The Woful Tale Of Mr. Peters Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EFGG AAHH IIJJ KKL MMNN GGOO PPQQ RRS TTUU VVWW XYAZ OOGG A2A2 U GGB2B2 TTC2C2

I should like good friends to mention the disaster which befellA
Mr William Perry Peters of the town of MuscatelA
Whose fate is full of meaning if correctly understoodB
Admonition to the haughty consolation to the goodB
-
It happened in the hot snap which we recently incurredC
When 'twas warm enough to carbonize the feathers of a birdC
And men exclaimed 'By Hunky ' who were bad enough to swearD
And pious persons supervised their adjectives with careD
-
Mr Peters was a pedagogue of honor and reputeE
His learning comprehensive multifarious minuteF
It was commonly conceded in the section whence he cameG
That the man who played against him needed knowledge of the gameG
-
And some there were who whispered in the town of MuscatelA
That besides the game of Draw he knew Orthography as wellA
Though the school directors frigidly contemning that as stuffH
Thought that Draw and maybe Spelling if it pleased him was enoughH
-
Withal he was a haughty man indubitably greatI
But too vain of his attainments and his power in debateI
His mien was contumelious to men of lesser giftJ
'It's only me ' he said 'can give the human mind a liftJ
-
'Before a proper audience if ever I've a chanceK
You'll see me chipping in the cause of Learning to advanceK
Just let me have a decent chance to back my mental handL
And I'll come to center lightly in a way they'll understand '-
-
Such was William Perry Peters and I feel a poignant senseM
Of grief that I'm unable to employ the present tenseM
But Providence disposes be our scheming what it mayN
And disposed of Mr Peters in a cold regardless wayN
-
It occurred in San Francisco whither Mr Peters cameG
In the cause of Education feeling still the holy flameG
Of ambition to assist in lifting up the human mindO
To a higher plane of knowledge than its Architect designedO
-
He attended the convention of the pedagogic hostP
He was first in the Pavilion he was last to leave his postP
For days and days he narrowly observed the Chairman's eyeQ
His efforts ineffectual to catch it on the flyQ
-
The blessed moment came at last the Chairman tipped his headR
'The gentleman from ah um er ' that functionary saidR
The gentleman from ah um er reflected with a grinS
'They'll know me better by and by when I'm a chipping in '-
-
So William Perry Peters mounted cheerfully his feetT
And straightway was aglow with an incalculable heatT
His face was as effulgent as a human face could beU
And caloric emanated from his whole peripheryU
-
For he felt himself the focus of non Muscatelish eyesV
And the pain of their convergence was a terror and surpriseV
As with pitiless impaction all their heat waves on him brokeW
He was seen to be evolving awful quantities of smokeW
-
'Put him out ' cried all in chorus but the meaning wasn't clearX
Of that succoring suggestion to his obfuscated earY
And it notably augmented his incinerating glowA
To regard himself excessive or in any way de tropZ
-
Gone was all his wild ambition to lift up the human mindO
Gone the words he would have uttered gone the thought that lay behindO
For 'words that burn' may be consumed in a superior flameG
And 'thoughts that breathe' may breathe their last and die a death of shameG
-
He'd known himself a shining light but never had he knownA2
Himself so very luminous as now he knew he shoneA2
'A pillar I of fire ' he'd said 'to guide my race will be '-
And now that very inconvenient thing to him was heU
-
He stood there all irresolute the seconds went and cameG
The minutes passed and did but add fresh fuel to his flameG
How long he stood he knew not 'twas a century or moreB2
And then that incandescent man levanted for the doorB2
-
He darted like a comet from the building to the streetT
Where Fahrenheit attested ninety five degrees of heatT
Vicissitudes of climate make the tenure of the breathC2
Precarious and William Perry Peters froze to deathC2

Ambrose Bierce



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