The Sparrow And The Hen Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLK M N OPQ| A sparrow when sparrows like parrots could speak | A |
| Addressed an old hen who could talk like a jay | B |
| Said he 'It's unjust that we sparrows must seek | A |
| Our food when your family's fed every day | B |
| - | |
| 'Were you like the peacock that elegant bird | C |
| The sight of whose plumage her master may please | D |
| I then should not wonder that you are preferred | C |
| To the yard where in affluence you live at your ease | D |
| - | |
| 'I affect no great style am not costly in feathers | E |
| A good honest brown I find most to my liking | F |
| It always looks neat and is fit for all weathers | E |
| But I think your grey mixture is not very striking | F |
| - | |
| 'We know that the bird from the isles of Canary | G |
| Is fed foreign airs to sing in a fine cage | H |
| But your note from a cackle so seldom does vary | G |
| The fancy of man it cannot much engage | H |
| - | |
| 'My chirp to a song sure approaches much nearer | I |
| Nay the nightingale tells me I sing not amiss | J |
| If voice were in question I ought to be dearer | I |
| But the owl he assures me there's nothing in this | J |
| - | |
| 'Nor is it your proneness to domestication | K |
| For he dwells in man's barn and I build in man's thatch | L |
| As we say to each other but to our vexation | K |
| O'er your safety alone man keeps diligent watch ' | - |
| - | |
| 'Have you e'er learned to read ' said the hen to the sparrow | M |
| 'No madam ' he answered 'I can't say I have ' | - |
| 'Then that is the reason your sight is so narrow ' | - |
| The old hen replied with a look very grave | N |
| - | |
| 'Mrs Glasse in a Treatise I wish you could read | O |
| Our importance has shown and has proved to us why | P |
| Man shields us and feeds us of us he has need | Q |
| Even before we are born even after we die ' | - |
Charles Lamb
(1)
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