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 TTC2C2I should like good friends to mention the disaster which befell | A |
Mr William Perry Peters of the town of Muscatel | A |
Whose fate is full of meaning if correctly understood | B |
Admonition to the haughty consolation to the good | B |
- | |
It happened in the hot snap which we recently incurred | C |
When 'twas warm enough to carbonize the feathers of a bird | C |
And men exclaimed 'By Hunky ' who were bad enough to swear | D |
And pious persons supervised their adjectives with care | D |
- | |
Mr Peters was a pedagogue of honor and repute | E |
His learning comprehensive multifarious minute | F |
It was commonly conceded in the section whence he came | G |
That the man who played against him needed knowledge of the game | G |
- | |
And some there were who whispered in the town of Muscatel | A |
That besides the game of Draw he knew Orthography as well | A |
Though the school directors frigidly contemning that as stuff | H |
Thought that Draw and maybe Spelling if it pleased him was enough | H |
- | |
Withal he was a haughty man indubitably great | I |
But too vain of his attainments and his power in debate | I |
His mien was contumelious to men of lesser gift | J |
'It's only me ' he said 'can give the human mind a lift | J |
- | |
'Before a proper audience if ever I've a chance | K |
You'll see me chipping in the cause of Learning to advance | K |
Just let me have a decent chance to back my mental hand | L |
And I'll come to center lightly in a way they'll understand ' | - |
- | |
Such was William Perry Peters and I feel a poignant sense | M |
Of grief that I'm unable to employ the present tense | M |
But Providence disposes be our scheming what it may | N |
And disposed of Mr Peters in a cold regardless way | N |
- | |
It occurred in San Francisco whither Mr Peters came | G |
In the cause of Education feeling still the holy flame | G |
Of ambition to assist in lifting up the human mind | O |
To a higher plane of knowledge than its Architect designed | O |
- | |
He attended the convention of the pedagogic host | P |
He was first in the Pavilion he was last to leave his post | P |
For days and days he narrowly observed the Chairman's eye | Q |
His efforts ineffectual to catch it on the fly | Q |
- | |
The blessed moment came at last the Chairman tipped his head | R |
'The gentleman from ah um er ' that functionary said | R |
The gentleman from ah um er reflected with a grin | S |
'They'll know me better by and by when I'm a chipping in ' | - |
- | |
So William Perry Peters mounted cheerfully his feet | T |
And straightway was aglow with an incalculable heat | T |
His face was as effulgent as a human face could be | U |
And caloric emanated from his whole periphery | U |
- | |
For he felt himself the focus of non Muscatelish eyes | V |
And the pain of their convergence was a terror and surprise | V |
As with pitiless impaction all their heat waves on him broke | W |
He was seen to be evolving awful quantities of smoke | W |
- | |
'Put him out ' cried all in chorus but the meaning wasn't clear | X |
Of that succoring suggestion to his obfuscated ear | Y |
And it notably augmented his incinerating glow | A |
To regard himself excessive or in any way de trop | Z |
- | |
Gone was all his wild ambition to lift up the human mind | O |
Gone the words he would have uttered gone the thought that lay behind | O |
For 'words that burn' may be consumed in a superior flame | G |
And 'thoughts that breathe' may breathe their last and die a death of shame | G |
- | |
He'd known himself a shining light but never had he known | A2 |
Himself so very luminous as now he knew he shone | A2 |
'A pillar I of fire ' he'd said 'to guide my race will be ' | - |
And now that very inconvenient thing to him was he | U |
- | |
He stood there all irresolute the seconds went and came | G |
The minutes passed and did but add fresh fuel to his flame | G |
How long he stood he knew not 'twas a century or more | B2 |
And then that incandescent man levanted for the door | B2 |
- | |
He darted like a comet from the building to the street | T |
Where Fahrenheit attested ninety five degrees of heat | T |
Vicissitudes of climate make the tenure of the breath | C2 |
Precarious and William Perry Peters froze to death | C2 |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Woful Tale Of Mr. Peters poem by Ambrose Bierce
Best Poems of Ambrose Bierce