Jingle Stupid Bells (About a little black cat who thinks he’s a panther.)
Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright…
Ha! I’m the panther in the night.
With tigers Blake was surely taken
But by Bastet, he was mistaken.
Panthers are by far superior
Than all the old tiger hysteria.
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Okay – so I had to do a little research after I read this and will pass on what I learned. This is probably common knowledge but I’ll include it just in case. William Blake wrote a poem ‘The Tiger’ in 1794 that begins…Tiger, tiger, burning bright… And Bastet is the Egyptian cat-headed goddess and I think we all know what panthers are.
Now I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to writing parodies. What makes a parody of a poem work is the ability of the author to stick strictly to the original meter. If you are going to begin your poem with such a famous line then I would expect the rest of the poem to continue in the same fashion. So let’s see how true this one is.
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Here’s the original…
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| Ti | ger | ti | ger | burn | ing | bright | |
| In | the | for | ests | of | the | night | |
| What | im | mor | tal | hand | or | eye | |
| Could | frame | thy | fear | ful | sym | me | try |
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The meter is trochaic (mostly) – a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable with the final foot missing its unstressed mate. In fancy terms this final foot is catalectic.
It is written in rhyming couplets and each stanza or verse has four lines (a quatrain). So the rhyming pattern is AABB
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| Ti | ger | ti | ger | burn | ing | bright | ||
| Ha | I’m | the | pan | ther | in | the | night | |
| With | ti | gers | Blake | was | sure | ly | tak | en |
| But | by | Bas | tet | he | was | mis | tak | en |
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Anonymous poet No. 4’s verse is pretty similar with a few exceptions. You’ll note I’ve omitted the last two lines for an easier comparison.
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Line by line edit…
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Line 1
No problems there.
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Line 2
Personally I would recommend removing the “Ha”. I don’t think it adds anything and I found it a bit jarring, wanting to begin the line with a stressed syllable. The rest of the line is good.
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Line 3
Being the stickler I want to begin the line with a stressed syllable so maybe…
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| Blake | with | ti | gers | he | was | tak | en |
Line 4
| But | by | Bas | tet | he | was | mis | tak | en |
From my understanding the author is saying that Bastet prefers panthers to tigers. I’m happy to start the line with an unstressed syllable because Blake has done just that. But two unstressed syllables, no. In fact the meter falls apart in this last line and it is a bit difficult to understand. Using the pronoun ‘he’ is confusing. Who is the ‘he’ referring to, Blake or Bastet? Remembering that not everyone will know who Bastet is. So then I might suggest…
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| But | Bas | tet | vows | that | Blake’s | mis | tak | en |
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Lines 5 & 6
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Panthers are by far superior
Than all the old tiger hysteria.
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| Pan | thers | are | by | far | su | per | i | or | |
| Than | all | the | old | ti | ger | hys | ter | i | a |
| Pan | thers | are | su | per | i | or | |||
| To | ti | ger | myth | hys | ter | i | a |
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And so…
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Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright
I’m the panther in the night
Blake with tigers, he was taken
But Bastet vows that Blake’s mistaken.
Panthers are superior
To tiger myth hysteria
Thank you Anonymous poet No 4. Your e-book is on its way.
