Analysis of The Road to Roundabout

Gilbert Keith Chesterton 1874 (Kensington, London) – 1936 (Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire)



Some say that Guy of Warwick
The man that killed the Cow,
And brake the mighty Boar alive
Beyond the bridge at Slough;
Went up against a Loathly Worm
That wasted all the Downs,
And so the roads they twist and squirm
(If a may be allowed the term)
From the writhing of the stricken Worm
That died in seven towns.
I see no scientific proof
That this idea is sound,
And I should say they wound about
To find the town of Roundabout,
The merry town of Roundabout,
That makes the world go round.

Some say that Robin Goodfellow,
Whose lantern lights the meads
(To steal a phrase Sir Walter Scott
In heaven no longer needs),
Such dance around the trysting-place
The moonstruck lover leads;
Which superstition I should scout
There is more faith in honest doubt
(As Tennyson has pointed out)
Than in those nasty creeds.
But peace and righteousness (St John)
In Roundabout can kiss,
And since that's all that's found about
The pleasant town of Roundabout,
The roads they simply bound about
To find out where it is.

Some say that when Sir Lancelot
Went forth to find the Grail,
Grey Merlin wrinkled up the roads
For hope that he would fail;
All roads lead back to Lyonesse
And Camelot in the Vale,
I cannot yield assent to this
Extravagant hypothesis,
The plain, shrewd Briton will dismiss
Such rumours (Daily Mail).
But in the streets of Roundabout
Are no such factions found,
Or theories to expound about,
Or roll upon the ground about,
In the happy town of Roundabout,
That makes the world go round.


Scheme xxxxabaaabxcdddC xefexedddexgdddx fhxhbhgxghdcdddC
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110 011101 01010101 010111 1101011 110101 01011101 10110101 101010101 110101 1110101 1101011 01111101 1101110 0101110 110111 1111010 110101 11011101 0101101 1101011 01101 1010111 11110101 11001101 101101 11010011 01011 01111101 0101110 01110101 111111 1111110 111101 11010101 111111 111111 010001 11010111 01000100 01110101 10101 1001110 111101 11010101 11010101 00101110 110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,498
Words 271
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 16, 16, 16
Lines Amount 48
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 394
Words per stanza (avg) 90
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:21 min read
83

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an influential English writer of the early 20th century His diverse output included journalism philosophy poetry biography Christian apologetics fantasy and detective fiction Gilbert Keith Chesterton KC*SG was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Time magazine observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out." more…

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