A Counting-out Song Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEEEE EEFFGGHHEEEEE EEIIJJKLEEEEE MMNOFFPPEEEEE QQRREESSEEEEE TTUUEEVEEEEEEEWhat is the song the children sing | A |
When doorway lilacs bloom in Spring | A |
And the Schools are loosed and the games are played | B |
That were deadly earnest when Earth was made | B |
Hear them chattering shrill and hard | C |
After dinner time out in the yard | C |
As the sides are chosen and all submit | D |
To the chance of the lot that shall make them quot It quot | D |
Singing quot Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Catch a nigger by the toe | E |
If he hollers let him go | E |
Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
You are It quot | E |
- | |
Eenee Meenee Mainee and Mo | E |
Were the First Big Four of the Long Ago | E |
When the Pole of the Earth sloped thirty degrees | F |
And Central Europe began to freeze | F |
And they needed Ambassadors staunch and stark | G |
To steady the Tribes in the gathering dark | G |
But the frost was fierce and flesh was frail | H |
So they launched a Magic that could not fail | H |
Singing quot Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Hear the wolves across the snow | E |
Some one has to kill 'em so | E |
Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Make you It quot | E |
- | |
Slow ly the Glacial Epoch passed | E |
Central Europe thawed out at last | E |
And under the slush of the melting snows | I |
The first dim shapes of the Nations rose | I |
Rome Britannia Belgium Gaul | J |
Flood and avalanche fathered them all | J |
And the First Big Four as they watched the mess | K |
Pitied Man in his helplessness | L |
Singing quot Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Trouble starts When Nations grow | E |
Some one has to stop it so | E |
Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Make you It quot | E |
- | |
Thus it happened but none can tell | M |
What was the Power behind the spell | M |
Fear or Duty or Pride or Faith | N |
That sent men shuddering out to death | O |
To cold and watching and worse than these | F |
Work more work when they looked for ease | F |
To the days discomfort the nights despair | P |
In the hope of a prize that they never could share | P |
Singing quot Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Man is born to Toil and Woe | E |
One will cure another so | E |
Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Make you It quot | E |
- | |
Once and again as the Ice went North | Q |
The grass crept up to the Firth of Forth | Q |
Once and again as the Ice came South | R |
The glaciers ground over Lossiemouth | R |
But grass or glacier cold or hot | E |
The men went out who would rather not | E |
And fought with the Tiger the Pig and the Ape | S |
To hammer the world into decent shape | S |
Singing quot Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
What's the use of doing so | E |
Ask the Gods for we don't know | E |
But Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Make us It quot | E |
- | |
Nothing is left of that terrible rune | T |
But a tag of gibberish tacked to a tune | T |
That ends the waiting and settles the claims | U |
Of children arguing over their games | U |
For never yet has a boy been found | E |
To shirk his turn when the turn came round | E |
Nor even a girl has been known to say | V |
quot If you laugh at me I shan't play quot | E |
For quot Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Don't you let the grown ups know | E |
You may hate it ever so | E |
But if you're chose you're bound to go | E |
When Eenee Meenee Mainee Mo | E |
Make you It quot | E |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about A Counting-out Song poem by Rudyard Kipling
Best Poems of Rudyard Kipling