Analysis of The Pigeon Shooting
They say that Monte Carlo is
A sunny place for shady people;
But I'm not in the gambling biz,
And sober as a parish steeple.
so though this paradisal spot
The devil's playground of the rich is,
I love it and I love it not,
As men may sometimes fall for bitches.
I lazed beneath the sky's blue bliss,
The sea swooned with a sequin glimmer;
The breeze was shy as maiden kiss,
The palms sashayed in silken shimmr.
The peace I soaked in every pore
did me more good than ten religions . . .
And then: Bang! Bang! my joy was o'er;
Says I: "There goes them poor dam pigeons."
I see them bob from out their traps,
the swarded green aroud them ringing;
bewildered, full of joy perhaps,
With sudden hope of skyway winging.
They blink a moment at the sun,
They flutter free of earthy tether . . .
A fat man holds a smoking gun,
A boy collects some blood and feather.
And so through all the sainted day,
Bang! Bang! a bunch of plumage gory.
Five hundred francs they cost to slay,
And few there live to tell the story . . .
Yet look! there's one so swift to fly,
Despite the shots a course he's steering . . .
Brave little bird! he's winging high,
He's gained the trees - I feel like cheering.
In Monte Carlo's garden glades
With dreamful bliss one softly lingers,
And lazily in leafy shades
The doves pick breadcrumbs from one fingers . . .
Bang! Bang! Farewell, oh sylvan courts!
Where peace and joy are sweetly blended . . .
God curse these lousy Latin sports!
My pigeons scat, my dream is ended.
Scheme | ABABCACA DEDEXFEF GHGHIEIE JKJKLHLH MNMNOPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (28%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11110101 010111010 111001001 010101010 11111 01011011 11101111 111011110 11010111 011101010 01111101 0110101 011101001 111111010 011111110 111111110 11111111 0111110 01011101 11011110 11010101 110111010 01110101 010111010 01110101 110111010 11011111 011111010 11111111 010101110 11011101 110111110 0101101 11111010 01000101 01111110 1111101 110111010 11110101 110111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,455 |
Words | 272 |
Sentences | 38 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 226 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 01, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 101 Views
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"The Pigeon Shooting" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32615/the-pigeon-shooting>.
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