Poem Analysis: a Parody

 Poem Analysis: a Parody

[Note: The verbose language was intentional. I deliberately tried to use very complicated language as part of the parody. Furthermore, there may be mistakes as to the accuracy of using a specific term, but this is a pseudo-academic text, not an academic one, so kindly overlook any errors. Also, I don’t intend to poke fun at the whole enterprise of analysis. Critics and academics can have insightful and very probable ideas about a text, and this essay is not intended to discredit that] 

In this essay, it is the intention of the writer to examine a couplet of poetry, and therefrom to extract subtle meanings that would not be evident to many persons who happened to read the couplet independent of our interpretation. The author of the aforementioned couplet says: 

With axe he smote the tree in twain

And let out screams and shouts of pain

From a purely semantic perspective, it is probable that this couplet is part of a wider narrative, and the surface level meaning is that a certain individual attempted to cut a tree with the means of an axe, yet, his strength proving insufficient, he caused himself pain thereby, but was able to split the tree. This is the denotative reading. Our endeavour is to interpret it in a much deeper way.

We first proceed with the formal and structural phenomena present. The couplet is composed of acatalectic iambic tetrameter, with not a hint to either an acephalous beginning, or any catalexis. We assert then, that the effect that this metrical strictness has is that it reflects the organisation of this protagonist. He is perhaps an apprentice woodsman, and hence, as a labourer, would needs follow a strict routine in at least his work dealings, for fear of being fired. Yet, conversely, it could be said, given the rather negative image we are given of him, that he is quite the opposite, and hence the metre juxtaposes this by following a strict pattern. Hence there is ambiguity in this matter and we are not, in this couplet, given any further details of this.

It follows, from our earlier point, that the couplet is syllabically consistent. Numerically, the lines are eight syllables each. 2^3 is equivalent to 8, but if we sum the total syllables, and also individual lexis, we arrive at 16, which, in the tautology of mathematics, is 2^4. Then, looking in terms of feet, 2^1 is the same as 2, which is accurate as each foot is iambic. Furthermore, taking this couplet in isolation, which we should be permitted to do given the couplet rhyme scheme, it is 2, which is again 2^1. The same can be said for the rhyme. Finally, the fragment ‘smote the tree in twain’ explicitly mentions a duality. Hence, syllabically, there is a plethora of dualities present, and the purpose of this can be said to reinforce the two main entities that are the subject of this couplet, namely the man and the tree.

If we are asked, what of the axe, does it not constitute a third entity and hence refute your thesis? We answer that we could argue that the axe serves as an extension to the man in this instance, hence we do not consider it as being a subject in the couplet. Furthermore, if we stipulate that our thesis was specifically for living beings, then the objection is avoided.  

Also, observe the monosyllabic nature of each lexeme present in this couplet. We suggest that the reason for this stylistic decision is to phonologically and graphologically mirror each successive action, providing a chronological representation of each successive event.

Turning now to the lexical analysis, we can see that the first lexeme is ‘with.’ This preposition normally connotes the meaning of physical proximity, yet in this instance clearly means ‘through the means of.’ Yet we can link this to the former prepositional meaning, as naturally the tool utilised, in this case an axe, was in physical proximity to the protagonist, as it would, presumably, be present in his hand. 

Next, we have the lexeme ‘axe’ and herefrom we could derive some symbolism. Axes may be either one-edged or two, and this context can either symbolise human greed as being constantly focused on the object of desire (one-edged axes) or the self-destructive nature of greed (two-edged axes). We are not informed as to the specifics of the axe, but we observe that the protagonist suffered from its usage, hence reinforcing the self-harming nature of greed, so it matters not as to which was intended. The reason we can specify human greed as being the tenor of this metaphor, if indeed we can be permitted to refer to this as a metaphor, is that the protagonist is cutting a tree, which can symbolise human desire for natural resources. This, when abstracted, can be seen as referring to human greed. Phonologically, the lexeme ‘axe’ has a rather abrupt sound. This, when combined with its status as a stressed syllable, gives a phonological description of the sound of the axe hitting the tree. 

The pronoun ‘he’ can be seen as either a cataphoric or anaphoric reference, depending on the earlier and later lines, if indeed more lines exist [only two more lines of this poem were composed, and neither give any name to this man]. We shall take it as neither. Rather we shall take this individual and assume him to be a microcosm for humanity, which adds to our previous interpretation of the lexeme.

We have three ‘s’ related sounds: ‘smote,’ ‘screams’ and ‘shouts.’ This sibilant phonology can be said to provide an aural reflection of the swishing of the axe. This can be seen as juxtaposing the phonological harshness of ‘pain.’ This, in turn, with its abruptness, can be said to reflect the abruptness of the pain experienced. 

