Analysis of The Pelican Chorus
Edward Lear 1812 (Holloway) – 1888 (Sanremo)
King and Queen of the Pelicans we;
No other Birds so grand we see!
None but we have feet like fins!
With lovely leathery throats and chins!
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!
We live on the Nile. The Nile we love.
By night we sleep on the cliffs above.
By day we fish, and at eve we stand
On long bare islands of yellow sand.
And when the sun sinks slowly down
And the great rock walls grow dark and brown,
Where the purple river rolls fast and dim
And the ivory Ibis starlike skim,
Wing to wing we dance around, -
Stamping our feet with a flumpy sound, -
Opening our mouths as Pelicans ought,
And this is the song we nightly snort:
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still.
Last year came out our Daughter, Dell;
And all the Birds received her well.
To do her honour, a feast we made
For every bird that can swim or wade.
Herons and Gulls, and Cormorants black,
Cranes, and Flamingoes with scarlet back,
Plovers and Storks, and Geese in clouds,
Swans and Dilberry Ducks in crowds.
Thousands of Birds in wondrous flight!
They ate and drank and danced all night,
And echoing back from the rocks you heard
Multitude-echoes from Bird and Bird, -
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!
Yes, they came; and among the rest,
The king of the Cranes all grandly dressed.
Such a lovely tail! Its feathers float
Between the ends of his blue dress-coat;
With pea-green trowsers all so neat,
And a delicate frill to hide his feet, -
(For though no one speaks of it, everyone knows,
He has got no webs between his toes!)
As soon as he saw our Daughter Dell,
In violent love that Crane King fell, -
On seeing her waddling form so fair,
With a wreath of shrimps in her short white hair,
And before the end of the next long day,
Our Dell had given her heart away;
For the King of the Cranes had won that heart,
With a Crocodile's egg and a large fish-tart.
She vowed to marry the King of the Cranes,
Leaving the Nile for stranger plains;
And away they flew in a gathering crowd
Of endless birds in a lengthening cloud.
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!
And far away in the twilight sky,
We heard them singing in a lessening cry, -
Farther and farther till out of sight,
And we stood alone in the silent night!
Often since, in the nights of June,
We sit on the sand and watch the moon; -
- She dwells by the streams of the Chankly Bore,
And we probably never shall see her more.
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!
Scheme | aabbAACC ddeeffgghhxxAACC iijjkkllmmnnAACCooppqqrriissttuuvvwwAACC xxmmyyzzAACC |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101001 11011111 1111111 110100101 111001 111111011 111001 111101111 111010111 111110101 111101111 111101101 01011101 001111101 1010101101 001001011 1111101 101011011 10010111001 011011101 111001 111111011 111001 111101111 111110101 01010101 11010111 1100111111 100101001 1011101 10010101 101101 10110101 11010111 0100110111 10101101 111001 111111011 111001 111101111 11100101 011011101 101011101 010111111 1111111 0010011111 1111111101 111110111 1111110101 010011111 11001111 1011100111 0010110111 1011100101 1011011111 101100111 1111001101 10011101 00111001001 1101001001 111001 111111011 111001 111101111 01010011 11110001001 100101111 0110100101 10100111 111010101 111011011 01100101101 111001 111111011 111001 111101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,878 |
Words | 554 |
Sentences | 39 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 16, 40, 12 |
Lines Amount | 76 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 569 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 138 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 2:46 min read
- 187 Views
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