Sad Memories Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ BBHH JJJJ KKLL MMJJ JJNN OMPH| They tell me I am beautiful they praise my silken hair | A |
| My little feet that silently slip on from stair to stair | A |
| They praise my pretty trustful face and innocent grey eye | B |
| Fond hands caress me oftentimes yet would that I might die | B |
| - | |
| Why was I born to be abhorr'd of man and bird and beast | C |
| The bulfinch marks me stealing by and straight his song hath ceased | C |
| The shrewmouse eyes me shudderingly then flees and worse than that | D |
| The housedog he flees after me why was I born a cat | D |
| - | |
| Men prize the heartless hound who quits dry eyed his native land | E |
| Who wags a mercenary tail and licks a tyrant hand | E |
| The leal true cat they prize not that if e'er compell'd to roam | F |
| Still flies when let out of the bag precipitately home | F |
| - | |
| They call me cruel Do I know if mouse or songbird feels | G |
| I only know they make me light and salutary meals | G |
| And if as 'tis my nature to ere I devour I tease 'em | H |
| Why should a low bred gardener's boy pursue me with a besom | H |
| - | |
| Should china fall or chandeliers or anything but stocks | I |
| Nay stocks when they're in flowerpots the cat expects hard knocks | I |
| Should ever anything be missed milk coals umbrellas brandy | J |
| The cat's pitch'd into with a boot or any thing that's handy | J |
| - | |
| I remember I remember how one night I fleeted by | B |
| And gain'd the blessed tiles and gazed into the cold clear sky | B |
| I remember I remember how my little lovers came | H |
| And there beneath the crescent moon play'd many a little game | H |
| - | |
| They fought by good St Catharine 'twas a fearsome sight to see | J |
| The coal black crest the glowering orbs of one gigantic He | J |
| Like bow by some tall bowman bent at Hastings or Poictiers | J |
| His huge back curved till none observed a vestige of his ears | J |
| - | |
| He stood an ebon crescent flouting that ivory moon | K |
| Then raised the pibroch of his race the Song without a Tune | K |
| Gleam'd his white teeth his mammoth tail waved darkly to and fro | L |
| As with one complex yell he burst all claws upon the foe | L |
| - | |
| It thrills me now that final Miaow that weird unearthly din | M |
| Lone maidens heard it far away and leap'd out of their skin | M |
| A potboy from his den o'erhead peep'd with a scared wan face | J |
| Then sent a random brickbat down which knock'd me into space | J |
| - | |
| Nine days I fell or thereabouts and had we not nine lives | J |
| I wis I ne'er had seen again thy sausage shop St Ives | J |
| Had I as some cats have nine tails how gladly I would lick | N |
| The hand and person generally of him who heaved that brick | N |
| - | |
| For me they fill the milkbowl up and cull the choice sardine | O |
| But ah I nevermore shall be the cat I once have been | M |
| The memories of that fatal night they haunt me even now | P |
| In dreams I see that rampant He and tremble at that Miaow | H |
Charles Stuart Calverley
(1)
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