The Dead King Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDC EEFF GGFFEE HHEEII IIJKIILLEEEEFF MMIIJJ FFEEJJ ECEC| EDWARD VII | A |
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| Who in the Realm to day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear | B |
| And unconcerned for his own estate toils till the last grudged sands have run | C |
| Let him approach It is proven here | D |
| Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done | C |
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| For to him above all was Life good above all he commanded | E |
| Her abundance full handed | E |
| The peculiar treasure of Kings was his for the taking | F |
| All that men come to in dreams he inherited waking | F |
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| His marvel of world gathered armies one heart and all races | G |
| His seas 'neath his keels when his war castles foamed to their places | G |
| The thundering foreshores that answered his heralded landing | F |
| The huge lighted cities adoring the assemblies upstanding | F |
| The Councils of Kings called in haste to learn how he was minded | E |
| The kingdoms the Powers and the Glories he dealt with unblinded | E |
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| To him came all captains of men all achievers of glory | H |
| Hot from the press of their battles they told him their story | H |
| They revealed him their lives in an hour and saluting departed | E |
| Joyful to labour afresh he had made them new hearted | E |
| And since he weighed men from his youth and no lie long deceived him | I |
| He spoke and exacted the truth and the basest believed him | I |
| - | |
| And God poured him an exquisite wine that was daily renewed to him | I |
| In the clear welling love of his peoples that daily accrued to him | I |
| Honour and service we gave him rejoicingly fearless | J |
| Faith absolute trust beyond speech and a friendship as peerless | K |
| And since he was Master and Servant in all that we asked him | I |
| We leaned hard on his wisdom in all things knowing not how we tasked him | I |
| For on him each new day laid command every tyrannous hour | L |
| To confront or confirm or make smooth some dread issue of power | L |
| To deliver true judgment aright at the instant unaided | E |
| In the strict level ultimate phrase that allowed or dissuaded | E |
| To foresee to allay to avert from us perils unnumbered | E |
| To stand guard on our gates when he guessed that the watchmen had slumbered | E |
| To win time to turn hate to woo folly to service and mightily schooling | F |
| His strength to the use of his Nations to rule as not ruling | F |
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| These were the works of our King Earth's peace was the proof of them | M |
| God gave him great works to fulfil and to us the behoof of them | M |
| We accepted his toil as our right none spared none excused him | I |
| When he was bowed by his burden his rest was refused him | I |
| We troubled his age with our weakness the blacker our shame to us | J |
| Hearing his People had need of him straightway he came to us | J |
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| As he received so he gave nothing grudged naught denying | F |
| Not even the last gasp of his breath when he strove for us dying | F |
| For our sakes without question he put from him all that he cherished | E |
| Simply as any that serve him he served and he perished | E |
| All that Kings covet was his and he flung it aside for us | J |
| Simply as any that die in his service he died for us | J |
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| Who in the Realm to day has choice of the easy road or the hard to tread | E |
| And much concerned for his own estate would sell his soul to remain in the sun | C |
| Let him depart nor look on Our dead | E |
| Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done | C |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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