Analysis of Sarah Byng, Who Could Not Read And Was Tossed Into A Thorny Hedge By A Bull
Hilaire Belloc 1870 (La Celle-Saint-Cloud) – 1953
Some years ago you heard me sing
My doubts on Alexander Byng.
His sister Sarah now inspires
My jaded Muse, my failing fires.
Of Sarah Byng the tale is told
How when the child was twelve years old
She could not read or write a line.
Her sister Jane, though barely nine,
Could spout the Catechism through
And parts of Matthew Arnold too,
While little Bill who came between
Was quite unnaturally keen
On 'Athalie', by Jean Racine.
But not so Sarah! Not so Sal!
She was a most uncultured girl
Who didn't care a pinch of snuff
For any literary stuff
And gave the classics all a miss.
Observe the consequence of this!
As she was walking home one day,
Upon the fields across her way
A gate, securely padlocked, stood,
And by its side a piece of wood
On which was painted plain and full,
BEWARE THE VERY FURIOUS BULL
Alas! The young illiterate
Went blindly forward to her fate,
And ignorantly climbed the gate!
Now happily the Bull that day
Was rather in the mood for play
Than goring people through and through
As Bulls so very often do;
He tossed her lightly with his horns
Into a prickly hedge of thorns,
And stood by laughing while she strode
And pushed and struggled to the road.
The lesson was not lost upon
The child, who since has always gone
A long way round to keep away
From signs, whatever they may say,
And leaves a padlocked gate alone.
Moreover she has wisely grown
Confirmed in her instinctive guess
That literature breeds distress.
Scheme | AABCDDEEFFGGGHIJJKKLLMMNNOPPLLFFQQRRSTLLUUVV |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 1110101 11010101 110111010 11010111 11011111 11111101 01011101 1101001 01110101 11011101 11010001 111101 11110111 110111 11010111 1101001 01010101 01010011 11110111 01010101 0101011 01110111 11110101 010101001 01010100 11010101 01101 11000111 11000111 11010101 11110101 11010111 01010111 01110111 01010101 01011101 0111111 01111101 1110111 0101101 01011101 01000101 11000101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,448 |
Words | 267 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 44 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 265 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 147 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Sarah Byng, Who Could Not Read And Was Tossed Into A Thorny Hedge By A Bull" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19217/sarah-byng%2C-who-could-not-read-and-was-tossed-into-a-thorny-hedge-by-a-bull>.
Discuss this Hilaire Belloc poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In