For A Certain Critic Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDAAEEEFG HHIIJJ KKLLM N OOPPQQRRSS TTUUVVLet lowly themes engage my humble pen | A |
Stupidities of critics not of men | A |
Be it mine once more the maunderings to trace | B |
Of the expounders' self directed race | B |
Their wire drawn fancies finically fine | C |
Of diligent vacuity the sign | C |
Let them in jargon of their trade rehearse | D |
The moral meaning of the random verse | D |
That runs spontaneous from the poet's pen | A |
To be half blotted by ambitious men | A |
Who hope with his their meaner names to link | E |
By writing o'er it in another ink | E |
The thoughts unreal which they think they think | E |
Until the mental eye in vain inspects | F |
The hateful palimpsest to find the text | G |
- | |
The lark ascending heavenward loud and long | H |
Sings to the dawning day his wanton song | H |
The moaning dove attentive to the sound | I |
Its hidden meaning hastens to expound | I |
Explains its principles design in brief | J |
Pronounces it a parable of grief | J |
- | |
The bee just pausing ere he daubs his thigh | K |
With pollen from a hollyhock near by | K |
Declares he never heard in terms so just | L |
The labor problem thoughtfully discussed | L |
The browsing ass looks up and clears his whistle | M |
To say 'A monologue upon the thistle ' | - |
Meanwhile the lark descending folds his wing | N |
And innocently asks 'What did I sing ' | - |
- | |
O literary parasites who thrive | O |
Upon the fame of better men derive | O |
Your sustenance by suction like a leech | P |
And for you preach of them think masters preach | P |
Who find it half is profit half delight | Q |
To write about what you could never write | Q |
Consider pray how sharp had been the throes | R |
Of famine and discomfiture in those | R |
You write of if they had been critics too | S |
And doomed to write of nothing but of you | S |
- | |
Lo where the gaping crowd throngs yonder tent | T |
To see the lion resolutely bent | T |
The prosing showman who the beast displays | U |
Grows rich and richer daily in its praise | U |
But how if to attract the curious yeoman | V |
The lion owned the show and showed the showman | V |
Ambrose Bierce
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