.
- Having the power of serving or accomplishing fate.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Explanation 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, The Explanation, in Verses 1889–1896 (1889–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #323, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-verses/the-explanation.html, id L16772.
Form and metre
The Explanation is 19 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AABBCCDDEEFF-- strifeA · lifeA · alasB · grassB · foundC · groundC · thenD · menD · deceivedE · sheavedE · storedF · abhorredF · beneath · death
- 2 AAABB woeA · agoA · knowA · flyB · dieB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love and Death once ceased their strife | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| At the Tavern of Man's Life. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Called for wine, and threw -- alas! -- | 8 | ·˘····˘/ |
| Each his quiver on the grass. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| When the bout was o'er they found | 7 | ······· |
| Mingled arrows strewed the ground. | 8 | /˘˘/˘··· |
| Hastily they gathered then | 8 | /˘˘·/˘˘· |
| Each the loves and lives of men. | 7 | ······· |
| Ah, the fateful dawn deceived! | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Mingled arrows each one sheaved; | 8 | /˘˘/˘··· |
| Death's dread armoury was stored | 8 | ·······˘ |
| With the shafts he most abhorred; | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Love's light quiver groaned beneath | 8 | ··/˘·˘·· |
| Venom-headed darts of Death. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Thus it was they wrought our woe | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| At the Tavern long ago. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Tell me, do our masters know, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Loosing blindly as they fly, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Old men love while young men die? | 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.