Analysis of Mack the Knife
Bertolt Brecht 1898 (Augsburg) – 1956 (East Berlin)
Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white.
Just a jack knife has Macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight.
When the shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread.
Fancy gloves, though, wears Macheath, dear
So there's not a trace of red.
On the side-walk Sunday morning
Lies a body oozing life;
Someone's sneaking 'round the corner.
Is that someone Mack the Knife?
From a tugboat by the river
A cement bag's dropping down;
The cement's just for the weight, dear.
Bet you Mackie's back in town.
Louie Miller disappeared, dear
After drawing out his cash;
And Macheath spends like a sailor.
Did our boy do something rash?
Sukey Tawdry, Jenny Diver,
Polly Peachum, Lucy Brown
Oh, the line forms on the right, dear
Now that Mackie's back in town.
Scheme | ABAB ACAC XDED EFAF AGEG EFAF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 10111011 0111101 1011111 0111111 10111111 1010111 1011111 1110111 1011110 1010101 1101010 111101 1011010 0011101 0111011 1110101 0110011 1010111 0111010 11011101 10101010 101101 10111011 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 773 |
Words | 143 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 14, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 171 Views
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"Mack the Knife" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4300/mack-the-knife>.
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