In conclusion, none of this analysis was intended by the writer, so this whole essay, from an analytical point of view, is arguably meaningless. How do I know this, you ask. Well, I wrote that couplet…

A Cautionary Tale

 

A mufti woke from long repose and looked towards the clock. He saw

A sight that made him pale ‘twas very late indeed. Across the floor

He sped and leapt into his robe without e’en changing clothes or brush

-Ing teeth. He then departed to his car and in a rush

He sped through lights of red and green. Then through the iron gate

He drove in rather like a maniac. And in a state

Of hurriedness he parked haphazardly and then he flew

Right up the stairs into the complex. Then he hurried through

The doors and passages and corridors until his class came to

His sight. He pushed the portal open, then observed his class awaiting

Therein. He entered and while running stumbled on a single shoe

The mufti rose into the air and flew across the room. Into

The hub he landed but worse was yet to come. He heard a tear

-Ing sound and his robe did rip, what he was wearing underneath was there

Revealed. The students stared in consternation as their teacher rose.

Upon his shirt there read ‘The gamer dad’ it clearly said.

The mufti walked toward his desk and sat upon his chair. He goes

And puts his feet upon the desk and thus begins to teach.

Although he always did so passionately preach

The need to dress and act in decent manner, seldom

Did take his own advice so it should come

As no surprise that his students never followed his counsel

So, understand that if tell someone to perform an act perform the act as well

. . . .

The next day he woke from sleep and leapt from bed. He raced around

Preparing for the day ahead. He never once did glance around

Toward the clock. He jumped into his car and turned the key

The car did choke and then it stopped. Endeavoring with all his strength he

Did twist the key but nothing happened. Then he lost his head completely

Abandoning his car he fled, pursued by fear of being late

Up the muddy street he splashed getting himself so great

-Ly foul and filthy. Covered in mud he ran and ran until the gate

Did come to view. He saw quite clearly; they were shut with chains. He then

Did realise his earliness and an important lesson:

‘Haste in performing tasks result in extra burden’

The Red Pearls - Part 4/4

Ibn Rajab stood in the night alone, holding a cloth bag containing twenty-five glowing pearls and gloating at his success. The pearls were his. And rightfully so, for he had bought them, hadn’t he? That baron, even if his story was true, had no right to these comely pearls.

Ibn Rajab looked towards the stygian firmament and was surprised to descry a strange green bird flying towards him. It came closer and closer. It was, now he came to think of it, too ponderous for a bird and it had no beak and was covered in scales and spikes.

With a horrible realization he understood that this was the fabled dragon. Now he stood, paralyzed with terror as it came closer and closer. Then he sighed with relief as it flew past. It was not without purpose that the dragon had descended, however. Looking after it, he saw a bulging bag dangling from a long black talon.

Suddenly he felt angry. He had bought those pearls and now the dragon had embezzled them. He looked around; a man was closing a stable door. Without hesitation, he ran towards the man, shoved him aside, and rushed into the stable. Therein was a glossy, black horse. Ibn Rajab did not have any knowledge of riding, but he thought he did so he leapt on the horse, pulled its mane, and kicked its front legs. The horse reared up and Ibn Rajab slid off landing on the hard floor. Then the man entered holding a stick in preparation to beat him. Ibn Rajab picked himself up, pushed past the man and rushed out the door.

He could still see the dragon in the distance, so he began to give chase. The dragon was awfully slow due to its tremendous bulk. In addition to that, it looked fatigued. Ibn Rajab passed houses, shops, inns and finally reached the gates of the town. Two hapless guards were heaving at them, endeavouring to shut them. They were having extraordinarily little success.

“Hail friend,” called one of them, “would you mind…”

“Out of the way!” snapped Ibn Rajab and he sped past.

Now he began running in earnest. Ahead, an alp loomed. The dragon was flying towards it. Then it vanished into a cave. Ibn Rajab, after many hours, many stops, and many wishes for water finally reached the foot. Then began the long, arduous travail up the steep incline.

He investigated the first cave he reached and found it was empty. The next cave contained some invisible atoms. The next five were the same. He observed a phosphorescent golden light emerging from the eighth cave. He approached with caution and peeked around the side of the cave. The cave was tall and very wide. There was a large white ball of celestial light in the centre of the ceiling (he later discovered it was made from something called “majick”). There were piles of golden trappings: doubloons, armour, helms, shields, swords, coins, daggers, crowns, sceptres, rings, model animals and people, statues, spears, lances, helmets, cups, goblets, chalices, vessels, breastplates, and rolls and rolls of golden cloth. There was a clearing in all that glittering, shimmering, glimmering gold and in it was the green thief and an old man. On the floor near entrance was the brown cloth bag containing the pearls.

Ibn Rajab crept forward very stealthily and slowly picked the bag up; then started to back quickly out of the cave. Then the pearls clinked together. The dragon looked up. Then the old man looked up as well.

