1. THE SECRET OF THE
MACHINES
By
Rudyard Kipling
SELECTED POEM IN ENGLISH

2. Poet:
RUDYARD KIPLING
(1885-1936)
Poet : Joseph Rudyard
Kipling
30 Dec 1865
(Bombay)
Died on 18 Jan 1936
Education : United Services
College,
Westward Ho, Bideford
Experiences : 1882 – News paper
reporter (Anglo-Indian
Newspapers )
Literary works : 1886 – published his
first volume of poetry
(Departmental Ditties)
Genres : Poem, Short
stories, Novels
Awards :
•1907 – Nobel prize in literature

3. Poems and Poetry Books Short Stories and
Collections
 “The Absent-Minded Beggar”
(1899)
“If” (1910)
The Seven Seas (1896)
The Five Nations (1903)
The Years Between (1919)
 “The Man Who Would Be
King” (1888)
“Mary Postgate” (1915)
Many Inventions (1893)
A Fleet in Being (1898)
Just So Stories for Little
Children (1902)
Rewards and Fairies (1910)
Songs from Books (1912)
A Diversity of
Creatures (1917)
Land and Sea Tales for
Scouts and Guides (1923)
Debits and Credits (1926)
Thy Servant a Dog (1930)
Limits and Renewals (1932)
 The Story of the
Gadsbys (1888)
The Light that Failed (1891)
Stalky & Co. (1899) based on
his early school days
A History of
England (1911, non-fiction)
with Charles Robert Leslie
Fletcher
Novels

4. Settings
 Beginning of the 20th century
 During the time of Industrial Revolution
(1712 – 1942)
 Society – Invention of machines; people
rely on machines to do works
 England

5. Meaning
STANZA 1
 How the machines
were built
 Source of the
machines – Ex: ore-
bed & mine
 The credibility of the
machines to work and
last – 24 hours/day
STANZA 2
 Abilities/Skills of the
machines
 Common human
activities that have
been mastered by
machines

6. Meaning
STANZA 3
 Ability of machines to
transmit information
across the world
1866 – 1st telegraph
cable was invented
1878 – telephone was
invented
• Tells about the power of
the machines –
thousand horses
STANZA 4
 Tells about a big ocean
liner/ship - Mauretania
 Shows the ability of the
machines to work on
the water surface.
 Machines work under
human’s command.

7. Mauretania
An ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built
by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson; launched on
20 September 1906

8. Meaning
STANZA 5
 Ability of the
machines to change
nature
 Shows that machines
can do everything on
earth if they get the
exact instructions
STANZA 6
 Shows what
machines can do to
the landscape
(nature)
 Image of possibilities
that machines can do

9. Meaning
STANZA 7
 Machines have no
emotions/feelings
 Wrong handling of the
machines can be
dangerous
 Tells that machines are
able to change the
nature of all things
except The Gods
 The Gods – human
beings who invented
the machines
STANZA 8
 Machines are
transitory and after all
created by humans
 Humans still stand
above the machines
 Machines are always
dependent on human

10. Themes/Issues
 Importance of machines in life
- Machines make many things easier & facilitate
the work of the humans
- However, wrong handling of machines can be
dangerous
 Greatness of modern technology
- Ability to change the nature of all things – except
The Gods
 Machines cannot replace human
- Machines cannot feel anything
- Machines are only children of human’s brain
(controlled by humans)

11. Symbolism
 The machines
- people at that time assume that machines
are God
- assume as human
 The title also symbolize
something about the machines.
They also have secrets.

13. 1) Rhythm and rhyme:
 It has a clear rhyme with a,b,a,b
 The rhyme is also clear with the same sound.
Eg: pit-fit, ask-task, play-day
2) Imagery:
Eg: We can see and hear and count and read and
write! (s 2 l 4)
 It explains to us the multi-task that could be
completed by the machine.
 It is to give us the idea of how feasible is the
machine

14. 3) Personification : equalise to living beings
read
Example:
- We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive
- We can print and plough and weave and heat and
light
- We can run and jump and swim and fly and dive
- We can see and hear and count and write

15. 4)Hyperbole: a figure of speech using
exaggeration
Example:
- We will serve you four and twenty hours a
day!
- We are greater than the Peoples and the
Kings.

16. 5) Assonance: Repetition of two or more
vowel sounds
Example:
- Run and jump
- Across the world
- Slip in handling

17. 6) Simile: Compare things
alike
Example:
- Greater than the people of the Kings

18. 7) Connotation: suggests beyond
what it expresses
Example:
- Heaven - sky

19. 8) Alliteration: Repetition of two or more
consonant sounds
Example:
- Wilderness with wheat
- Flood and fills

20. References
 http://www.gs.cidsnet.de/englisch-
online/klasse11/kipling_machines.htm
 http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_secretmachines_notes.
htm
 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/la
ureates/1907/kipling-bio.html
 http://www.online-literature.com/kipling/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Mauretania_(190
6)