Complainsong
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 21 June 2011
Abstract
Purpose
This poem was written as a protest after I had been told that my staff team complained too much. I wanted to reflect the positive qualities of complaining.
Design/methodology/approach
Complainsong is written in ballad form – in quatrains of loose iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with a refrain or chorus. It has the narrative quality of a ballad, but with unusual direction. As it developed, I realised I had in my mind Pastor Martin Niemoller's Second World War poem which begins “First they came for the Jews.”
Findings
The rather jolly ballad rhythm sets up expectations of a humorous poem, which is undermined by the very serious “message” of the ending. The nonsensical images of doormats blowing whistles and sheep rocking boats in the chorus, take familiar phrases to create tongue in cheek humour that heightens the contrast with the final stanza.
Originality/value
This poem uses an unexpected form to come to a “twist in the tale” ending that, hopefully, is strengthened by the surprise. The title is a play on the “plainsong” of monks and complaining.
Keywords
Citation
Butt, M. (2011), "Complainsong", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 674-675. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513571111139166
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited