Analysis of The Sorcerer's Song
William Schwenck Gilbert 1836 – 1911
Oh! my name is JOHN WELLINGTON WELLS -
I'm a dealer in magic and spells,
In blessings and curses,
And ever-filled purses,
In prophecies, witches, and knells!
If you want a proud foe to "make tracks" -
If you'd melt a rich uncle in wax -
You've but to look in
On our resident Djinn,
Number seventy, Simmery Axe.
We've a first-class assortment of magic;
And for raising a posthumous shade
With effects that are comic or tragic,
There's no cheaper house in the trade.
Love-philtre - we've quantities of it;
And for knowledge if any one burns,
We keep an extremely small prophet, a prophet
Who brings us unbounded returns:
For he can prophesy
With a wink OF his eye,
Peep with security
Into futurity,
Sum up your history,
Clear up a mystery,
Humour proclivity
For a nativity.
With mirrors so magical,
Tetrapods tragical,
Bogies spectacular,
Answers oracular,
Facts astronomical,
Solemn or comical,
And, if you want it, he
Makes a reduction on taking a quantity!
Oh!
If any one anything lacks,
He'll find it all ready in stacks,
If he'll only look in
On the resident Djinn,
Number seventy, Simmery Axe!
He can raise you hosts,
Of ghosts,
And that without reflectors;
And creepy things
With wings,
And gaunt and grisly spectres!
He can fill you crowds
Of shrouds,
And horrify you vastly;
He can rack your brains
With chains,
And gibberings grim and ghastly.
Then, if you plan it, he
Changes organity
With an urbanity,
Full of Satanity,
Vexes humanity
With an inanity
Fatal to vanity -
Driving your foes to the verge of insanity.
Barring tautology,
In demonology,
'Lectro biology,
Mystic nosology,
Spirit philology,
High class astrology,
Such is his knowledge, he
Isn't the man to require an apology
Oh!
My name is JOHN WELLINGTON WELLS,
I'm a dealer in magic and spells,
In blessings and curses,
And ever-filled purses -
In prophecies, witches, and knells.
If any one anything lacks,
He'll find it all ready in stacks,
If he'll only look in
On the resident Djinn,
Number seventy, Simmery Axe!
Scheme | aABBAccddC efefxgxgaxhfhhhhiijjiihhKCCDDC llxmmannhoohhfffhfhhpphpphhhKaABBACCDDC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111001 101001001 010010 010110 01001001 111011111 111011001 11110 1101001 1010011 1011010110 011001001 1011110110 11101001 11110011 011011011 111010110010 11101001 1111 101111 110100 011 111100 110100 10100 100100 1101100 11 10100 101 10100 101100 011111 100101100100 1 1101101 11111001 111010 101001 1010011 11111 11 0101010 0101 11 010101 11111 11 010110 11111 11 011010 111111 101 111 111 10100 111 101100 101110110100 101 01 10100 101 101 110100 111101 100111010100 1 11111001 101001001 010010 010110 01001001 1101101 11111001 111010 101001 1010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,916 |
Words | 347 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 30, 39 |
Lines Amount | 79 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 516 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 1:47 min read
- 43 Views
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"The Sorcerer's Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41332/the-sorcerer%27s-song>.
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