Poetry & Analysis
Selected Turtle Poems
Animal PoemsThe Hare and the Tortoise
To win a race, the swiftness of a dart
Availeth not without a timely start.
The hare and tortoise are my witnesses.
Said tortoise to the swiftest thing that is,
‘I’ll bet that you’ll not reach, so soon as I
The tree on yonder hill we spy.’
‘So soon! Why, madam, are you frantic?’
Replied the creature, with an antic;
‘Pray take, your senses to restore,
A grain or two of hellebore.’
‘Say,’ said the tortoise, ‘what you will;
I dare you to the wager still.’
‘Twas done; the stakes were paid,
And near the goal tree laid–
Of what, is not a question for this place,
Nor who it was that judged the race.
Our hare had scarce five jumps to make,
Of such as he is wont to take,
When, starting just before their beaks
He leaves the hounds at leisure,
Thence till the kalends of the Greeks,
The sterile heath to measure.
Thus having time to browse and doze,
And list which way the zephyr blows,
He makes himself content to wait,
And let the tortoise go her gait
In solemn, senatorial state.
She starts; she moils on, modestly and lowly,
And with a prudent wisdom hastens slowly;
But he, meanwhile, the victory despises,
Thinks lightly of such prizes,
Believes it for his honour
To take late start and gain upon her.
So, feeding, sitting at his ease,
He meditates of what you please,
Till his antagonist he sees
Approach the goal; then starts,
Away like lightning darts:
But vainly does he run;
The race is by the tortoise won.
Cries she, ‘My senses do I lack?
What boots your boasted swiftness now?
You’re beat! and yet, you must allow,
I bore my house upon my back.’
Overview Short Summary
La Fontaine’s version of “The Hare and the Tortoise” retells the famous slow-and-steady fable in verse. The tortoise wins not by speed but by persistence, timing, and humility.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Patience: The tortoise succeeds by continuing steadily.
- Humility versus arrogance: The hare loses because he despises the prize and delays too long.
- Slow and steady wisdom: The poem directly supports turtle poem about patience and turtle poem about life keywords.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is witty, moral, and satirical. The mood is instructive because the poem uses animal competition to teach a life lesson.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise symbolizes patience, practical wisdom, discipline, and the victory of steady effort over careless talent.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The moral is stated first: speed alone is not enough without a timely start.
Challenge
The tortoise challenges the hare, who mocks her confidence.
Race
The hare waits, eats, rests, and assumes he can still win. The tortoise continues steadily.
Ending
The tortoise reaches the goal first and reminds the hare that his swiftness has failed against persistence.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses race imagery, goal tree, slow gait, lightning speed, and the tortoise’s portable house. Personification is central because the animals speak, wager, reason, and boast.
Craft Literary Devices
- Fable: The poem uses animals to teach a moral.
- Personification: The hare and tortoise speak and behave like humans.
- Contrast: Hare speed contrasts with tortoise steadiness.
- Irony: The slow animal wins the race.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem is written in rhymed verse with a clear narrative structure: moral statement, challenge, delay, steady progress, and reversal.
Excerpt from The Raven, the Gazelle, the Tortoise, and the Rat
Rat, raven, tortoise, and gazelle,
Once into firmest friendship fell.
‘Twas in a home unknown to man
That they their happiness began.
Out cried the tortoise at the word,–
‘Were I, as Raven is, a bird,
I’d fly this instant from my seat,
And learn what accident, and where,
Hath kept away our sister fair,
Our sister of the flying feet;
For of her heart, dear rat,
It were a shame to doubt of that.’
By two it was the vote
To hasten to the spot
Where lay the poor gazelle.
‘Our friend here in his shell,
I think, will do as well
To guard the house,’ the raven said;
‘For, with his creeping pace,
When would he reach the place?
Not till the deer were dead.’
Eschewing more debate,
They flew to aid their mate,
That luckless mountain roe.
The tortoise, too, resolved to go.
Behold him plodding on behind,
And plainly cursing in his mind,
The fate that left his legs to lack,
And glued his dwelling to his back.
Thus each his part perform’d. Which wins the prize?
The heart, so far as in my judgment lies.
Overview Short Summary
This excerpt presents the tortoise as part of a circle of animal friends. Though slow, he is loyal and tries to help, and the fable ends by honoring the heart.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Friendship: The tortoise belongs to a loyal group of animal companions.