“Ah,” said the old man, “I see you’ve got my pearls. Please return them.”

Ibn Rajab was about to say no, but the dragon growled so he thought better of it. He dropped the bag and hurried out of the cave. Then was the descent and the walk back to the town and then the lengthy vigil at the gates until morning and finally the long wait for the two guards to open them. Then back to his house and then to bed.

The Story of the King, the Dragon and the Clever Knight

In far eastern Wales lived a very foolish, very vain, and very terrible dragon whose name was Draco. He lived in the sea from which he frequently emerged to feast on eggs and soldiers [1].

The king of that time was not at all pleased to have to constantly replace his soldiers so one day he asked the cleverest man in his kingdom to devise a plan that would purge the kingdom of “that dread beast which constantly plagues us”.

The poor man, fearing for the safety of his head, earnestly endeavored to formulate a plan that would accord with the kings wishes but was forced to admit his inability to come up with one. Upon arriving at this conclusion, he decided he would be safer elsewhere and so he sold all his possessions, bought a fast horse, and set off to London where he gained renown as a poet who invented iambic hexameter and iambic heptameter.

Meanwhile, the king, upon discovering the insubordination of his kingdom’s most intelligent man, flew into a terrible rage and, hurling rubies all the while, chased his informer out of the castle. When he returned, he was extremely annoyed to find the mess of 200 rubies all over the floor. After declaring that the one who made the mess would be executed for “the heinous crime of attempted murder through injury of a monarch’s foot” he stormed to his throne room and slammed the door shut. Then he flung himself on his throne to think.

After 2 hours of uninterrupted rumination and reading, he had an idea.

......... 6 hours later

“Friends”, the king began, “I have brought you all hither …”. It was evening, and the king had summoned all his knights to the Square Table of King Arnold for a meeting. “…to discuss the ongoing problem with that dire creature”, the king continued, “the dragon that continually haunts us and holds us in fear. We must do something about this matter, or else it will consume the population of Wales and then spread worldwide.”

 “I was perusing a book concerning history when I came across a story about King Arnold and a dragon. It is narrated that he sent each of his knight…”

 

“I suppose you expect us to do the same”, interrupted Sir James who was a very insolent knight, “why can’t you slay the beast yourself?”

“No! No! I can’t possibly leave them, it’s a king’s duty to look after his people. I must ensure they are well”, responded the king, then he added in a thoughtful voice, “I wonder how your body would look without a head.”

“Well? Who volunteers?”

“I’ll go”, offered Sir William, a hardy knight of many years, “I’ll depart now if you wish”.

“Yes”, said the king, “that would be good. If you slay it then I’ll give you a pot of gold.”

So, Sir William departed thence and rode on his swift steed to the sea. Upon his advent, he observed the dragon lying on the beach. The dragon was large and red, and he was chewing on a large bone.

“Hail, dragon!” called the knight, “I’ve come to meet you and see your so-called ‘majesty’ and ‘greatness’ for myself. I now discover that my informers were quite correct.”

“Ave, knight”, rumbled the dragon, “I hope you’ll not mind being eaten [2] because that’s what’ll betide you”.

“Of course, I won’t mind”, responded Sir William, “but before you do that, I’ve a query for you.”

“You can ask your question, then I’ll consume you.

“Well, I was wondering if you could perform magic? All the dragons in the old tales were.”

“Yes, I am very adept at it.” Replied the dragon smugly,” I can do very good magic”.

“Can you shrink yourself to human size?” asked the knight, “If you could, then that would truly demonstrate your power. If you could defeat me while you’re that size, then you’d probably be feared by the whole world.”

Even though he sensed the trick, the dragon could not resist the chance to acquire fame, so he nodded, closed his eyes, and then shrunk to human size.

The Battle

 [In Blank Verse]

 The warrior thrust with murderous swing

Dragon aside moved, thus avoiding death

So, Will attacked again and with complete

Intention lunged towards his foe, then swept

His sword left to right. His foe fell down

And Sir William was the victor.

THE END!

---

[1] He would eat real Welsh soldiers and Ostrich eggs. He would fly to Africa to get the eggs.

[2] In addition to being vain and terrible, the dragon was also quite polite.

The Red Pearl - Part 3/4

As the baron searched, he descried a figure matching the description of the jeweller. He was walking along the road and whistling. He headed toward him and stopped before him. The man looked up.

“What do you want, sir?”, he inquired.

“Is your name Ibn Rajab?”, asked the baron.

“Yes. It is”, replied Ibn Rajab.

“I believe you purchased 25 red pearls from a jeweller, said the baron, “I wonder if you could sell them to me.”

“How do you know I bought 25 pearls?”, Ibn Rajab asked suspiciously, “I will not sell them unless you tell me how you came across that information.”

