The Pigtail by William Makepeace Thackery

There lived a sage in days of yore,

And he a handsome pigtail wore;
But wondered much and sorrowed more,
Because it hung behind him.

He mused upon this curious case,

And swore he'd change the pigtail's place,
And have it hanging at his face,
Not dangling there behind him.

Says he, "The mystery I've found -

Says he, "The mystery I've found!
I'll turn me round," - he turned him round;
But still it hung behind him.

Then round and round, and out and in,

All day the puzzled sage did spin;
In vain - it mattered not a pin -
The pigtail hung behind him.

And right and left and round about,

And up and down and in and out
He turned; but still the pigtail stout
Hung steadily behind him.

And though his efforts never slack,

And though he twist and twirl, and tack,
Alas! Still faithful to his back,
The pigtail hangs behind him.

'The Pigtail' by William Makepeace Thackeray is an amusing(humorous )poem. Here, the word
'sage' is used in an ironical sense to refer to a person who is dull-witted.
Theme - How learnt men lack practical common sense.
Special Features –
 3rd person narration
 Usage of old English - i.e. Sage, muse, yore
 Dramatically presented
 Starts in past tense at the beginning but ends in simple present tense
  The poem starts in a traditional way - 'There lived a sage in the days of yore' (the same
method used in traditional proses, stories etc. - Once upon a time...)
Techniques -
 Short phrases
 Repetition - 'The pigtail hung behind him' (the meaning of this phrase is repeatedly used
in the last line of each stanza)
 Alliteration - 'twist, twirl and tack' (alliteration of 't')
 Assonance - 'round and round and out' (assonance of 'o')
 Visual imagery - Creates the image of sage's rotation
 Hyperbole/exaggeration - Several words such as 'mystery', 'curious case', 'mused' are used
to exaggerate the situation.
 Irony
 Rhyming pattern - last word of the first three lines of each stanza.
 Racy, quick moving rhythm
What makes this poem humorous?
 Antics of sage
 Usage of mock-serious tone
 The absurdity of sage's 'curious case' and his solution
 The way the poet organizes his materials and arranges the sentence structures.
i.e. - "There lived a sage in days of yore, And he a handsome pigtail wore;
But wondered much and sorrowed more, Because it hung behind him."

1.Here, from the 1st line, we can imagine a great learnt person because of the use of the
word 'sage' but it is made humorous by the second line of the poem with the word 'pigtail'.
2. The second line is written as 'And he a handsome pigtail wore' instead of 'he wore a
handsome pigtail' to make the word 'yore' in first line rhyme with 'wore' in the second line which
sharply focuses the sage in a frivolous light.
3. The quick transmission from the positive degree adjective 'much' to comparative degree
adjective 'more' in the 3rd line further highlights the folly of sage and sharpens the teasing
quality of the poem.
 The words which are used for hyperbole
 Repetition -
1) The repetition of the last line of each stanza adds humour to the poem because it always brings
to focus how the pigtail mocks at the sage's efforts by stubbornly remaining behind him.
2) "Then round and round, and out and in,
All day the puzzled sage did spin,
In vain - it mattered not a pin -
The pigtail hung behind him."
Here, we can see that the word 'in' is repeatedly used especially at the end of each line of this
stanza, to give the lines an amusing rhythm which goes very well with the context of the poem
(to show the sage as being engaged in a sort of a gyrating dance to have the pigtail shifted to his
face).
The ending of the poem indicating the readers that the sage didn't stop his rotation although it is
useless ("and though his efforts never slack").

Review of the poem 'The Pigtail'

The poem ‘Pigtail’ written by William Makepeace Thackeray is a humorous poem which throws
sarcasm at the sage taking the wise man as a clown. The story is based on a pigtail which the
sage wanted to get rid of. The way he tries to change the position of the pigtail and his effort for
that make the whole story very funny and humorous. The poet does not mention anything about
the wisdom or the presence of mind of the sage but confines to the pigtail how it becomes a wet
blanket to him. It is quiet funny why such a wise man maintained the plaited hair and why it
became a nuisance.

The poet vividly describes the displeasure the sage developed in his mind over the troublesome
pigtail.
“But wondered much and sorrowed more”
“He mused upon his curious case”
“And swore he’d change the pigtail’s place”

The poet also describes the attempt the sage made incessantly to get rid of the pigtail.
“…….he turned him round”
“…….the puzzled sage did spin; in vain….”
“And right, and lift and round about, And up, and down, and in, and out
He turned”

The poet creates a picture of the pigtail using the words, ‘handsome’, ‘this curious case’,
‘hanging’, ‘dangling’. The poet creates much mock, irony and sarcasm towards this character. A
sage is a person who is wise, discreet and judicious, having the wisdom of experience of or
indicating profound wisdom. However the sage in the poem is entirely different. It is the natural
order that a pigtail always falls down behind the head. So, in the whole story the sage is in an
absurd effort to change this position.

However the poet Thackeray presents the concept of the pigtail as a metaphor. It challenges the
wisdom of the sage. It can be taken as an obstacle to prove the intelligence of the sage. The sage
struggles in vain. As the episodes of sages are heard from the East, the poet perhaps reflects on
them in a sarcastic and satirical manner.