The Ugly Duckling

<<One should know of the illustrated book: "The Ugly Duckling," by Hans Christian Andersen, to make sense of this.>>

They sounded so ostentatiously strong:
"Ding dang dong,
don’t dare to tag along,
for
you do not belong."

I let out:
"This, my dears, to my ears,
echoes like a wake-up bong.
For I would rather die
than get along
with those whose lives
are nothing but
assailing the sound
of someone else’s songs.

For I would perish and dry out
if I ever belonged
to something so outrageously
smug and wrong.

So, I shall thrive
as long as you shoo me,
for I am so unsightly
to your duckling’s twang.
Yet to my eyes,
your unsightliness
is a blatant prong."

So, I shall thrive
as long as
my neck of words,
to your neckless, quirking throng,
is as
your quack-quack
stings my ears,
a lashing thong."