Analysis of Alice And The White Knight
Lewis Carroll 1832 (Daresbury) – 1898 (Guildford)
Alice was walking beside the White Knight in Looking Glass Land.
'You are sad.' the Knight said in an anxious tone: 'let me sing you a song to comfort you.'
'Is it very long?' Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry that day.
'It's long.' said the Knight, 'but it's very, very beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it -
either it brings tears to their eyes, or else -'
'Or else what?' said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.
'Or else it doesn't, you know. The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes.''
'Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?' Alice said, trying to feel interested.
'No, you don't understand,' the Knight said, looking a little vexed. 'That's what the name
is called. The name really is 'The Aged, Aged Man.''
'Then I ought to have said 'That's what the song is called'?' Alice corrected herself.
'No you oughtn't: that's another thing. The song is called 'Ways and Means' but that's only
what it's called, you know!'
'Well, what is the song then?' said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.
'I was coming to that,' the Knight said. 'The song really is 'A-sitting On a Gate': and the
tune's my own invention.'
So saying, he stopped his horse and let the reins fall on its neck: then slowly beating time
with one hand, and with a faint smile lighting up his gentle, foolish face, he began:
I'll tell thee everything I can;
There's little to relate.
I saw an aged, aged man,
A-sitting on a gate.
'Who are you, aged man?' I said,
' And how is it you live?'
And his answer trickled through my head
like water through a sieve.
He said 'I look for butterflies
That sleep among the wheat:
I make them into mutton pies,
And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men,' he said,
'Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread -
A trifle if you please.'
But I was thinking of a plan
To dye one's whiskers green,
And always use so large a fan
That they could not be seen.
So, having no reply to give
To what the old man said,
I cried, 'Come tell me how you live!'
And thumped him on the head.
His accents mild took up the tale:
He said, 'I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
I set it in a blaze;
And thence they make a stuff they call
Rowland's Macassar Oil -
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
They give me for my toil.'
But I was thinking of a way
To feed one's self on batter,
And so go on from day to day
Getting a little fatter.
I shook him well from side to side
Until his face was blue:
'Come tell me how you live,' I cried,
'And what it is you do!'
He said 'I hunt for haddocks' eyes
Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat buttons
In the silent night.
And these I do not sell for gold
Or coin of silvery shine,
But for a copper halfpenny,
And that will purchase nine.
'I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
Or set limed twigs for crabs;
I sometimes search for grassy knolls
For wheels of hansom-cabs.
And that's the way' (he gave a wink)
'By which I get my wealth -
And very gladly will I drink
Your Honour's noble health.'
I heard him then, for I had just
Completed my design
To keep the Menai Bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine.
I thanked him much for telling me
The way he got his wealth,
But chiefly for the wish that he
Might drink my noble health.
And now if e'er by chance I put
My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
Into a left-hand shoe,
Or if I drop upon my toe
A very heavy weight,
I weep, for it reminds me so
Of that old man I used to know -
Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow
Whose hair was whiter than the snow,
Whose face was very like a crow,
With eyes, like cinders, all aglow,
Who seemed distracted with his woe,
Who rocked his body to and fro,
And muttered mumblingly and low,
As if his mouth were full of dough,
Who snorted like a buffalo -
That summer evening long ago
A-sitting on a gate.
As the Knight sang the last words of the ballad, he gathered up the reins, and turned his horse's head along the road by which they had come.
Scheme | x a b xc x d x xe x fg x xx xe eheHijik dldlimim enenkiji xoxopqpq brbrsasa dtxtxueu xvcvwxwx yuyufxfx zazaghggggggggggggH x |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101100101101011 111011011011111011101 111011011111011110011 1110111101010010011111 1011111111 111110101110101 1111011011011111 1101101111011011100 111010111001011101 11011010111 1111111101111001001 11101010101111011110 11111 11101111011111010010 1110110110110101010100 111010 110111101011111110101 11101011101110101101 1111011 110101 111111 010101 1111111 011111 011010111 110101 1111110 110101 11101101 011001 11110111 111101 01011111 010111 11110101 111101 0111101 111111 11010111 110111 11111111 011101 11011101 111111 01110101 111001 01110111 1011 11111 111111 11110101 1111110 01111111 1001010 11111111 011111 11111111 011111 1111111 010101 01101110 00101 01111111 1111001 110101 011101 10111101 111111 10111101 111101 01011101 111111 01010111 11101 11111111 010101 1101111 110101 11111101 011111 11010111 111101 011101111 110011 11010111 010111 11110111 010101 11110111 11111111 11111111 11110101 11110101 11110101 11010111 11110101 010101 11110111 1101010 11010101 010101 10110111010110101011101010111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,891 |
Words | 804 |
Sentences | 46 |
Stanzas | 23 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 19, 1 |
Lines Amount | 102 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 4:00 min read
- 300 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Alice And The White Knight" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25746/alice-and-the-white-knight>.
Discuss this Lewis Carroll poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In