English Poetry - The Lion and Albert by Marriott Edgar

This poem is a monologue - a speech delivered by one person.

It tells the tragic case of a poor, old, scarred and caged zoo-lion, who is rudely and unnecessarily poked in the ear by a unwatched, child and his  'orses 'ead 'andle .

The poor, old lion could take it no more and 'e dealt with his tormentor,the only way 'e knew 'ow.  He swallowed the little blighter 'ole - probably got dreadful indigestion too.....



We looked at what one can learn about the character from the poem:

Mrs Ramsbottom - She reminds me of Harry Potter's Aunt and the way she and her husband protect Harry's cousin - even though he is a fat, slobbly blighter.  The family go looking for fresh air and fun.  They buy their son the finest toy that Woolworths could sell.  This suggests that he is a spoilt brat, who gets what he wants.  They are hard to please - not impressed with the ocean and find nothing to laugh at at all.  They go off to the zoo.  Although they obviously were not supervising their son, Mrs Ramsbottom becomes vexed when he is swallowed whole by the poor lion. Strangely she was not devastated or crying/sobbing with sadness??  More worrying about the wrong.  Silly and unrealistic.

They complain...as he was wearing his Sunday best and they had paid to come in.  She refuses settlement although her husband seems content to let the matter rest.  She demands that someone's got to be summonsed but ends up blazing and insisting that she will not waste 'er life raising children to feed ruddy lions.   This all suggests that she is fussy, hard to please and is an experienced complainer.  Had they been keeping an eye on their child and prevented him from abusing the poor lion then all would have gone well.  They ought to have lectured him on not teasing animals before they took him there.  It makes one feel really sorry for zoo / circus animals who have to suffer bratty children and ignorant, arrogant parents.

The poem is written to be read in a Northern Accent.  It was made famous by comedian, Stanley Halloway.

We 'ad a go at readin' 'e poem in the same accent an' we 'ah a laugh.  I sor'o' got 'e 'ang of it.  Its like putting your bottom jaw forward and talking like you have a hot potato in you mouth??

'ats all fo' 'ow,'olks!