True Royalty
“True Royalty” and “Playing Robinson Crusoe” are pleasing stanzas from“The Just So Stories” of Rudyard Kipling (1865-).
There was never a Queen like Balkis,From here to the wide world’s end;But Balkis talked to a butterflyAs you would talk to a friend.
There was never a King like Solomon,Not since the world began;But Solomon talked to a butterflyAs a man would talk to a man.
She was Queen of Sabaea--And he was Asia’s Lord--But they both of ’em talked to butterfliesWhen they took their walks abroad.
Words in this poem
- solomon n.
- One of the kings of Israel, noted for his superior wisdom and magnificent reign; hence, a very wise man.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
True Royalty is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, True Royalty, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/true-royalty.html, id L25160.
Form and metre
True Royalty is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 2 -A-A balkis · endA · butterfly · friendA
- 3 AA-A solomonA · beganA · butterfly · manA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “True Royalty” and “Playing Robinson Crusoe” are pleasing stanzas from | 16 | ·/˘·/˘/˘/˘·/˘/˘· |
| “The Just So Stories” of Rudyard Kipling (1865-). | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| There was never a Queen like Balkis, | 8 | ··/····· |
| From here to the wide world’s end; | 7 | ······· |
| But Balkis talked to a butterfly | 9 | ······/˘· |
| As you would talk to a friend. | 7 | ······· |
| There was never a King like Solomon, | 9 | ··/···/˘˘ |
| Not since the world began; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| But Solomon talked to a butterfly | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| As a man would talk to a man. | 8 | ········ |
| She was Queen of Sabaea-- | 6 | ······ |
| And he was Asia’s Lord-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But they both of ’em talked to butterflies | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When they took their walks abroad. | 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.