Analysis of Cotton-Wool
Alfred Noyes 1880 (Wolverhampton) – 1958 (Isle of Wight)
Shun the brush and shun the pen,
Shun the ways of clever men,
When they prove that black is white,
Whey they swear that wrong is right,
When they roast the singing stars
Like chestnuts, in between the bars,
_Children, let a wandering fool
Stuff your ears with cotton-wool._
When you see a clever man
Run as quickly as you can.
You must never, never, never
Think that Socrates was clever.
The cleverest thing I ever knew
Now cracks walnuts at the Zoo.
_Children, let a wandering fool
Stuff your ears with cotton-wool._
Homer could not scintillate.
Milton, too, was merely great.
That's a very different matter
From talking like a frantic hatter.
Keats and Shelley had no tricks.
Wordsworth never climbed up sticks.
_Children, let a wandering fool
Stuff your ears with cotton-wool._
Lincoln would create a gloom
In many a London drawing-room;
He'd be silent at their wit,
He would never laugh at it.
When they kissed Salome's toes,
I think he'd snort and blow his nose.
_Children, let a wandering fool
Stuff your ears with cotton-wool._
They'd curse him for a silly clown,
They'd drum him out of London town.
Professor Flunkey, the historian,
Would say he was a dull Victorian.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John,
Bless the bed I rest upon.
_Children, let a wandering fool
Stuff your ears with cotton-wool._
Amen.
Scheme | aabbccDD eeffggDD bxffhhDD iijjkkDD llmmnnDDa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 1011101 1111111 1111111 1110101 11000101 1101001 1111101 1110101 1110111 11101010 1110110 0111101 111101 1101001 1111101 10111 1011101 101010010 110101010 1010111 1010111 1101001 1111101 1010101 010010101 1110111 1110111 11111 11110111 1101001 1111101 11110101 11111101 010100100 1111010100 1010101 1011101 1101001 1111101 01 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,277 |
Words | 234 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 9 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 206 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 76 Views
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"Cotton-Wool" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1141/cotton-wool>.
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