Analysis of The Three Christmas Waits



My name is Pleaceman X;
Last night I was in bed,
A dream did me perplex,
Which came into my Edd.
I dreamed I sor three Waits
A playing of their tune,
At Pimlico Palace gates,
All underneath the moon.
One puffed a hold French horn,
And one a hold Banjo,
And one chap seedy and torn
A Hirish pipe did blow.
They sadly piped and played,
Dexcribing of their fates;
And this was what they said,
Those three pore Christmas Waits:

'When this black year began,
This Eighteen-forty-eight,
I was a great great man,
And king both vise and great,
And Munseer Guizot by me did show
As Minister of State.

'But Febuwerry came,
And brought a rabble rout,
And me and my good dame
And children did turn out,
And us, in spite of all our right.
Sent to the right about.

'I left my native ground,
I left my kin and kith,
I left my royal crownd,
Vich I couldn't travel vith,
And without a pound came to English ground,
In the name of Mr. Smith.

'Like any anchorite
I've lived since I came here,
I've kep myself quite quite,
I've drank the small small beer,
And the vater, you see, disagrees vith me
And all my famly dear.

'O Tweeleries so dear,
O darling Pally Royl,
Vas it to finish here
That I did trouble and toyl?
That all my plans should break in my ands,
And should on me recoil?

'My state I fenced about
Vith baynicks and vith guns;
My gals I portioned hout,
Rich vives I got my sons;
O varn't it crule to lose my rule,
My money and lands at once?

'And so, vith arp and woice,
Both troubled and shagreened,
I hid you to rejoice,
O glorious England's Queend!
And never have to veep, like pore Louis-Phileep,
Because you out are cleaned.

'O Prins, so brave and stout,
I stand before your gate;
Pray send a trifle hout
To me, your pore old Vait;
For nothink could be vuss than it's been along vith us
In this year Forty-eight.'

'Ven this bad year began,'
The nex man said, seysee,
'I vas a Journeyman,
A taylor black and free,
And my wife went out and chaired about,
And my name's the bold Cuffee.

'The Queen and Halbert both
I swore I would confound,
I took a hawfle hoath
To drag them to the ground;
And sevral more with me they swore
Aginst the British Crownd.

'Aginst her Pleacemen all
We said we'd try our strenth;
Her scarlick soldiers tall
We vow'd we'd lay full lenth;
And out we came, in Freedom's name,
Last Aypril was the tenth.

'Three 'undred thousand snobs
Came out to stop the vay,
Vith sticks vith iron knobs,
Or else we'd gained the day.
The harmy quite kept out of sight,
And so ve vent avay.

'Next day the Pleacemen came—
Rewenge it was their plann—
And from my good old dame
They took her tailor-mann:
And the hard hard beak did me bespeak
To Newgit in the Wann.

'In that etrocious Cort
The Jewry did agree;
The Judge did me transport,
To go beyond the sea:
And so for life, from his dear wife
They took poor old Cuffee.

'O Halbert, Appy Prince!
With children round your knees,
Ingraving ansum Prints,
And taking hoff your hease;
O think of me, the old Cuffee,
Beyond the solt solt seas!

'Although I'm hold and black,
My hanguish is most great;
Great Prince, O call me back,
And I vill be your Vait!
And never no more vill break the Lor,
As I did in 'Forty-eight.'

The tailer thus did close
(A pore old blackymore rogue),
When a dismal gent uprose,
And spoke with Hirish brogue:
'I'm Smith O'Brine, of Royal Line,
Descended from Rory Ogue.

'When great O'Connle died,
That man whom all did trust,
That man whom Henglish pride
Beheld with such disgust,
Then Erin free fixed eyes on me,
And swoar I should be fust.

''The glorious Hirish Crown,'
Says she, 'it shall be thine:
Long time, it's wery well known,
You kep it in your line;
That diadem of hemerald gem
Is yours, my Smith O'Brine.

''Too long the Saxon churl
Our land encumbered hath;
Arise my Prince, my Earl,
And brush them from thy path:
Rise, mighty Smith, and sveep 'em vith
The besom of your wrath.'

'Then in my might I rose,
My country I surveyed,
I saw it filled with foes,
I viewed them undismayed;
'Ha, ha!' says I, 'the harvest's high,
I'll reap it with my blade.'

'My warriors I enrolled,
They rallied round their lord;
And cheafs in council old
I summoned to the board—


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGCBC HIHIFI JKJKLK MNBNMN BOLPQP PRORXR KSKSRX ABXBXX KIKBXI HAHQKQ NMNMTB RNRNJN UVUXLV JDJHWX XQXQVQ XYXAQY ZIZBTI XXAW1 W 2 3 2 3 Q3 X1 X1 X1 RNRNNN 4 G4 BVG 5 6 5 6
Poetic Form
Metre 11111 111101 011101 110111 111111 010111 11101 10101 110111 01011 0111001 01111 110101 1111 011111 111101 111101 101101 110111 011101 0111111 110011 111 010101 010111 010111 010111101 110101 111101 111101 111101 1110101 0010111101 0011101 1101 111111 11111 110111 00101100111 01111 1111 11011 111101 1111001 111111011 011101 111101 11011 11111 111111 111111111 1100111 011101 11001 111101 1100101 01011111101 011111 111101 110111 110101 111111 111111110111 011101 111101 01111 11010 010101 011110101 0110111 010101 111101 11011 111101 0111111 10101 1011 1111101 01101 111111 01110101 11101 11101 111101 111101 111101 0111111 01111 11011 11111 011111 110101 001111101 11001 0111 010101 011101 110101 01111111 111111 11011 110111 111 010111 11110111 010111 11101 11111 111111 011111 010111101 1110101 01111 01111 101011 01111 11111101 0101101 1111 111111 11111 11101 11011111 011111 010011 111111 1111011 111011 110111 111111 110101 1010101 011111 011111 11010111 01111 101111 110101 111111 1111 1111011 111111 1100101 110111 010101 110101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 3,998
Words 792
Sentences 33
Stanzas 23
Stanza Lengths 16, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4
Lines Amount 146
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 137
Words per stanza (avg) 34
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 10, 2023

4:02 min read
110

William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. more…

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