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 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DED E |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 332 |
Words | 73 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 1 |
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"The Whale" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/19253/the-whale>.
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