Analysis of The New Duckling
Alfred Noyes 1880 (Wolverhampton) – 1958 (Isle of Wight)
'I want to be new,' said the duckling.
'O, ho!' said the wise old owl,
While the guinea-hen cluttered off chuckling
To tell all the rest of the fowl.
'I should like a more elegant figure,'
That child of a duck went on.
'I should like to grow bigger and bigger,
Until I could swallow a swan.
'I _won't_ be the bond slave of habit,
I _won't_ have these webs on my toes.
I want to run round like a rabbit,
A rabbit as red as a rose.
'I _don't_ want to waddle like mother,
Or quack like my silly old dad.
I want to be utterly other,
And _frightfully_ modern and mad.'
'Do you know,' said the turkey, 'you're quacking!
There's a fox creeping up thro' the rye;
And, if you're not utterly lacking,
You'll make for that duck-pond. Good-bye!'
'I won't,' said the duckling. 'I'll lift him
A beautiful song, like a sheep;
And when I have--as it were--biffed him,
I'll give him my feathers to keep.'
Now the curious end of this fable,
So far as the rest ascertained,
Though they searched from the barn to the stable,
Was that _only his feathers remained_.
So he _wasn't_ the bond slave of habit,
And he _didn't_ have webs on his toes;
And _perhaps_ he runs round like a rabbit,
A rabbit as red as a rose.
Scheme | abab cdcd efeF cgcg ahah ijij kxke efeF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111111010 1110111 1010110110 11101101 1110110010 1110111 1111110010 01111001 111011110 11111111 111111010 01011101 111110110 11111011 111110010 011001 111101011 101101101 011110010 11111111 111010111 01001101 011111011 11111011 1010011110 1110101 1111011010 1111101 111011110 01111111 011111010 01011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,169 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 136 Views
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"The New Duckling" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1195/the-new-duckling>.
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