The Oakland Dog Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGEE HHII JJKK LLMM EEEE NNOO PPQR SSTT OOFU OOVV WWOO OOXX YYOO YYZ JJEE A2B2C2C2I lay one happy night in bed | A |
And dreamed that all the dogs were dead | A |
They'd all been taken out and shot | B |
Their bodies strewed each vacant lot | B |
- | |
O'er all the earth from Berkeley down | C |
To San Leandro's ancient town | C |
And out in space as far as Niles | D |
I saw their mortal parts in piles | D |
- | |
One stack upreared its ridge so high | E |
Against the azure of the sky | E |
That some good soul with pious views | F |
Put up a steeple and sold pews | F |
- | |
No wagging tail the scene relieved | G |
I never in my life conceived | G |
I swear it on the Decalogue | E |
Such penury of living dog | E |
- | |
The barking and the howling stilled | H |
The snarling with the snarler killed | H |
All nature seemed to hold its breath | I |
The silence was as deep as death | I |
- | |
True candidates were all in roar | J |
On every platform as before | J |
And villains as before felt free | K |
To finger the calliope | K |
- | |
True the Salvationist by night | L |
And milkman in the early light | L |
The lonely flutist and the mill | M |
Performed their functions with a will | M |
- | |
True church bells on a Sunday rang | E |
The sick man's curtain down the bang | E |
Of trains contesting for the track | E |
Out of the shadow called him back | E |
- | |
True cocks at all unheavenly hours | N |
Crew with excruciating powers | N |
Cats on the woodshed rang and roared | O |
Fat citizens and fog horns snored | O |
- | |
But this was all too fine for ears | P |
Accustomed through the awful years | P |
To the nocturnal monologues | Q |
And day debates of Oakland dogs | R |
- | |
And so the world was silent Now | S |
What else befell to whom and how | S |
Imprimis then there were no fleas | T |
And days of worth brought nights of ease | T |
- | |
Men walked about without the dread | O |
Of being torn to many a shred | O |
Each fragment holding half a cruse | F |
Of hydrophobia's quickening juice | U |
- | |
They had not to propitiate | O |
Some curst kioodle at each gate | O |
But entered one another's grounds | V |
Unscared and were not fed to hounds | V |
- | |
Women could drive and not a pup | W |
Would lift the horse's tendons up | W |
And let them go to interject | O |
A certain musical effect | O |
- | |
Even children's ponies went about | O |
All grave and sober paced without | O |
A bulldog hanging to each nose | X |
Proud of his fragrance I suppose | X |
- | |
Dog being dead Man's lawless flame | Y |
Burned out he granted Woman's claim | Y |
Children's and those of country art | O |
all took lodgings in his heart | O |
- | |
When memories of his former shame | Y |
Crimsoned his cheeks with sudden flame | Y |
He said 'I know my fault too well | Z |
They fawned upon me and I fell ' | - |
- | |
Ah 'twas a lovely world no more | J |
I met that indisposing bore | J |
The unseraphic cynogogue | E |
The man who's proud to love a dog | E |
- | |
Thus in my dream the golden reign | A2 |
Of Reason filled the world again | B2 |
And all mankind confessed her sway | C2 |
From Walnut Creek to San Jose | C2 |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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