Analysis of The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly
James Joyce 1882 (Rathgar) – 1941 (Zürich)
Have you heard of one Humpty Dumpty
How he fell with a roll and a rumble
And curled up like Lord Olofa Crumple
By the butt of the Magazine Wall,
(Chorus) Of the Magazine Wall,
Hump, helmet and all?
He was one time our King of the Castle
Now he's kicked about like a rotten old parsnip.
And from Green street he'll be sent by order of His Worship
To the penal jail of Mountjoy
(Chorus) To the jail of Mountjoy!
Jail him and joy.
He was fafafather of all schemes for to bother us
Slow coaches and immaculate contraceptives for the populace,
Mare's milk for the sick, seven dry Sundays a week,
Openair love and religion's reform,
(Chorus) And religious reform,
Hideous in form.
Arrah, why, says you, couldn't he manage it?
I'll go bail, my fine dairyman darling,
Like the bumping bull of the Cassidys
All your butter is in your horns.
(Chorus) His butter is in his horns.
Butter his horns!
(Repeat) Hurrah there, Hosty, frosty Hosty, change that shirt
on ye,
Rhyme the rann, the king of all ranns!
We had chaw chaw chops, chairs, chewing gum, the chicken-pox
and china chambers
Universally provided by this soffsoaping salesman.
Small wonder He'll Cheat E'erawan our local lads nicknamed him.
When Chimpden first took the floor
(Chorus) With his bucketshop store
Down Bargainweg, Lower.
So snug he was in his hotel premises sumptuous
But soon we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery
And 'tis short till sheriff Clancy'll be winding up his unlimited
company
With the bailiff's bom at the door,
(Chorus) Bimbam at the door.
Then he'll bum no more.
Sweet bad luck on the waves washed to our island
The hooker of that hammerfast viking
And Gall's curse on the day when Eblana bay
Saw his black and tan man-o'-war.
(Chorus) Saw his man-o'-war
On the harbour bar.
Where from? roars Poolbeg. Cookingha'pence, he bawls
Donnez-moi scampitle, wick an wipin'fampiny
Fingal Mac Oscar Onesine Bargearse Boniface
Thok's min gammelhole Norveegickers moniker
Og as ay are at gammelhore Norveegickers cod.
(Chorus) A Norwegian camel old cod.
He is, begod.
Lift it, Hosty, lift it, ye devil, ye! up with the rann,
the rhyming rann!
It was during some fresh water garden pumping
Or, according to the Nursing Mirror, while admiring the monkeys
That our heavyweight heathen Humpharey
Made bold a maid to woo
(Chorus) Woohoo, what'll she doo!
The general lost her maidenloo!
He ought to blush for himself, the old hayheaded philosopher,
For to go and shove himself that way on top of her.
Begob, he's the crux of the catalogue
Of our antediluvial zoo,
(Chorus) Messrs Billing and Coo.
Noah's larks, good as noo.
He was joulting by Wellinton's monument
Our rotorious hippopopotamuns
When some bugger let down the backtrap of the omnibus
And he caught his death of fusiliers,
(Chorus) With his rent in his rears.
Give him six years.
'Tis sore pity for his innocent poor children
But look out for his missus legitimate!
When that frew gets a grip of old Earwicker
Won't there be earwigs on the green?
(Chorus) Big earwigs on the green,
The largest ever you seen.
Suffoclose! Shikespower! Seudodanto! Anonymoses!
Then we'll have a free trade Gael's band and mass meeting
For to sod him the brave son of Scandiknavery.
And we'll bury him down in Oxmanstown
Along with the devil and the Danes,
(Chorus) With the deaf and dumb Danes,
And all their remains.
And not all the king's men nor his horses
Will resurrect his corpus
For there's no true spell in Connacht or hell
(bis) That's able to raise a Cain.
Scheme | ABBCCC BDDEEE FFXGGG XHFIII XAF XXJXKKL FKXAKKK XHXKKX FJFLMMA NN HXKOOB LLXOOJ XFFFPP JXKQQQ F HKJRRR XFXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111010 1111010010 01111110 10110101 1010101 11001 11111011010 11101101011 01111111101110 1010111 1010111 1101 11111111101 1100010001010100 11101101101 11001001 10001001 10001 1111101101 11111110 10101101 11101011 101101011 1011 010111101111 11 10101111 1111111010101 01010 010001011110 110111101010111 111101 101111 1110 1111010110010 11110111101 0111101110110100 100 1011101 101101 11111 111101111010 01011110 011101111 11101111 1011111 10101 1111111 111111 1110111 1111100 11111111 100101011 111 1111111011101 0101 111011101010 10101010101010010 11010101 110111 1011011 0100101 11111010110100 1110101111110 11011010 11011 10101001 101111 11111100 1011 1110110110100 0111111 10111011 1111 111011100110 11111100100 111101111 1111101 1011101 0101011 1111 111011110110 111101111 01101101 011010001 10101011 01101 0110111110 101110 111110111 11101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,780 |
Words | 630 |
Sentences | 43 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 3, 7, 7, 6, 7, 2, 6, 6, 6, 6, 1, 6, 4 |
Lines Amount | 91 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 160 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 3:17 min read
- 118 Views
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"The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20189/the-ballad-of-persse-o%27reilly>.
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