Villon-s Epitaph (ballade Of The Hanged Men) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCCDCD ABABBCCDCD ABABBCCDCDCEDCD F| O brother men who after us remain | A |
| Do not look coldly on the scene you view | B |
| For if you pity wretchedness and pain | A |
| God will the more incline to pity you | B |
| You see us hang here half a dozen who | B |
| Indulged the flesh in every liberty | C |
| Till it was pecked and rotted as you see | C |
| And these our bones to dust and ashes fall | D |
| Let no one mock our sorry company | C |
| But pray to God that He forgive us all | D |
| - | |
| If we have called you brothers don t disdain | A |
| The appellation though alas it s true | B |
| That not all men are equal as to brain | A |
| And that our crimes and blunders were not few | B |
| Commend us now that we are dead unto | B |
| The Virgin Mary s son in hopes that He | C |
| Will not be sparing of His clemency | C |
| But save our souls which Satan would enthrall | D |
| We re dead now brothers show your charity | C |
| And pray to God that He forgive us all | D |
| - | |
| We have been rinsed and laundered by the rain | A |
| And by the sunlight dried and blackened too | B |
| Magpie and crow have plucked our eyeballs twain | A |
| And cropped our eyebrows and the beards we grew | B |
| Nor have we any rest at all for to | B |
| And fro we sway at the wind s fantasy | C |
| Which has no object yet would have us be | C |
| Pitted like thimbles at its beck and call | D |
| Do not aspire to our fraternity | C |
| But pray to God that He forgive us all | D |
| Prince Jesus we implore Your Majesty | C |
| To spare us Hell s distress and obloquy | E |
| We want no part of what may there befall | D |
| And mortal men let s have no mockery | C |
| But pray to God that He forgive us all | D |
| - | |
| Translated by Richard Wilbur | F |
Franaois Villon
(1)
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