- Slow movement: His pace is mocked, but his loyalty is not.
- Heart over speed: The poem values intention and friendship more than physical ability.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is moral, narrative, and warm. The mood is affectionate because the animals act out care and loyalty.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise symbolizes loyalty, limitation, and the value of a willing heart even when the body is slow.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The poem introduces the rat, raven, tortoise, and gazelle as firm friends.
Middle Lines
When the gazelle is missing, the tortoise wishes he could fly to help, but others doubt his usefulness because of his slow pace.
Closing Lines
The tortoise still resolves to go. The final moral honors the heart above speed.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses images of shell, creeping pace, plodding movement, and a dwelling glued to the back. Personification appears because the animals speak, reason, and form a loyal friendship.
Craft Literary Devices
- Fable: Animals teach a human moral.
- Personification: The animals speak and form friendships.
- Contrast: The raven’s flight contrasts with the tortoise’s slow pace.
- Moral statement: The final line identifies the heart as the real measure of worth.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem is in rhymed narrative verse. This excerpt moves from friendship to crisis to moral reflection.
The Finding of the Lyre
There lay upon the ocean’s shore
What once a tortoise served to cover;
A year and more, with rush and roar,
The surf had rolled it over,
Had played with it, and flung it by,
As wind and weather might decide it,
Then tossed it high where sand-drifts dry
Cheap burial might provide it.
It rested there to bleach or tan,
The rains had soaked, the sun had burned it;
With many a ban the fisherman
Had stumbled o’er and spurned it;
And there the fisher-girl would stay,
Conjecturing with her brother
How in their play the poor estray
Might serve some use or other.
So there it lay, through wet and dry,
As empty as the last new sonnet,
Till by and by came Mercury,
And, having mused upon it,
“Why, here,” cried he, “the thing of things
In shape, material, and dimension!
Give it but strings, and, lo, it sings,
A wonderful invention!”
So said, so done; the chords he strained,
And, as his fingers o’er them hovered,
The shell disdained a soul had gained,
The lyre had been discovered.
O empty world that round us lies,
Dead shell, of soul and thought forsaken,
Brought we but eyes like Mercury’s,
In thee what songs should waken!
Overview Short Summary
“The Finding of the Lyre” imagines a tortoise shell washed up on the shore and transformed by Mercury into a musical instrument. The poem turns an empty shell into a symbol of hidden song.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Transformation: A discarded shell becomes a lyre.
- Hidden beauty: What seems useless contains music if seen creatively.
- Turtle shell symbolism: The shell represents form, memory, and possibility.
- Art and imagination: Mercury’s vision awakens song in a dead object.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is mythic, reflective, and hopeful. The mood is imaginative because the tortoise shell becomes the beginning of music.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise shell symbolizes protection after life, creative potential, and the idea that even an empty shell can hold art if imagination touches it.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The tortoise shell lies on the shore after being rolled by the surf and weather.
Stanza 2
People see the shell as a stray, useless object.
Stanza 3
Mercury recognizes its potential and imagines it with strings.
Final Stanzas
The shell becomes the lyre, and the poem ends by asking what songs might awaken in the empty world if we had Mercury’s eyes.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses ocean, shore, surf, sand, sun, rain, shell, strings, and lyre imagery. Personification appears when the shell gains a soul through music.
Craft Literary Devices
- Mythological allusion: Mercury is linked with invention and music.
- Metaphor: The shell becomes a body capable of song.
- Personification: The shell is said to gain a soul.
- Symbolism: The tortoise shell represents hidden creative power.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem uses regular rhymed stanzas. Its structure moves from abandoned shell, to human neglect, to divine imagination, to artistic awakening.
Turtle Passage from The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo
Down the slippery slopes of Myrtle,
Where the early pumpkins blow,
To the calm and silent sea
Fled the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.
There, beyond the Bay of Gurtle,
Lay a large and lively Turtle.
“You’re the Cove,” he said, “for me;
On your back beyond the sea,
Turtle, you shall carry me!”
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo,
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.
Through the silent-roaring ocean
Did the Turtle swiftly go;
Holding fast upon his shell
Rode the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.
With a sad primeval motion
Towards the sunset isles of Boshen
Still the Turtle bore him well.
Holding fast upon his shell,
“Lady Jingly Jones, farewell!”
Sang the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo,
Sang the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.
