The poem ‘A tragic story’ written by William Makepeace Thackeray is a humorous poem which revolves around a foolish act done by a sage. Throughout the poem, the poet laughs at this wise man, who does not have any practical knowledge, but uses his theatrical knowledge and does foolish things.
The poet narrates us about a sage, who lived in the past with a beautiful pigtail. He was worried about his pigtail, being hung behind him. He thought about this for a long time and swore that he would change the pigtail’s place, which is apparently impossible and funny.
He would like to have it at his face and not dangling there behind him. This small thing is a serious problem for this wise man. He said that he had found a solution to change the position of his pigtail. So he turned him round continuously without stopping, throughout the day. He turned in different directions – he turned right and left, out and in, up and down. But the pigtail didn’t change a bit. Though his efforts were not slackened, and though he twisted, twirled and tacked, his pigtail hung faithfully and steadily behind him. Thus, this poem is amusing and the poet brings out the theme
“How learned man lack practical common sense.”
