Analysis of A Manager's Perplexities
William Schwenck Gilbert 1836 – 1911
Were I a king in very truth,
And had a son - a guileless youth -
In probable succession;
To teach him patience, teach him tact,
How promptly in a fix to act,
He should adopt, in point of fact,
A manager's profession.
To that condition he should stoop
(Despite a too fond mother),
With eight or ten "stars" in his troupe,
All jealous of each other!
Oh, the man who can rule a theatrical crew,
Each member a genius (and some of them two),
And manage to humour them, little and great,
Can govern a tuppenny-ha'penny State!
Both A and B rehearsal slight -
They say they'll be "all right at night"
(They've both to go to school yet);
C in each act MUST change her dress,
D WILL attempt to "square the press";
E won't play Romeo unless
His grandmother plays Juliet;
F claims all hoydens as her rights
(She's played them thirty seasons);
And G must show herself in tights
For two convincing reasons -
Two very well-shaped reasons!
Oh, the man who can drive a theatrical team,
With wheelers and leaders in order supreme,
Can govern and rule, with a wave of his fin,
All Europe and Asia - with Ireland thrown in!
Scheme | AABCCCBDEDEFFGG HHIJJJIKLKLLMMNN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010101 01010101 0100010 11110111 11000111 11010111 0100010 11010111 0101110 11111011 1101110 101111001001 11001001111 0101111001 110011101 10010101 11111111 1111111 10111101 11011101 1111001 110110 1111101 1111010 01110101 1101010 1101110 101111001001 11001001001 11001101111 110010110010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,081 |
Words | 209 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 16 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 421 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 104 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 57 Views
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