The Free Trader's Lament Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAAC DBDDB EBEEB FBFFB GB G AB AB| Oft from a trading boat I purchased spice | A |
| And shells and corals brought for my inspection | B |
| From the fair tropics paid a Christian price | A |
| And was content in my fool's paradise | A |
| Where never had been heard the word 'Protection ' | C |
| - | |
| 'T was my sole island there I dwelt alone | D |
| No customs house collector nor collection | B |
| But a man came who in a pious tone | D |
| Condoled with me that I had never known | D |
| The manifest advantage of Protection | B |
| - | |
| So when the trading boat arrived one day | E |
| He threw a stink pot into its mid section | B |
| The traders paddled for their lives away | E |
| Nor came again into that haunted bay | E |
| The blessed home thereafter of Protection | B |
| - | |
| Then down he sat that philanthropic man | F |
| And spat upon some mud of his selection | B |
| And worked it with his knuckles in a pan | F |
| To shapes of shells and coral things and span | F |
| A thread of song in glory of Protection | B |
| - | |
| He baked them in the sun His air devout | G |
| Enchanted me I made a genuflexion | B |
| 'God help you gentle sir ' I said 'No doubt ' | - |
| He answered gravely 'I'll get on without | G |
| Assistance now that we have got Protection ' | - |
| - | |
| Thenceforth I bought his wares at what a price | A |
| For shells and corals of such imperfection | B |
| 'Ah now ' said he 'your lot is truly nice ' | - |
| But still in all that isle there was no spice | A |
| To season to my taste that dish Protection | B |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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