Analysis of A Dream Of Turtle.
Thomas Moore 1779 (Dublin) – 1852 (Bromham)
BY SIR W. CURTIS.
'Twas evening time, in the twilight sweet
I sailed along, when--whom should I meet
But a Turtle journeying o'er the sea,
"On the service of his Majesty."
When spying him first thro' twilight dim,
I didn't know what to make of him;
But said to myself, as slow he plied
His fins and rolled from side to side
Conceitedly o'er the watery path--
"'Tis my Lord of Stowell taking a bath,
"And I hear him now, among the fishes,
"Quoting Vatel and Burgersdicius!"
But, no--'twas, indeed, a Turtle wide
And plump as ever these eyes descried;
A turtle juicy as ever yet
Glued up the lips of a Baronet!
And much did it grieve my soul to see
That an animal of such dignity,
Like an absentee abroad should roam,
When he ought to stay and be ate at home.
But now "a change came o'er my dream,"
Like the magic lantern's shifting slider;
I lookt and saw by the evening beam
On the back of that Turtle sat a rider--
A goodly man with an eye so merry,
I knew 'twas our Foreign Secretary,
Who there at his ease did sit and smile,
Like Waterton on his crocodile;
Cracking such jokes, at every motion,
As made the Turtle squeak with glee
And own they gave him a lively notion
Of what his forced-meat balls would be.
So, on the Sec. in his glory went.
Over that briny element,
Waving his hand as he took farewell
With graceful air, and bidding me tell
Inquiring friends that the Turtle and he
Were gone on a foreign embassy--
To soften the heart of a Diplomat,
Who is known to dote upon verdant fat,
And to let admiring Europe see,
That calipash and calipee
Are the English forms of Diplomacy.
Scheme | A BBCCDDEEFFXAEBXXCCGG HIHICCJJKCKCXXLLCCMMCXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110010 11010011 110111111 10101001001 101011100 11011111 110111111 11111111 11011111 11001001 1111101001 0111101010 10101 111010101 01110111 010101101 110110100 011111111 1110011100 11010111 1111101111 110111011 101011010 110110101 10111101010 0101111110 1111010100 111111101 111110 1011110010 11010111 0111101010 11111111 110101101 1011100 10111111 110101011 01001101001 011010100 110011010 1111101101 011010101 1101 1010110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,562 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 20, 23 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 407 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 100 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 21 Views
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"A Dream Of Turtle." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56774/a-dream-of-turtle.>.
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