The Whale

Hilaire Belloc 1870 (La Celle-Saint-Cloud) – 1953



The Whale that wanders round the Pole
Is not a table fish.
You cannot bake or boil him whole
Nor serve him in a dish;

But you may cut his blubber up
And melt it down for oil.
And so replace the colza bean
(A product of the soil).

These facts should all be noted down
And ruminated on,
By every boy in Oxford town

Who wants to be a Don.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

21 sec read
124

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB XCXC DED E
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 332
Words 73
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 1

Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902, but kept his French citizenship. more…

All Hilaire Belloc poems | Hilaire Belloc Books

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