Mr. Fink's Debating Donkey Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH EEIICCJ KKLLMMNN BBOPJJHHQ RRSSTTUUM VVW NNXXYYXXZZA2 BBXXXXB2B2GG XXBBB| Of a person known as Peters I will humbly crave your leave | A |
| An unusual adventure into narrative to weave | A |
| Mr William Perry Peters of the town of Muscatel | B |
| A public educator and an orator as well | B |
| Mr Peters had a weakness which 'tis painful to relate | C |
| Was a strong predisposition to the pleasures of debate | C |
| He would foster disputation wheresoever he might be | D |
| In polygonal contention none so happy was as he | D |
| 'Twas observable however that the exercises ran | E |
| Into monologue by Peters that rhetorical young man | E |
| And the Muscatelian rustics who assisted at the show | F |
| By involuntary silence testified their overthrow | F |
| Mr Peters all unheedful of their silence and their grief | G |
| Still effacing every vestige of erroneous belief | G |
| O he was a sore affliction to all heretics so bold | H |
| As to entertain opinions that he didn't care to hold | H |
| - | |
| One day 't was in pursuance of a pedagogic plan | E |
| For the mental elevation of Uncultivated Man | E |
| Mr Peters to his pupils in dismissing them explained | I |
| That the Friday evening following unless indeed it rained | I |
| Would be signalized by holding in the schoolhouse a debate | C |
| Free to all who their opinions might desire to ventilate | C |
| On the question 'Which is better as a serviceable gift | J |
| Speech or hearing from barbarity the human mind to lift ' | - |
| The pupils told their fathers who forehanded always met | K |
| At the barroom to discuss it every evening dry or wet | K |
| They argued it and argued it and spat upon the stove | L |
| And the non committal 'barkeep' on their differences throve | L |
| And I state it as a maxim in a loosish kind of way | M |
| You'll have the more to back your word the less you have to say | M |
| Public interest was lively but one Ebenezer Fink | N |
| Of the Rancho del Jackrabbit only seemed to sit and think | N |
| - | |
| On the memorable evening all the men of Muscatel | B |
| Came to listen to the logic and the eloquence as well | B |
| All but William Perry Peters whose attendance there I fear | O |
| Was to wreak his ready rhetoric upon the public ear | P |
| And prove whichever side he took that hearing wouldn't lift | J |
| The human mind as ably as the other greater gift | J |
| The judges being chosen and the disputants enrolled | H |
| The question he proceeded in extenso to unfold | H |
| ' Resolved The sense of hearing lifts the mind up out of reach | Q |
| Of the fogs of error better than the faculty of speech ' | - |
| This simple proposition he expounded word by word | R |
| Until they best understood it who least perfectly had heard | R |
| Even the judges comprehended as he ventured to explain | S |
| The impact of a spit ball admonishing in vain | S |
| Beginning at a period before Creation's morn | T |
| He had reached the bounds of tolerance and Adam yet unborn | T |
| As down the early centuries of pre historic time | U |
| He tracked important principles and quoted striking rhyme | U |
| And Whisky Bill prosaic soul proclaiming him a jay | M |
| Had risen and like an earthquake 'reeled unheededly away ' | - |
| And a late lamented cat when opportunity should serve | V |
| Was preparing to embark upon her parabolic curve | V |
| A noise arose outside the door was opened with a bang | W |
| And old Ebenezer Fink was heard ejaculating 'G'lang ' | - |
| Straight into that assembly gravely marched without a wink | N |
| An ancient ass the property it was of Mr Fink | N |
| Its ears depressed and beating time to its infestive tread | X |
| Silent through silence moved amain that stately quadruped | X |
| It stopped before the orator and in the lamplight thrown | Y |
| Upon its tail they saw that member weighted with a stone | Y |
| Then spake old Ebenezer 'Gents I heern o' this debate | X |
| On w'ether v'ice or y'ears is best the mind to elevate | X |
| Now 'yer's a bird ken throw some light uponto that tough theme | Z |
| He has 'em both I'm free to say oncommonly extreme | Z |
| He wa'n't invited for to speak but he will not refuse | A2 |
| If t'other gentleman ken wait to exposay his views ' | - |
| - | |
| Ere merriment or anger o'er amazement could prevail | B |
| He cut the string that held the stone on that canary's tail | B |
| Freed from the weight that member made a gesture of delight | X |
| Then rose until its rigid length was horizontal quite | X |
| With lifted head and level ears along his withers laid | X |
| Jack sighed refilled his lungs and then to put it mildly brayed | X |
| He brayed until the stones were stirred in circumjacent hills | B2 |
| And sleeping women rose and fled in divers kinds of frills | B2 |
| 'T is said that awful bugle blast to make the story brief | G |
| Wafted William Perry Peters through the window like a leaf | G |
| - | |
| Such is the tale If anything additional occurred | X |
| 'Tis not set down though truly I remember to have heard | X |
| That a gentleman named Peters now residing at Soquel | B |
| A considerable distance from the town of Muscatel | B |
| Is opposed to education and to rhetoric as well | B |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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Mr. Fink's Debating Donkey is a poem by Ambrose Bierce. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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