Rhyme Scheme- Isaac Satin

A Death-Bed

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

1918

"This is the State above the Law.

    The State exists for the State alone."

[This is a gland at the back of the jaw,

    And an answering lump by the collar-bone.]

Some die shouting in gas or fire;

    Some die silent, by shell and shot.

Some die desperate, caught on the wire;

    Some die suddenly. This will not.

"Regis suprema voluntas Lex"

    [It will follow the regular course of—throats.]

Some die pinned by the broken decks,

    Some die sobbing between the boats.

Some die eloquent, pressed to death

    By the sliding trench as their friends can hear.

Some die wholly in half a breath.

    Some—give trouble for half a year.

"There is neither Evil nor Good in life.

    Except as the needs of the State ordain."

[Since it is rather too late for the knife,

    All we can do is mask the pain.]

Some die saintly in faith and hope—

    Some die thus in a prison-yard—

Some die broken by rape or the rope;

    Some die easily. This dies hard.

"I will dash to pieces who bar my way.

    Woe to the traitor!    Woe to the weak!"

[Let him write what he wishes to say.

    It tires him out if he tries to speak.]

Some die quietly.    Some abound

    In loud self-pity.    Others spread

Bad morale through the cots around . . .

    This is a type that is better dead.

"The war was forced on me by my foes.

    All that I sought was the right to live."

[Don't be afraid of a triple dose;

    The pain will neutralize half we give.

Here are the needles.    See that he dies

    While the effects of the drug endure . . .

What is the question he asks with his eyes?—

    Yes, All-Highest, to God, be sure.]

Kipling, Rudyard. "A Death-Bed." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 1 Jan. 1918. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/248672>.

The rhyme scheme of this poem is ABAB, which is a considerably simple rhyme scheme. This simplicity is likely intentional, and its effect is twofold: partly it exists to emphasize the simplicity of the poem's theme- the author recognizes the horror of both war and of how loyalty to the state above the lives of individuals is immoral. The second effect is to lull the reader into a false sense of security through the use of a rhyme scheme that they are comfortable and familiar with; this effect parallels the same way in which citizens of "The State" are lulled into fraudulent comfort while simultaneously achieving the goal of upsetting the reader when the speaker begins to discuss death in a profoundly unsettling matter.

As a side note, this poem has another, more chilling layer to it. It can be read in three sections: those bracketed and in italics, those in quotation marks, and the regular text. The manner in which Kipling combines the three sections creates a fluid poem with a confusing story, but if the three sections are read independently and then combined later a cohesive story is assembled.