Road Song of the Bandar-Log
Rudyard Kipling 1865 (Mumbai) – 1936 (London)
Here we go in a flung festoon,
Half-way up to the jealous moon!
Don't you envy our pranceful bands?
Don't you wish you had extra hands?
Would n't you like if your tails were -- so --
Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow?
Now you're angry, but -- never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
Here we sit in a branchy row,
Thinking of beautiful things we know;
Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do,
All complete, in a minute or two --
Something noble and grand and good,
Won by merely wishing we could.
Now we're going to -- never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
All the talk we ever have heard
Uttered by bat or beast or bird --
Hide or fin or scale or feather --
Jabber it quickly and all together!
Excellent! Wonderful! Once again!
Now we are talking just like men.
Let 's pretend we are... never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
This is the way of the Monkey-kind.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 227 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | aabbcxdD cceeffdD gghhiidDd |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 879 |
Words | 174 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 9 |
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"Road Song of the Bandar-Log" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/33327/road-song-of-the-bandar-log>.
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