With Mine Own Petard Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDAAAAEEAAFFGGHH FFAAAAAAIIAAJJAAAAAA| Time was the local poets sang their songs | A |
| Beneath their breath in terror of the thongs | A |
| I snapped about their shins Though mild the stroke | B |
| Bards like the conies are 'a feeble folk ' | C |
| Fearing all noises but the one they make | D |
| Themselves at which all other mortals quake | D |
| Now from their cracked and disobedient throats | A |
| Like rats from sewers scampering their notes | A |
| Pour forth to move where'er the season serves | A |
| If not our legs to dance at least our nerves | A |
| As once a ram's horn solo maddened all | E |
| The sober minded stones in Jerich's wall | E |
| A year's exemption from the critic's curse | A |
| Mends the bard's courage but impairs his verse | A |
| Thus poolside frogs when croaking in the night | F |
| Are frayed to silence by a meteor's flight | F |
| Or by the sudden plashing of a stone | G |
| From some adjacent cottage garden thrown | G |
| But straight renew the song with double din | H |
| Whene'er the light goes out or man goes in | H |
| Shall I with arms unbraced my casque unlatched | F |
| My falchion pawned my buckler too attached | F |
| Resume the cuishes and the broad cuirass | A |
| Accomplishing my body all in brass | A |
| And arm in battle royal to oppose | A |
| A village poet singing through the nose | A |
| Or strolling troubadour his lyre who strums | A |
| With clumsy hand whose fingers all are thumbs | A |
| No let them rhyme I fought them once before | I |
| And stilled their songs but Satan how they swore | I |
| Cuffed them upon the mouth whene'er their throats | A |
| They cleared for action with their sweetest notes | A |
| Twisted their ears they'd oft tormented mine | J |
| And damned them roundly all along the line | J |
| Clubbed the whole crew from the Parnassian slopes | A |
| A wreck of broken heads and broken hopes | A |
| What gained I so I feathered every curse | A |
| Launched at the village bards with lilting verse | A |
| The town approved and christened me to show its | A |
| High admiration Chief of Local Poets | A |
Ambrose Bierce
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