The Cynic's Bequest Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Ambrose Bierce

The Cynic's Bequest Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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In that fair city Ispahan	A
There dwelt a problematic man	A
Whose angel never was released	B
Who never once let out his beast	B
But kept through all the seasons' round	C
Silence unbroken and profound	C
No Prophecy with ear applied	D
To key hole of the future tried	D
Successfully to catch a hint	E
Of what he'd do nor when begin 't	E
As sternly did his past defy	F
Mild Retrospection's backward eye	F
Though all admired his silent ways	G
The women loudest were in praise	G
For ladies love those men the most	E
Who never never never boast	E
Who ne'er disclose their aims and ends	H
To naughty naughty naughty friends	H
	-
Yet sooth to say the fame outran	A
The merit of this doubtful man	A
For taciturnity in him	I
Though not a mere caprice or whim	I
Was not a virtue such as truth	J
High birth or beauty wealth or youth	J
	-
'Twas known indeed throughout the span	A
Of Ispahan of Gulistan	A
These utmost limits of the earth	K
Knew that the man was dumb from birth	K
	-
Unto the Sun with deep salaams	H
The Parsee spreads his morning palms	H
A beacon blazing on a height	E
Warms o'er his piety by night	E
The Moslem deprecates the deed	E
Cuts off the head that holds the creed	E
Then reverently goes to grass	H
Muttering thanks to Balaam's Ass	H
For faith and learning to refute	E
Idolatry so dissolute	E
But should a maniac dash past	E
With straws in beard and hands upcast	E
To him through whom whene'er inclined	E
To preach a bit to Madmankind	E
The Holy Prophet speaks his mind	E
Our True Believer lifts his eyes	H
Devoutly and his prayer applies	H
But next to Solyman the Great	E
Reveres the idiot's sacred state	E
Small wonder then our worthy mute	E
Was held in popular repute	E
Had he been blind as well as mum	L
Been lame as well as blind and dumb	L
No bard that ever sang or soared	E
Could say how he had been adored	E
More meagerly endowed he drew	M
An homage less prodigious True	M
No soul his praises but did utter	N
All plied him with devotion's butter	N
But none had out 't was to their credit	E
The proselyting sword to spread it	E
I state these truths exactly why	F
The reader knows as well as I	F
They've nothing in the world to do	M
With what I hope we're coming to	M
If Pegasus be good enough	O
To move when he has stood enough	O
Egad his ribs I would examine	A
Had I a sharper spur than famine	A
Or even with that if 'twould incline	A
To examine his instead of mine	A
Where was I Ah that silent man	A
Who dwelt one time in Ispahan	A
He had a name was known to all	P
As Meerza Solyman Zingall	P
	-
There lived afar in Astrabad	M
A man the world agreed was mad	M
So wickedly he broke his joke	Q
Upon the heads of duller folk	Q
So miserly from day to day	M
He gathered up and hid away	M
In vaults obscure and cellars haunted	M
What many worthy people wanted	M
A stingy man the tradesmen's palms	H
Were spread in vain 'I give no alms	H
Without inquiry' so he'd say	M
And beat the needy duns away	M
The bastinado did 'tis true	M
Persuade him now and then a few	M
Odd tens of thousands to disburse	H
To glut the taxman's hungry purse	H
But still so rich he grew his fear	R
Was constant that the Shah might hear	S
The Shah had heard it long ago	T
And asked the taxman if 'twere so	T
Who promptly answered rather airish	U
The man had long been on the parish	U
The more he feared the more he grew	M
A cynic and a miser too	M
Until his bitterness and pelf	M
Made him a terror to himself	M
Then with a razor's neckwise stroke	Q
He tartly cut his final joke	Q
So perished not an hour too soon	A
The wicked Muley Ben Maroon	A
	-
From Astrabad to Ispahan	A
At camel speed the rumor ran	A
That breaking through tradition hoar	V
And throwing all his kinsmen o'er	N
The miser'd left his mighty store	V
Of gold his palaces and lands	H
To needy and deserving hands	H
Except a penny here and there	W
To pay the dervishes for prayer	W
'Twas known indeed throughout the span	A
Of earth and into Hindostan	A
That our beloved mute was the	X
Residuary legatee	M
The people said 'twas very well	P
And each man had a tale to tell	P
Of how he'd had a finger in 't	M
By dropping many a friendly hint	M
At Astrabad you see But ah	Y
They feared the news might reach the Shah	Y
To prove the will the lawyers bore 't	M
Before the Kadi's awful court	M
Who nodded when he heard it read	M
Confirmingly his drowsy head	M
Nor thought his sleepiness so great	M
Himself to gobble the estate	M
'I give ' the dead had writ 'my all	P
To Meerza Solyman Zingall	P
Of Ispahan With this estate	M
I might quite easily create	M
Ten thousand ingrates but I shun	A
Temptation and create but one	A
In whom the whole unthankful crew	M
The rich man's air that ever drew	M
To fat their pauper lungs I fire	N
Vicarious with vain desire	N
From foul Ingratitude's base rout	M
I pick this hapless devil out	M
Bestowing on him all my lands	H
My treasures camels slaves and bands	H
Of wives I give him all this loot	M
And throw my blessing in to boot	M
Behold O man in this bequest	M
Philanthropy's long wrongs redressed	M
To speak me ill that man I dower	Z
With fiercest will who lacks the power	N
Allah il Allah now let him bloat	M
With rancor till his heart's afloat	M
Unable to discharge the wave	M
Upon his benefactor's grave '	-
	-
Forth in their wrath the people came	A2
And swore it was a sin and shame	A2
To trick their blessed mute and each	U
Protested serious of speech	U
That though he'd long foreseen the worst	M
He'd been against it from the first	M
By various means they vainly tried	M
The testament to set aside	M
Each ready with his empty purse	H
To take upon himself the curse	H
For they had powers of invective	M
Enough to make it ineffective	M
The ingrates mustered every man	A
And marched in force to Ispahan	A
Which had not quite accommodation	A
And held a camp of indignation	A
	-
The man this while who never spoke	Q
On whom had fallen this thunder stroke	Q
Of fortune gave no feeling vent	M
Nor dropped a clue to his intent	M
Whereas no power to him came	A2
His benefactor to defame	A2
Some such a length had slander gone to	M
Even whispered that he didn't want to	M
But none his secret could divine	A
If suffering he made no sign	A
Until one night as winter neared	M
From all his haunts he disappeared	M
Evanished in a doubtful blank	B2
Like little crayfish in a bank	B2
Their heads retracting for a spell	P
And pulling in their holes as well	P
	-
All through the land of Gul the stout	M
Young Spring is kicking Winter out	M
The grass sneaks in upon the scene	A
Defacing it with bottle green	A
	-
The stumbling lamb arrives to ply	P
His restless tail in every eye	P
Eats nasty mint to spoil his meat	M
And make himself unfit to eat	M
Madly his throat the bulbul tears	H
In every grove blasphemes and swears	H
As the immodest rose displays	H
Her shameless charms a dozen ways	H
Lo now throughout the utmost span	A
Of Ispahan of Gulistan	A
A big new book's displayed in all	P
The shops and cumbers every stall	P
The price is low the dealers say 'tis	H
And the rich are treated to it gratis	H
Engraven on its foremost page	C2
These title words the eye engage	C2
'The Life of Muley Ben Maroon	A
Of Astrabad Rogue Thief Buffoon	A
And Miser Liver by the Sweat	M
Of Better Men A Lamponette	M
Composed in Rhyme and Written all	P
By Meerza Solyman Zingall '	-