“Well…I met a man…”, and the baron related his story.

“Intriguing, very intriguing”, muttered Ibn Rajab, “alright, you can have them…for only 25 gold coins. I’ll just retrieve them from my room.”

Ibn Rajab walked away and soon returned holding a sack. He handed it to the baron, who in return, gave him 25 coins.

“Thank you very much”, said the baron.

Ibn Rajab walked away. The baron returned to his waiting horse and embarked.

Then he stopped, he had forgotten to ask the pearl owner where to find him when he had retrieved the pearls.

He decided to return to the place wherein he had met the man. When he arrived, he found the man leaning against a tree waiting for him.

Dismounting he handed the sack to the man who wordlessly took it and peered inside.

The man looked up and his visage was irate as he said, “you tricked me, you wanted to steal my money!”

He hurled the sack on the ground and stormed away.

The baron picked up the sack and saw therein 25 round pebbles.

To be continued ...

 

The Red Pearl - Part 2/4

The man travelled for numerous days, searching for another person who would retrieve his pearls.

On one lonesome road he met a richly dressed man riding a horse, who introduced himself as Baron Charlamagne, a man of great renown. Upon observing his glum countenance, the baron inquired to the reason of his morose expression. The man responded with his tale of loss.

“I suppose these pearls are valuable to you”, mused the baron, “I will retrieve them…for a price, of course.” So elated was the man, that he consented readily and handed the baron some money to purchase the pearls.

After he received the name of the town where the pearls had been lost, the baron turned, and rode in the direction of the town.

He reached it at noon and entered the gates. He disembarked from his horse and tied it to a pole and entered the jewellers [he expected the knight had sold the pearls here].

Walking to the counter he announced “I wish to purchase some pearls” [he did not mention the fact that the pearls he wanted were red because it would sound suspicious].

The jeweller reached behind the counter and pulled up eleven velvet filled boxes containing pearls of various hues. They appeared quite unauthentic to the barons experienced eyes.

“All my pearls”, he declared, “all genuine”.

There was not a red one among them. The baron sighed; he had expected that, but it had complicated matters.

“How is business?” asked the baron.

“Sufficient, sufficient”, replied the other, “only yesterday an odd fellow bought twenty-five pearls. Said his name was Ibn Rajab of Egypt. He wore a long white robe and a turban. He is a travel writer”.

“Where is he staying?” asked the baron.

“He inquired about an inn to stay”, answered the jeweller, “I directed him to The Golden Crown inn near my place… So, what do you want to buy?”

“I’ll have this rather large argent pearl”, was the reply.

Then the baron exited the shop and looked up and down the street for The Golden Crown inn.

The Red Pearl - Part 1/4

There once lived a knight during the 1400s, whose name was Sir William, and this is one incident in his life:

One day Sir William was walking along a busy road, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he observed a very eccentric looking man. He was noticeably short, with a lengthy grey beard. He was dight in a garment resembling a monk’s habit, however it was purple and covered in argent stars. He wore a hat following the same description as the habit and dragged a cloth sack in one hand.

“Good morning”, he said, “I hope you are well.”

“What do you want?” inquired the knight. It was humiliating for a vainglorious man like himself to be seen talking to this inferior individual.

“I want a holiday”, he explained, “and I want you to keep this sack for me. It contains 25 pearls coloured red. They contain magic which I can only activate. I will pay you for keeping them for me. I will be here, on this very spot, for you to return these pearls.

The knight was at first reluctant, but at the mention of money he brightened.

“Alright”, he said, “I will look after the pearls.”

The man gave the sack to the knight and then he melted into the crowd.

The knight walked with the crowd, thinking, “If I was to sell these pearls, I would surely receive a greater profit then if I was to wait for that man to return.” Reaching a decision, he turned left and walked into the jewellers.

“I wish to sell these pearls”, he said, shaking the sack, “they are filled with magic.”

“Ha-ha”, laughed the jeweller, “filled with magic, eh? But let us look at them before making judgments”.

The knight emptied the sack, and 25 pearls fell on the counter. They were all red.

The jeweller peered at them suspiciously, “They must be counterfeit!”, exclaimed the jeweller, “I have never, in all my years, seen red pearls. But I will buy them because they appear sophisticated. I will pay a bar of gold, weighing 1 kilogram”.

One month later, the knight met the man whose pearls the knight had sold. “So”, the man said, “Can I have my pearls back?”

“Ah, said the knight, well…

“Do you mean to tell me”, the man roared, “that you sold my pearls?!”

“Well…yes”, mumbled the knight.

“How much did you get?” asked the man.

“One bar of gold weighing one kilogram”, replied the knight.

“I would have paid 4 times that amount,” the man replied, and walked away, leaving the knight, feeling ashamed, behind him.