Brother Bruin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAABBAACCDDD DDEEE FFGHIIIJJJJKKLLMNNGG OPQQAAARRIISSDDAATT| A dancing Bear grotesque and funny | A |
| Earned for his master heaps of money | A |
| Gruff yet good natured fond of honey | A |
| And cheerful if the day was sunny | A |
| Past hedge and ditch past pond and wood | B |
| He tramped and on some common stood | B |
| There cottage children circling gaily | A |
| He in their midmost footed daily | A |
| Pandean pipes and drum and muzzle | C |
| Were quite enough his brain to puzzle | C |
| But like a philosophic bear | D |
| He let alone extraneous care | D |
| And danced contented anywhere | D |
| - | |
| Still year on year and wear and tear | D |
| Age even the gruffest bluffest bear | D |
| A day came when he scarce could prance | E |
| And when his master looked askance | E |
| On dancing Bear who would not dance | E |
| - | |
| To looks succeeded blows hard blows | F |
| Battered his ears and poor old nose | F |
| From bluff and gruff he waxed curmudgeon | G |
| He danced indeed but danced in dudgeon | H |
| Capered in fury fast and faster | I |
| Ah could he once but hug his master | I |
| And perish in one joint disaster | I |
| But deafness blindness weakness growing | J |
| Not fury's self could keep him going | J |
| One dark day when the snow was snowing | J |
| His cup was brimmed to overflowing | J |
| He tottered toppled on one side | K |
| Growled once and shook his head and died | K |
| The master kicked and struck in vain | L |
| The weary drudge had distanced pain | L |
| And never now would wince again | M |
| The master growled he might have howled | N |
| Or coaxed that slave's last growl was growled | N |
| So gnawed by rancor and chagrin | G |
| One thing remained he sold the skin | G |
| - | |
| What next the man did is not worth | O |
| Your notice or my setting forth | P |
| But hearken what befell at last | Q |
| His idle working days gone past | Q |
| And not one friend and not one penny | A |
| Stored up if ever he had any | A |
| Friends but his coppers had been many | A |
| All doors stood shut against him but | R |
| The workhouse door which cannot shut | R |
| There he droned on a grim old sinner | I |
| Toothless and grumbling for his dinner | I |
| Unpitied quite uncared for much | S |
| The rate payers not favoring such | S |
| Hungry and gaunt with time to spare | D |
| Perhaps the hungry gaunt old Bear | D |
| Danced back a haunting memory | A |
| Indeed I hope so for you see | A |
| If once the hard old heart relented | T |
| The hard old man may have repented | T |
Christina Rossetti
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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