Overview Short Summary
This turtle passage from Edward Lear’s nonsense poem turns the turtle into a sea-crossing companion. The large lively turtle carries the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo away across the ocean.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Adventure: The turtle becomes a vehicle for a strange sea journey.
- Companionship: The speaker trusts the turtle to carry him across the sea.
- Nonsense imagination: The poem uses invented places and playful sounds.
- Ocean turtle imagery: The turtle is linked with water, shell, motion, and sunset isles.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is whimsical, melancholy, and musical. The mood is adventurous but sad because the journey follows rejection and farewell.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The turtle symbolizes support, travel, and endurance. Its shell becomes a place of passage across emotional and literal distance.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo finds a large lively turtle and asks it to carry him beyond the sea.
Stanza 2
The turtle moves through the ocean while the rider holds the shell and sings farewell.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses sea imagery, sunset islands, shell, slippery slopes, pumpkins, and invented place names. Personification appears because the turtle becomes a willing carrier in a fantasy journey.
Craft Literary Devices
- Nonsense diction: Gurtle and Boshen create Lear’s comic fantasy world.
- Repetition: The repeated name gives the stanza musical rhythm.
- Imagery: Ocean, shell, and sunset create movement and mood.
- Symbolism: The turtle represents endurance during farewell.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The passage uses Lear’s songlike stanza structure with repetition and rhyme. Its movement is narrative, carrying the speaker from shore to sea.
The Tortoise Is Not Unworthy
I believe in those wing’d purposes,
And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,
And consider green and violet and the tufted crown intentional,
And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else,
And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me,
And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.
Overview Short Summary
This short excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is not a turtle poem in the narrow sense, but it gives one of the clearest poetic statements about the tortoise’s worth. Whitman refuses to judge the tortoise for not being something else.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Intrinsic worth: The tortoise has value as herself.
- Animal dignity: The poem includes the tortoise among many meaningful living forms.
- Anti-comparison: The tortoise should not be measured by another creature’s qualities.
- Nature as teacher: Animals correct human silliness and narrow judgment.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is expansive, democratic, and affirming. The mood is generous because Whitman gives dignity to ordinary creatures.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The tortoise symbolizes self-acceptance, natural worth, and the right of each creature to fill its own place without apology.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Opening Lines
The speaker affirms purpose and color in the natural world.
Middle Line
The tortoise becomes the central moral example: she is not unworthy simply because she is not something else.
Closing Lines
The jay and bay mare continue the lesson, showing that different creatures have their own music and power.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The excerpt uses color imagery, animal imagery, and musical imagery. Personification appears in the moral treatment of the tortoise and the jay’s unstudiied song.
Craft Literary Devices
- Parallelism: Repeated “And” clauses build Whitman’s inclusive rhythm.
- Symbolism: The tortoise represents natural self-worth.
- Catalog: The tortoise appears among birds, colors, and animals.
- Free verse: The open form supports the poem’s democratic vision.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The excerpt uses Whitman’s free-verse catalog style. Its structure moves by accumulation rather than strict rhyme.
Takeaway Moral Lesson
The lesson is simple and powerful: a turtle or tortoise does not need to become fast, graceful, or musical to be worthy. Its value lies in being fully itself.
Reader Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What are poems about turtles usually about?
Poems about turtles often focus on patience, slowness, protection, home, wisdom, survival, age, humor, children’s observation, and the symbolism of carrying a shell.
What is the most famous short turtle poem for kids?
Vachel Lindsay’s “The Little Turtle” is one of the most famous short turtle poems for kids. It uses simple action, repetition, and playful snapping imagery.
What does a turtle symbolize in poetry?
In poetry, a turtle or tortoise can symbolize patience, endurance, protection, home, hidden strength, ancient wisdom, self-containment, and slow but steady progress.
What is a good turtle poem about patience?
“The Hare and the Tortoise” is the clearest turtle poem about patience because the tortoise wins through steady effort rather than speed.
Are turtle poems good for children?
Yes. Short turtle poems such as “The Little Turtle,” “The Theoretic Turtle,” and funny turtle verses work well for children, classrooms, preschool, kindergarten, and early reading activities.
What is a turtle shell poem about?
A turtle shell poem usually explores protection, home, burden, structure, or hidden meaning. D. H. Lawrence’s “Tortoise Shell” and Lowell’s “The Finding of the Lyre” are strong examples.
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