The Three-Decker: Difference between revisions

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Content added Content deleted
(quote cleanup)
mNo edit summary
 
(6 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{work}}
{{work}}
{{Infobox book
'''''The Three-Decker''''' is a poem by [[Rudyard Kipling]] exulting in the [[Escapist]] and [[Troperiffic]] nature of the Victorian three-volume novel.
| title = The Three-Decker
| original title =
| image =
| caption =
| author =
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre = Poetry
| publication date = 1894
| source page exists = yes
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
'''''The Three-Decker''''' is a poem by [[Rudyard Kipling]] exulting in the [[Escapist]] and [[Troperiffic]] nature of the Victorian [[wikipedia:Three-volume novel|three-volume novel]].


{{Needs More Info}}
Please don't edit Mr. Kipling's [[Sincerity Mode|deathless poetry]], except to format and [[Blue Shifting|blue-shift]] it. Please ''do'' blue-shift as much as possible.


{{tropelist}}
----
{{Work Needs Tropes}}
=== The Three-Decker ===
1894 "The three-volume novel is extinct."


Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail. It took a watch to steer her, and a week to shorten sail; But, spite all modern notions, I've found her first and best -- [[Escapism|The only certain packet for the Islands of the Blest.]]

Fair held the breeze behind us -- 'twas warm with lovers' prayers, We'd [[MacGuffin|stolen wills]] for ballast and a crew of missing heirs. [[Mysterious Past|They shipped as Able Bastards]] [[Suddenly-Suitable Suitor|till]] [[Secret Legacy|the Wicked Nurse confessed,]] And they worked the old three-decker to the Islands of the Blest.

By ways no gaze could follow, a course unspoiled of Cook, Per Fancy, fleetest in man, our titled berths we took With maids of [[Beauty Equals Goodness|matchless beauty]] and [[Moses in the Bulrushes|parentage unguessed]], And [[Good Shepherd|a Church of England parson]] for the Islands of the Blest.

We asked no social questions -- we pumped no hidden shame -- [[Out Giving Birth Back in Two Minutes|We never talked obstetrics when the Little Stranger came:]] We left the Lord in Heaven, we left the fiends in Hell. We weren't exactly Yussufs, but -- Zuleika didn't tell.

[[Wish Fulfillment|No moral doubts assailed us, so when the port we neared]], [[Laser-Guided Karma|The villain had his flogging at the gangway]], and [[Happy Ending|we cheered]]. 'Twas fiddle in the foc's'le -- 'twas garlands on the mast, For [[They Do|every one was married]], and I went at shore at last.

I left 'em all in [[First Kiss|couples a-kissing]] on the decks. I left [[Happily Married|the lovers loving]] and [[Parental Marriage Veto|parents signing cheques]]. In endless English comfort, by [[Arcadia|county-folk]] caressed, I left the old three-decker at the Islands of the Blest! . . .

That route is barred to steamers: you'll never lift again [[Ghibli Hills|Our purple-painted headlands]] or [[Big Fancy Castle|the lordly keeps of Spain]]. They're just beyond your skyline, howe'er so far you cruise, In a ram-you-damn-you liner with a brace of bucking screws.

Swing round your aching searchlight -- 'twill show no haven's peace. [[True Art Is Angsty|Ay, blow your shrieking sirens at the deaf, grey-bearded seas!]] [[Expectation Lowerer|Boom out the dripping oil-bags to skin the deep's unrest --]] And you aren't one knot the nearer to the Islands of the Blest.

[[Author Filibuster|But when you're threshing, crippled, with broken bridge and rail,]] [[Filibuster Freefall|At a drogue of dead convictions to hold you head to gale,]] Calm as the Flying Dutchman, from truck to taffrail dressed, You'll see the old three-decker for the Islands of the Blest.

You'll see her tiering canvas in sheeted silver spread; You'll hear the long-drawn thunder 'neath her leaping figure-head; While far, so far above you, her tall poop-lanterns shine Unvexed by wind or weather like the candles round a shrine!

Hull down -- hull down and under -- she dwindles to a speck, [[Dances and Balls|With noise of pleasant music and dancing on her deck]]. All's well -- all's well aboard her -- she's left you far behind, With a scent of old-world roses through the fog that ties you blind.

[[Maturity Is Serious Business|Her crews are babes or madmen?]] Her port is all to make? [[Writer on Board|You're manned by Truth and Science]], and [[Author Tract|you steam for steaming's sake?]] Well, tinker up your engines -- you know your business best -- She's taking tired people to the Islands of the Blest!


{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Poetry]]
[[Category:Poetry]]
[[Category:Nineteenth Century Literature]]
[[Category:Literature of the 19th century]]
[[Category:The Three-Decker]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Books on Trope]]
[[Category:Books on Trope]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Three-Decker, The}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:British Literature]]

Latest revision as of 18:57, 9 December 2022

The Three-Decker
Central Theme:
Synopsis:
Genre(s): Poetry
First published: 1894
More Information
Source: Read The Three-Decker here
v · d · e

The Three-Decker is a poem by Rudyard Kipling exulting in the Escapist and Troperiffic nature of the Victorian three-volume novel.

Tropes used in The Three-Decker include: