The Fountain Refilled Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF AAGG HHII JJ K LLMM NNCO PPQQ RROO SSTT SSQQ OOSS QQJJ JJJJ SSOO JJJJ JJUU JJJJ QQSS OOJJ QQOO SSJJ SSQQ JQSS SSJJ SSJJ OOSSOf Hans Pietro Shanahan | A |
Who was a most ingenious man | A |
The Muse of History records | B |
That he'd get drunk as twenty lords | B |
- | |
He'd get so truly drunk that men | C |
Stood by to marvel at him when | C |
His slow advance along the street | D |
Was but a vain cycloidal feat | D |
- | |
And when 'twas fated that he fall | E |
With a wide geographical sprawl | E |
They signified assent by sounds | F |
Heard faintly at its utmost bounds | F |
- | |
And yet this Mr Shanahan | A |
Who was a most ingenious man | A |
Cast not on wine his thirsty eyes | G |
When it was red or otherwise | G |
- | |
All malt or spirituous tope | H |
He loathed as cats dissent from soap | H |
And cider if it touched his lip | I |
Evoked a groan at every sip | I |
- | |
But still as heretofore explained | J |
He not infrequently was grained | J |
I'm not of those who call it 'corned ' | - |
Coarse speech I've always duly scorned | K |
- | |
Though truth to say and that's but right | L |
Strong drink it hath an adder's bite | L |
Was what had put him in the mud | M |
The only kind he used was blood | M |
- | |
Alas that an immortal soul | N |
Addicted to the flowing bowl | N |
The emptied flagon should again | C |
Replenish from a neighbor's vein | O |
- | |
But Mr Shanahan was so | P |
Constructed and his taste that low | P |
Nor more deplorable was he | Q |
In kind of thirst than in degree | Q |
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For sometimes fifty souls would pay | R |
The debt of nature in a day | R |
To free him from the shame and pain | O |
Of dread Sobriety's misreign | O |
- | |
His native land proud of its sense | S |
Of his unique inabstinence | S |
Abated something of its pride | T |
At thought of his unfilled inside | T |
- | |
And some the boldness had to say | S |
'Twere well if he were called away | S |
To slake his thirst forevermore | Q |
In oceans of celestial gore | Q |
- | |
But Hans Pietro Shanahan | O |
Who was a most ingenious man | O |
Knew that his thirst was mortal so | S |
Remained unsainted here below | S |
- | |
Unsainted and unsaintly for | Q |
He neither went to glory nor | Q |
To abdicate his power deigned | J |
Where under Providence he reigned | J |
- | |
But kept his Boss's power accurst | J |
To serve his wild uncommon thirst | J |
Which now had grown so truly great | J |
It was a drain upon the State | J |
- | |
Soon soon there came a time alas | S |
When he turned down an empty glass | S |
All practicable means were vain | O |
His special wassail to obtain | O |
- | |
In vain poor Decimation tried | J |
To furnish forth the needful tide | J |
And Civil War as vainly shed | J |
Her niggard offering of red | J |
- | |
Poor Shanahan his thirst increased | J |
Until he wished himself deceased | J |
Invoked the firearm and the knife | U |
But could not die to save his life | U |
- | |
He was so dry his own veins made | J |
No answer to the seeking blade | J |
So parched that when he would have passed | J |
Away he could not breathe his last | J |
- | |
'Twas then when almost in despair | Q |
Unlaced his shoon unkempt his hair | Q |
He saw as in a dream a way | S |
To wet afresh his mortal clay | S |
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Yes Hans Pietro Shanahan | O |
Who was a most ingenious man | O |
Saw freedom and with joy and pride | J |
'Thalassa or Thalatta ' cried | J |
- | |
Straight to the Aldermen went he | Q |
With many a 'pull' and many a fee | Q |
And many a most corrupt 'combine' | O |
The Press for twenty cents a line | O |
- | |
Held out and fought him O God bless | S |
Forevermore the holy Press | S |
Till he had franchises complete | J |
For trolley lines on every street | J |
- | |
The cars were builded and they say | S |
Were run on rails laid every way | S |
Rhomboidal roads and circular | Q |
And oval everywhere a car | Q |
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Square dodecagonal in great | J |
Esteem the shape called Figure | Q |
And many other kinds of shapes | S |
As various as tails of apes | S |
- | |
No other group of men's abodes | S |
E'er had such odd electric roads | S |
That winding in and winding out | J |
Began and ended all about | J |
- | |
No city had unless in Mars | S |
That city's wealth of trolley cars | S |
They ran by day they flew by night | J |
And O the sorry sorry sight | J |
- | |
And Hans Pietro Shanahan | O |
Who was a most ingenious man | O |
Incessantly the Muse records | S |
Lay drunk as twenty thousand lords | S |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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