Analysis of Canute the Great
Marriott Edgar 1880 (Kirkcudbright) – 1951 (Battle)
I'll tell of Canute, King of England,
A native of Denmark was he,
His hobbies was roving and raiding
And paddling his feet in the sea.
By trade he were what's called a Viking,
Every summer he'd visit our shore,
Help himself to whatever he wanted,
And come back in the autumn for more.
These trips always showed him a profit,
But what stumped him to know was this 'ere...
Where the English folk got all the money,
He came and took off them each year.
After duly considering the matter,
He concluded as how his best course,
Were to have an invasion of England,
And tap the supply at its source.
He got other Vikings to join him,
With a promise of plunder and spoil,
And raked up atrocity stories,
To bring all their blood to the boil.
They landed one morning at Weymouth,
And waited for fight to begin,
While their foe, Ethelred the Unready,
Found his army and got it fell in.
When the battle were done, Crown of England,
Changed heads, so the history book states,
From Ethelred's seven-and-a-quarter,
To King Canutes six-and-five-eights.
The Vikings was cheered as the winners,
Ethelred, he went somewhere and died,
And Canute, to his lasting atonement...
Made the widow, Queen Emma, his bride.
She started to teach him his manners,
To drink without wetting his nose,
Put his hand to his mouth and say "Pardon!",
Every time the occasion arose.
She said his companions was vulgar,
His habits more easy than free,
Made him promise no more to disgrace her,
By paddling his feet in the sea.
At the time this 'ere promise meant nothing,
It were made in the cool of the spring,
But when summer came in with a heat wave,
T' were a totally different thing.
He moved his court down to the seaside,
Where they took off their shoes and their socks,
And rushed to the water and left him,
Alone on his throne on the rocks.
Said one, "Come on King, have a paddle,
I'll look after your sceptre and crown."
He replied, "Nay, I promised the missus,
And I can't let the old... lady down."
"No need to do that," said the Tempter,
"The tide's coming in, as you see;
You promised you wouldn't go to it,
But you can't stop it coming to thee!"
And that's how it happened... that later,
When Emma came over the sands,
She found Canute knee deep in water,
Trying to shush the sea back with his hands.
For not letting on that he'd seen her,
He was chiding each wave as it came,
Saying, "Thus far, my lad, and no further!"
'Til Emma said, "What is this game?"
He replied, These 'ere flatterers told me,
That the sea would obey me, and so,
I'm giving them this demonstration,
To show what a fat lot they know."
"You're doing quite right," shouted Emma,
"It's time someone made them look small!"
Then she took off her shoes and her stockings,
And started to paddle an' all.
Scheme | ABCB CDXD XXBX EFAF GHXH XIAI AJEJ KLXL KMNM EBEB CCXC LOGO XPXP DBXB EQEQ ERER BSNS XTXT |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 11111110 0101111 110110010 010011001 111011010 10010110101 101110110 011001011 11111010 111111111 1010111010 11011111 10100100010 101011111 0111010110 01001111 111010111 101011001 011010010 11111101 110110110 01011101 111101 111001110 1010011110 111010011 11100010 1111011 010111010 111101 011110010 101011011 110111110 11011011 1111110110 1001001001 111010110 11011011 1110111010 110011001 1011110110 101001101 1110101011 1001001001 11111101 111111011 011010011 01111101 111111010 111011001 1011110010 011101101 11111101 01100111 110110111 111111011 011110110 11011001 11111010 1011011111 111011110 111011111 1011110110 11011111 10111111 101101101 11011010 11101111 110111010 1111111 1111010010 01011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,681 |
Words | 519 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 116 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 06, 2023
- 2:37 min read
- 140 Views
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