Analysis of Enigma
Thomas Moore 1779 (Dublin) – 1852 (Bromham)
Come riddle-me-ree, come riddle-me-ree,
And tell me, what my name may be.
I am nearly one hundred and thirty years old,
And therefore no chicken, as you may suppose; --
Though a dwarf in my youth (as my nurses have told),
I have, ev'ry year since, been outgrowing my clothes;
Till, at last, such a corpulent giant I stand,
That if folks were to furnish me now with a suit,
It would take ev'ry morsel of scrip in the land
But to measure my bulk from the head to the foot.
Hence, they who maintain me, grown sick of my stature,
To cover me nothing but rags will supply;
And the doctors declare that, in due course of nature,
About the year 30 in rags I shall die.
Meanwhile I stalk hungry and bloated around,
An object of int'rest, most painful, to all;
In the warehouse, the cottage, the palace I'm found,
Holding citizen, peasant, and king in my thrall.
Then riddle-me-ree, oh riddle-me-ree,
Come, tell me what my name may be.
When the lord of the counting-house bends o'er his book,
Bright pictures of profit delighting to draw,
O'er his shoulders with large cipher eye-balls I look,
And down drops the pen from his paralyz'd paw!
When the Premier lies dreaming of dear Waterloo,
And expects through another to caper and prank it,
You'd laugh did you see, when I bellow out "Boo!"
How he hides his brave Waterloo head in the blanket.
When mighty Belshazzar brims high in the hall
His cup, full of gout, to Gaul's overthrow,
Lo, "Eight Hundred Millions" I write on the wall,
And the cup falls to earth and -- the gout to his toe!
But the joy of my heart is when largely I cram
My maw with the fruits of the Squirearchy's acres,
And, knowing who made me the thing that I am,
Like the monster of Frankenstein, worry my makers.
Then riddle-me-ree, come, riddle-me-ree,
And tell, if thou knows't, who I may be.
Scheme | AABXBXCXCXDEDEFGFGAA HIHIJXJXGKGKLMLMAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111011 01111111 111011001011 0111011101 101011111011 1111111011 1111011011 111011011101 11111011001 111011101101 111011111110 11011011101 0010011011110 010101111 1111001001 1101111011 00101001011 101001001011 1101111011 11111111 1011010111011 11011001011 1011011101111 0110111101 10011101110 0011010110011 11111111011 111111010010 110111001 111111110 11101011101 001111001111 101111111011 1110110110 01011101111 101011010110 1101111011 0111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,777 |
Words | 336 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 18 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 688 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 167 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 159 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Enigma" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36833/enigma>.
Discuss this Thomas Moore poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In