Analysis of Legend of the Leeds Lions
Four large stone lions guard Leeds Town Hall;
They sit with poise and style.
No-one sees them move at all,
Though children see them smile!
One hundred and fifty years they've been
Guarding without a sound.
Many a sight they must have seen
While holding their hallowed ground!
The legend says, when midnight strikes,
The lions all change places.
Unnoticed by the passing Tykes,*
Four lions go through their paces!
And furthermore (the legend goes),
On very rare occasions
Thirteen chimes are heard by those
Four lions at their stations!
On thirteen chimes the lions come down
To walk the streets with ease;
For time is frozen through the town,
And no-one ever sees!
The lions are back where they belong
When normal time resumes;
With nothing different - nothing wrong;
Or so the town assumes!
Copyright © Robert Haigh 2017
*Author's note: In informal English
a Tyke is a person from Yorkshire.
This poem is based on a local legend.
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DXDX EFEF GHGH IJIJ X XX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101111 111101 1111111 110111 110010111 100101 10011111 1101101 0101111 0101110 01010101 11011110 0100101 1101010 1111111 1101110 111101011 110111 11110101 011101 010111101 110101 110100101 110101 10101 101001010 011010110 11011101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 944 |
Words | 164 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 2, 1 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 82 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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"Legend of the Leeds Lions" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/58696/legend-of-the-leeds-lions>.
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