The Supreme Test Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDC EFFEGHHGIIGJKJKGLGLM NMNOO AACCPQPQERERCSSCTCTI UUIEF VWW CKXXK YGZZG A2TT XB2B2 CIIC2D2 E2D2C2F2F2 G2H2HHH2C2C2 XI2C2C2I2XCCX CF2CCF2Now it was clear to every Shade | A |
That some great wonder was before them | B |
As Tom upon the palisade | A |
Emptied as fast as Lulu bore them | B |
The flasks upon the ocean wagon | C |
And clear it was when Tom had cleaned | D |
The liquor from the hundredth flagon | C |
The Shades then saw Hell's darkest fiend | D |
A sea cat with an awful jag on | C |
- | |
Up to this time he did not see | E |
Upon the wide expanse of grey | F |
A single thing approach his way | F |
Which he might call his enemy | E |
He spent the hours upon the rim | G |
Leaping dancing rarely sitting | H |
Always grinning always spitting | H |
Waiting for a foe to swim | G |
Within his range but through the night | I |
Not a walrus offered fight | I |
A most unusual night for him | G |
But with the hundredth flagon drink | J |
He spat at his inactive fate | K |
And moving closer to the brink | J |
Began more madly to gyrate | K |
Upon his face ironic grim | G |
A resolution was ingrained | L |
If fish would not come unto him | G |
To offer battle what remained | L |
But that his fighting blood would freeze | M |
Unless he were allowed to go | N |
Ranging at will upon the seas | M |
To fight and conquer every foe | N |
With that into the cavernous deep | O |
He took a ghastly flying leap | O |
- | |
Gaping breathless every Shade | A |
Watched the course of the wild cat's raid | A |
And never was an errand run | C |
With means and end so much at one | C |
For from his birth he was imbued | P |
With hatred of his racial kind | Q |
A more inveterate blasting feud | P |
Within the world one could not find | Q |
His stock were traitors to the sea | E |
Had somehow learned the ways of earth | R |
The need of air the mystery | E |
Of things warm blooded and of birth | R |
To avenge this shameful derogation | C |
He had upon his final flask | S |
Resolved to carry out his task | S |
To wit the full extermination | C |
First of his nearest order male | T |
And female then the breed cetacean | C |
Grampus porpoise dolphin whale | T |
Humpback Rorqual Black and White | I |
Then the walrus lion hood | U |
Seals of all orders these he would | U |
Just as they came in single fight | I |
Or in the fortunes of m ecirc l eacute e | E |
Challenge as his lawful prey | F |
- | |
The Blacksmith | V |
I never knew an ocean steed | W |
Develop such demonic speed | W |
- | |
Sir Isaac Newton | C |
How he maintains that lightning rate | K |
Now in air and now in water | X |
And carries on such heavy slaughter | X |
Is more than I can formulate | K |
- | |
Blake | Y |
The tiger though in stretch of limb | G |
And heft of bone is larger still | Z |
For straight uxoricidal will | Z |
Is but a lamb compared to him | G |
- | |
Bottom | A2 |
What humour is it makes him flail | T |
His tawny quarters with that tail | T |
- | |
Owen Glendower | X |
Did any electrician mark | B2 |
The explosive nature of that spark | B2 |
- | |
Benjamin Franklin | C |
I did in truth but cannot quite | I |
See on the basis of my kite | I |
How such a flame should always sit | C2 |
Upon a wild cat's caudal tip | D2 |
- | |
Aesop | E2 |
Or what blind fury makes him whip | D2 |
His smoking sides to capture it | C2 |
An ignis fatuus that eludes | F2 |
The cat's most sanguinary moods | F2 |
- | |
Euclid | G2 |
The reasons for the circles lie | H2 |
Within the nature of the thing | H |
This cat must run around a ring | H |
If he would catch his tail But why | H2 |
So bloodily he chaseth it | C2 |
Is past the compass of my wit | C2 |
- | |
Johnny Walker | X |
Just why this wild cat should revolve | I2 |
Leaving his nether tip uncaught | C2 |
And spend his energy for naught | C2 |
The denser Shades will never solve | I2 |
But granting that the speed is quicker | X |
All we discerning spirits know | C |
It's just the way a man would go | C |
Grant the night and grant the liquor | X |
- | |
Calvin | C |
If I had known that such mad brutes | F2 |
Had found before the world began | C |
A place within the cosmic plan | C |
They would have dished my Institutes | F2 |
E. J. Pratt
(1)
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