Analysis of The Rattling Boy from Dublin
William Topaz McGonagall 1825 – 1902 (Greyfriars Parish, Edinburgh)
I'm a rattling boy from Dublin town,
I courted a girl called Biddy Brown,
Her eyes they were as black as sloes,
She had black hair and an aquiline nose.
Whack fal de da, fal de darelido,
Whack fal de da, fal de darelay,
Whack fal de da, fal de darelido,
Whack fal de da, fal de darelay.
One night I met her with another lad,
Says I, Biddy, I've caught you, by dad,
I never thought you were half so bad
As to be going about with another lad.
Says I, Biddy, this will never do,
For to-night you've prov'd to me untrue,
So do not make a hullaballoo,
For I will bid farewell to you.
Says Barney Magee, She is my lass,
And the man that says no, he is an ass,
So come away, and I'll give you a glass,
Och, sure you can get another lass.
Says I, To the devil with your glass,
You have taken from me my darling lass,
And if you look angry, or offer to frown,
With my darling shillelah I'll knock you down.
Says Barney Magee unto me,
By the hokey I love Biddy Brown,
And before I'll give her up to thee,
One or both of us will go down.
So, with my darling shillelah, I gave him a whack,
Which left him lying on his back,
Saying, botheration to you and Biddy Brown,--
For I'm the rattling boy from Dublin town.
So a policeman chanced to come up at the time,
And he asked of me the cause of the shine,
Says I, he threatened to knock me down
When I challenged him for walking with my Biddy Brown.
So the policeman took Barney Magee to jail,
Which made him shout and bewail
That ever he met with Biddy Brown,
The greatest deceiver in Dublin town.
So I bade farewell to Biddy Brown,
The greatest jilter in Dublin town,
Because she proved untrue to me,
And was going about with Barney Magee.
Scheme | aabb CDCD cccc cede bbbb bbaa fafa ggaa xxaa ddaa aaff |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (82%) |
Metre | 101011101 110011101 01101111 11110111 1111111 1111111 1111111 1111111 1111010101 111011111 110110111 111100110101 111011101 111111101 111101 1111111 110011111 0011111111 1101011101 111110101 111010111 1110111101 01111011011 111011111 11001101 101011101 001110111 11111111 11110111101 11110111 101110101 1101011101 100101111101 0111101101 111101111 1110111011101 100101100111 111101 110111101 01010101 11111101 01010101 01110111 01100111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,716 |
Words | 347 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 116 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 122 Views
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"The Rattling Boy from Dublin" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41932/the-rattling-boy-from-dublin>.
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