Seal Lullaby

Anapestic tetrameter, Kipling’s form in “Seal Lullaby,” may evoke a particular response in contemporary readers, as it echoes the cadence of nursery rhymes and comedic verse. Each metrical foot begins with two unaccented syllables and ends with an accented one.

Readers in an earlier era would have had a broader context for the galloping rhythm, though its rocking effect often provided lullabies and nursery rhymes with both soothing and celebratory beats. Popular works like Clement Clark Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and several works by Lewis Carroll also use this meter.

Kipling’s lines begin with a catalectic foot, missing the first unaccented beat. These introductory feet give an additional metrical sense of separation between lines. Internal rhyme, “where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow” (Line 5), heightens the swinging effect of the anapests.

Alliterative sections throughout the poem also highlight the strong metrical pattern and enhance the lullaby’s soothing effect. Repeated bilabial “b” and “m” sounds weave through the first two lines (my baby, behind, black). Liquid “l” sounds mix with whispering “st” sounds in lines 4 and 5 (rest, hollows, rustle, billow, soft, pillow).