The Exiles' Line Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABACCDC EFGE HHIH JKLK MMNM OOPO QQQQ RRSR TTUT VVQV WWXW QQYQ DDWD WWYW ZZA2Z RRSR MMQM| Now the new year reviving old desires | A |
| The restless soul to open sea aspires | A |
| Where the Blue Peter flickers from the fore | B |
| And the grimed stoker feeds the engine fires | A |
| Coupons alas depart with all their rows | C |
| And last year's sea met loves where Grindley knows | C |
| But still the wild wind wakes off Gardafui | D |
| And hearts turn eastward with the P and O's | C |
| - | |
| Twelve knots an hour be they more or less | E |
| Oh slothful mother of much idleness | F |
| Whom neither rivals spur nor contracts speed | G |
| Nay bear us gently Wherefore need we press | E |
| - | |
| The Tragedy of all our East is laid | H |
| On those white decks beneath the awning shade | H |
| Birth absence longing laughter love and tears | I |
| And death unmaking ere the land is made | H |
| - | |
| And midnight madnesses of souls distraught | J |
| Whom the cool seas call through the open port | K |
| So that the table lacks one place next morn | L |
| And for one forenoon men forego their sport | K |
| - | |
| The shadow of the rigging to and fro | M |
| Sways shifts and flickers on the spar deck's snow | M |
| And like a giant trampling in his chains | N |
| The screw blades gasp and thunder deep below | M |
| - | |
| And leagued to watch one flying fish's wings | O |
| Heaven stoops to sea and sea to Heaven clings | O |
| While bent upon the ending of his toil | P |
| The hot sun strides regarding not these things | O |
| - | |
| For the same wave that meets our stem in spray | Q |
| Bore Smith of Asia eastward yesterday | Q |
| And Delhi Jones and Brown of Midnapore | Q |
| To morrow follow on the self same way | Q |
| - | |
| Linked in the chain of Empire one by one | R |
| Flushed with long leave or tanned with many a sun | R |
| The Exiles' Line brings out the exiles line | S |
| And ships them homeward when their work is done | R |
| - | |
| Yea heedless of the shuttle through the loom | T |
| The flying keels fulfil the web of doom | T |
| Sorrow or shouting what is that to them | U |
| Make out the cheque that pays for cabin room | T |
| - | |
| And how so many score of times ye flit | V |
| With wife and babe and caravan of kit | V |
| Not all thy travels past shall lower one fare | Q |
| Not all thy tears abate one pound of it | V |
| - | |
| And how so high throe earth born dignity | W |
| Honour and state go sink it in the sea | W |
| Till that great one upon the quarter deck | X |
| Brow bound with gold shall give thee leave to be | W |
| - | |
| Indeed indeed from that same line we swear | Q |
| Off for all time and mean it when we swear | Q |
| And then and then we meet the Quartered Flag | Y |
| And surely for the last time pay the fare | Q |
| - | |
| And Green of Kensington estray ed to view | D |
| In three short months the world he never knew | D |
| Stares with blind eyes upon the Quartered | W |
| Flag And sees no more than yellow red and blue | D |
| - | |
| But we the gypsies of the East but we | W |
| Waifs of the land and wastrels of the sea | W |
| Come nearer home beneath the Quartered Flag | Y |
| Than ever home shall come to such as we | W |
| - | |
| The camp is struck the bungalow decays | Z |
| Dead friends and houses desert mark our ways | Z |
| Till sickness send us down to Prince's Dock | A2 |
| To meet the changeless use of many days | Z |
| - | |
| Bound in the wheel of Empire one by one | R |
| The chain gangs of the East from sire to son | R |
| The Exiles' Line takes out the exiles line | S |
| And ships them homeward when their work is done | R |
| - | |
| How runs the old indictment Dear and slow | M |
| So much and twice so much We gird but go | M |
| For all the soul of our sad East is there | Q |
| Beneath the house flag of the P and O | M |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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About The Exiles' Line
The Exiles' Line is a poem by Rudyard Kipling. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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