Bedfordshire Ballad. - I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CCDD EEFF GGHD IIJJ KKGG DDLL MMNN OOPP QQRR DDII SSTT UVWW XXYY ZZMM GGA2A2 DDB2B2 C2 C2C2VV SSPP| THE TWO MAIDENS | A |
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| The following Verses were written for a country Penny Reading | B |
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| Two Bedfordshire maidens in one village dwelt | C |
| Side by side in their Church every Sunday they knelt | C |
| They were not very pretty and not very plain | D |
| And their names were Eliza and Emily Jane | D |
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| Now Carpenter Smith was young steady and still | E |
| And wherever he went worked and played with a will | E |
| To bed he went early and early did rise | F |
| So of course he was healthy and wealthy and wise | F |
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| But John he grew tired of a bachelor's life | G |
| So he looked all around him in search of a wife | G |
| And his eyes as they wandered again and again | H |
| Returned to Eliza and Emily Jane | D |
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| And whenever those maidens encountered his eye | I |
| Their pulses beat quickly perhaps you know why | I |
| They each of them thought him a wonderful Don | J |
| And wished to be married to Carpenter John | J |
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| But John as you've heard was a prudent young man | K |
| And determined their faults and their merits to scan | K |
| Says he If I marry I'm tied for my life | G |
| So it's well to be cautious in choosing a wife | G |
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| Now I'm sorry to say that young Emily Jane | D |
| Was disposed to be rather conceited and vain | D |
| In fact for the truth I'm obliged to confess | L |
| Was decidedly fond of extravagant dress | L |
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| So she thought the best way to the Carpenter's heart | M |
| Was to purchase gay dresses and finery smart | M |
| In the carrier's van off to Bedford she went | N |
| And many weeks' wages in finery spent | N |
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| Her dress it was blue and her ribbons were green | O |
| And her chignon the highest that ever was seen | O |
| And perched on the top heavy laden with flowers | P |
| Was a bonnet embosomed in beautiful bowers | P |
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| So red as she walked to the Church was her shawl | Q |
| That the bull in the farm yard did bellow and bawl | Q |
| And so high were her heels that on entering the door | R |
| She slipped and she stumbled and fell on the floor | R |
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| Says Carpenter Smith It's decidedly plain | D |
| That I'd better keep clear of that Emily Jane | D |
| So from Emily Jane he averted his eye | I |
| And just at that moment Eliza passed by | I |
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| Now Eliza had thought If his heart I subdue | S |
| It shall not be by dresses and finery new | S |
| For a lover who's taken by ornaments gay | T |
| Will love some one else ere a week pass away | T |
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| So her ribbons were lilac white straw was her bonnet | U |
| Her dress was light grey with dark braiding upon it | V |
| Her jacket was black and her boots of stout leather | W |
| Were fitted for walking in all sorts of weather | W |
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| She was not very pretty and yet in her smile | X |
| There was something that charmed by its freedom from guile | X |
| And tho' lowly her lot yet her natural grace | Y |
| Made her look like a lady in figure and face | Y |
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| A rose from the garden she wore on her breast | Z |
| And John as her fingers he tenderly press'd | Z |
| Seemed to feel a sharp arrow 'twas Cupid's first dart | M |
| Come straight from the rosebud and enter his heart | M |
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| Now John and Eliza are husband and wife | G |
| Their quarrels are few and contented their life | G |
| They eat and they drink and they dress in good taste | A2 |
| For their money they spend on their wants not in waste | A2 |
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| But I'm sorry to say that Miss Emily Jane | D |
| Has still an aversion to dress that is plain | D |
| And the consequence is that she always has stayed | B2 |
| And is likely to stay a disconsolate maid | B2 |
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| MORAL | C2 |
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| Young ladies I hope you'll attend to my moral | C2 |
| When you hear it I'm sure you and I shall not quarrel | C2 |
| If you're pretty fine dress is not needed to show it | V |
| If you're ugly fine dress will make all the world know it | V |
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| Young men if you wish as I trust you all do | S |
| A partner for worse or for better to woo | S |
| Don't marry a peacock dressed out in gay feathers | P |
| But a wife guaranteed to wear well in all weathers | P |
Edward Woodley Bowling
(1)
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