Miss Edith's Modest Request Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH FFII BBJJ CCEE FFBB FFKK CCLL HHMM| My papa knows you and he says you're a man who makes reading for books | A |
| But I never read nothing you wrote nor did Papa I know by his looks | A |
| So I guess you're like me when I talk and I talk and I talk all the day | B |
| And they only say Do stop that child or Nurse take Miss Edith away | B |
| - | |
| But Papa said if I was good I could ask you alone by myself | C |
| If you wouldn't write me a book like that little one up on the shelf | C |
| I don't mean the pictures of course for to make them you've got to be smart | D |
| But the reading that runs all around them you know just the easiest part | D |
| - | |
| You needn't mind what it's about for no one will see it but me | E |
| And Jane that's my nurse and John he's the coachman just only us three | E |
| You're to write of a bad little girl that was wicked and bold and all that | F |
| And then you're to write if you please something good very good of a cat | F |
| - | |
| This cat she was virtuous and meek and kind to her parents and mild | G |
| And careful and neat in her ways though her mistress was such a bad child | G |
| And hours she would sit and would gaze when her mistress that's me was so bad | H |
| And blink just as if she would say Oh Edith you make my heart sad | H |
| - | |
| And yet you would scarcely believe it that beautiful angelic cat | F |
| Was blamed by the servants for stealing whatever they said she'd get at | F |
| And when John drank my milk don't you tell me I know just the way it was done | I |
| They said 'twas the cat and she sitting and washing her face in the sun | I |
| - | |
| And then there was Dick my canary When I left its cage open one day | B |
| They all made believe that she ate it though I know that the bird flew away | B |
| And why Just because she was playing with a feather she found on the floor | J |
| As if cats couldn't play with a feather without people thinking 'twas more | J |
| - | |
| Why once we were romping together when I knocked down a vase from the shelf | C |
| That cat was as grieved and distressed as if she had done it herself | C |
| And she walked away sadly and hid herself and never came out until tea | E |
| So they say for they sent me to bed and she never came even to me | E |
| - | |
| No matter whatever happened it was laid at the door of that cat | F |
| Why once when I tore my apron she was wrapped in it and I called Rat | F |
| Why they blamed that on her I shall never no not to my dying day | B |
| Forget the pained look that she gave me when they slapped me and took me away | B |
| - | |
| Of course you know just what comes next when a child is as lovely as that | F |
| She wasted quite slowly away it was goodness was killing that cat | F |
| I know it was nothing she ate for her taste was exceedingly nice | K |
| But they said she stole Bobby's ice cream and caught a bad cold from the ice | K |
| - | |
| And you'll promise to make me a book like that little one up on the shelf | C |
| And you'll call her Naomi because it's a name that she just gave herself | C |
| For she'd scratch at my door in the morning and whenever I'd call out Who's there | L |
| She would answer Naomi Naomi like a Christian I vow and declare | L |
| - | |
| And you'll put me and her in a book And mind you're to say I was bad | H |
| And I might have been badder than that but for the example I had | H |
| And you'll say that she was a Maltese and what's that you asked Is she dead | M |
| Why please sir there ain't any cat You're to make one up out of your head | M |
Bret Harte (francis)
(1)
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