Analysis of The Little Clown
Barbara A Cadogan 1944 (Barbados)
I remember when
The circus came to town.
A little lass was I back then,
I had never seen a clown.
He seemed a bright and cheerful boy;
A master of disguise,
But underneath this layer of joy
There was sadness in his eyes.
He mimed and mimicked
To those around,
Skipped merrily and frolicked,
But uttered not a sound.
The people jeered and they did ask
If he was just a homeless bum.
No response he made, alas!
He was both deaf and dumb.
I still remember well today,
The cruel words they muttered,
But he went merrily on his way
And not a word he uttered.
How couldn’t they see
His dreams were shattered,
When all he wanted to be
Was a funny face that mattered.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG HIHI JIJI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 10101 010111 01011111 1110101 11010101 010101 10111011 1110011 11010 1101 110001 110101 01010111 11110101 1011101 111101 11010101 0101110 111100111 0101110 1111 11010 1111011 10101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 684 |
Words | 156 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 86 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
About this poem
This poem is a memory of an experience I had as a kid . It invokes a sense of sadness when we are often judged by others who do not really know us but are influenced in their judgment by outward appearances.
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