Beer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABABCC DAEAFAGG HCHCHCII H JKJKL HCHCHCAA HAHAHAMM CAC CAII CNCNCNMM AJ JAJHH HHHHHHHH AHAHAHHH OAOAOAHH HOHOHOM PQIQIQHH AMAMAM

In those old days which poets say were goldenA
Perhaps they laid the gilding on themselvesB
And if they did I'm all the more beholdenA
To those brown dwellers in my dusty shelvesB
Who talk to me 'in language quaint and olden'A
Of gods and demigods and fauns and elvesB
Pan with his pipes and Bacchus with his leopardsC
And staid young goddesses who flirt with shepherdsC
-
In those old days the Nymph called EtiquetteD
Appalling thought to dwell on was not bornA
They had their May but no Mayfair as yetE
No fashions varying as the hues of mornA
Just as they pleased they dressed and drank and ateF
Sang hymns to Ceres their John BarleycornA
And danced unchaperoned and laughed uncheckedG
And were no doubt extremely incorrectG
-
Yet do I think their theory was pleasantH
And oft I own my 'wayward fancy roams'C
Back to those times so different from the presentH
When no one smoked cigars nor gave At homesC
Nor smote a billiard ball nor winged a pheasantH
Nor 'did' her hair by means of long tailed combsC
Nor migrated to Brighton once a yearI
Nor most astonishing of all drank BeerI
-
No they did not drink Beer 'which brings me to'H
As Gilpin said 'the middle of my song '-
Not that 'the middle' is precisely trueJ
Or else I should not tax your patience longK
If I had said 'beginning ' it might doJ
But I have a dislike to quoting wrongK
I was unlucky sinned against not sinningL
When Cowper wrote down 'middle' for 'beginning '-
-
So to proceed That abstinence from MaltH
Has always struck me as extremely curiousC
The Greek mind must have had some vital faultH
That they should stick to liquors so injuriousC
Wine water tempered p'raps with Attic saltH
And not at once invent that mild luxuriousC
And artful beverage Beer How the digestionA
Got on without it is a startling questionA
-
Had they digestions and an actual bodyH
Such as dyspepsia might make attacks onA
Were they abstract ideas like Tom NoddyH
And Mr Briggs or men like Jones and JacksonA
Then nectar was that beer or whisky toddyH
Some say the Gaelic mixture I the SaxonA
I think a strict adherence to the latterM
Might make some Scots less pigheaded and fatterM
-
Besides Bon Gaultier definitely showsC
That the real beverage for feasting gods onA
Is a soft compound grateful to the noseC
And also to the palate known as 'Hidgson '-
I know a man a tailor's son who roseC
To be a peer and this I would lay odds onA
Though in his Memoirs it may not appearI
That that man owed his rise to copious BeerI
-
O Beer O Hodgson Guinness Allsopp BassC
Names that should be on every infant's tongueN
Shall days and months and years and centuries passC
And still your merits be unrecked unsungN
Oh I have gazed into my foaming glassC
And wished that lyre could yet again be strungN
Which once rang prophet like through Greece and taught herM
Misguided sons that the best drink was waterM
-
How would he now recant that wild opinionA
And sing as would that I could sing of youJ
I was not born alas the 'Muses' minion '-
I'm not poetical not even blueJ
And he we know but strives with waxen pinionA
Whoe'er he is that entertains the viewJ
Of emulating Pindar and will beH
Sponsor at last to some now nameless seaH
-
Oh when the green slopes of Arcadia burnedH
With all the lustre of the dying dayH
And on Cith ron's brow the reaper turnedH
Humming of course in his delightful wayH
How Lycidas was dead and how concernedH
The Nymphs were when they saw his lifeless clayH
And how rock told to rock the dreadful storyH
That poor young Lycidas was gone to gloryH
-
What would that lone and labouring soul have givenA
At that soft moment for a pewter potH
How had the mists that dimmed his eye been rivenA
And Lycidas and sorrow all forgotH
If his own grandmother had died unshrivenA
In two short seconds he'd have recked it notH
Such power hath Beer The heart which Grief hath cankeredH
Hath one unfailing remedy the TankardH
-
Coffee is good and so no doubt is cocoaO
Tea did for Johnson and the ChinamenA
When 'Dulce est desipere in loco'O
Was written real Falernian winged the penA
When a rapt audience has encored 'Fra Poco'O
Or 'Casta Diva ' I have heard that thenA
The Prima Donna smiling herself outH
Recruits her flagging powers with bottled stoutH
-
But what is coffee but a noxious berryH
Born to keep used up Londoners awakeO
What is Falernian what is Port or SherryH
But vile concoctions to make dull heads acheO
Nay stout itself though good with oysters veryH
Is not a thing your reading man should takeO
He that would shine and petrify his tutorM
Should drink draught Allsopp in its 'native pewter '-
-
But hark a sound is stealing on my earP
A soft and silvery sound I know it wellQ
Its tinkling tells me that a time is nearI
Precious to me it is the Dinner BellQ
O blessed Bell Thou bringest beef and beerI
Thou bringest good things more than tongue may tellQ
Seared is of course my heart but unsubduedH
Is and shall be my appetite for foodH
-
I go Untaught and feeble is my penA
But on one statement I may safely ventureM
That few of our most highly gifted menA
Have more appreciation of their trencherM
I go One pound of British beef and thenA
What Mr Swiveller called a 'modest quencher'M
That home returning I may 'soothly say '-
'Fate cannot touch me I have dined to day '-

Charles Stuart Calverley



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