Analysis of From The Parish: A Satire
John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)
In politics and politicians' lies
The modern farmer waxes wondrous wise;
Opinionates with wisdom all compact,
And een could tell a nation how to act;
Throws light on darkness with excessive skill,
Knows who acts well and whose designs are ill,
Proves half the members nought but bribery's tools,
And calls the past a dull dark age of fools.
As wise as Solomon they read the news,
Not with their blind forefathers' simple views,
Who read of wars, and wished that wars would cease,
And blessed the King, and wished his country peace;
Who marked the weight of each fat sheep and ox,
The price of grain and rise and fall of stocks;
Who thought it learning how to buy and sell,
And him a wise man who could manage well.
No, not with such old-fashioned, idle views
Do these newsmongers traffic with the news.
They read of politics and not of grain,
And speechify and comment and explain,
And know so much of Parliament and state
You'd think they're members when you heard them prate;
And know so little of their farms the while
They can but urge a wiser man to smile.
A thing all consequence here takes the lead,
Reigning knight-errant oer this dirty breed--
A bailiff he, and who so great to brag
Of law and all its terrors as Bumtagg;
Fawning a puppy at his master's side
And frowning like a wolf on all beside;
Who fattens best where sorrow worst appears
And feeds on sad misfortune's bitterest tears?
Such is Bumtagg the bailiff to a hair,
The worshipper and demon of despair,
Who waits and hopes and wishes for success
At every nod and signal of distress,
Happy at heart, when storms begin to boil,
To seek the shipwreck and to share the spoil.
Brave is this Bumtagg, match him if you can;
For there's none like him living--save his man.
As every animal assists his kind
Just so are these in blood and business joined;
Yet both in different colours hide their art,
And each as suits his ends transacts his part.
One keeps the heart-bred villain full in sight,
The other cants and acts the hypocrite,
Smoothing the deed where law sharks set their gin
Like a coy dog to draw misfortune in.
But both will chuckle oer their prisoners' sighs
And are as blest as spiders over flies.
Such is Bumtagg, whose history I resign,
As other knaves wait room to stink and shine;
And, as the meanest knave a dog can brag,
Such is the lurcher that assists Bumtagg.
Scheme | AABBCCDD EEFFGGHHEEIIXBJJ XXKKLLXXMMNNOOPP XXQQXXRRAASSKK |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01000101 0101010101 1110110 0111010111 1111010101 1111010111 110101111 0101011111 1111001101 111110101 1111011111 0101011101 1101111101 0111010111 1111011101 0101111101 1111110101 11110101 111100111 010010001 0111110001 1111011111 0111011101 1111010111 0111001101 1011011101 0101011111 110111011 1001011101 0101011101 111110101 011111001 111010101 01010101 1101010101 11001010101 1011110111 1101001101 111111111 1111110111 11001000111 1111010101 1101001111 011111111 1101110101 010101010 1001111111 1011110100 11110111001 0111110101 1111100101 1101111101 0101010111 11011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,304 |
Words | 433 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 16, 16, 14 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 463 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 107 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 22, 2023
- 2:11 min read
- 147 Views
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"From The Parish: A Satire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22234/from-the-parish%3A-a-satire>.
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