The Beggar's Soliloquy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDEFE A GHGHIJIJ A KLKLMNMN N OPOPQRQR N STSTUVUV N WXWXYKYK N ZA2ZB2C2D2C2D2 N E2F2E2F2G2NG2N F2 NH2NH2I2DI2D F2 J2NJ2NK2F2K2F2 N L2M2L2M2NN2NN2 N N2NN2NN2BN2B N O2P2O2P2Q2N2Q2N2 N R2S2T2S2N2GN2NI | A |
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Now this to my notion is pleasant cheer | B |
To lie all alone on a ragged heath | C |
Where your nose isn't sniffing for bones or beer | B |
But a peat fire smells like a garden beneath | C |
The cottagers bustle about the door | D |
And the girl at the window ties her strings | E |
She's a dish for a man who's a mind to be poor | F |
Lord women are such expensive things | E |
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II | A |
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We don't marry beggars says she why no | G |
It seems that to make 'em is what you do | H |
And as I can cook and scour and sew | G |
I needn't pay half my victuals for you | H |
A man for himself should be able to scratch | I |
But tickling's a luxury love indeed | J |
Love burns as long as the lucifer match | I |
Wedlock's the candle Now that's my creed | J |
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III | A |
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The church bells sound water like over the wheat | K |
And up the long path troop pair after pair | L |
The man's well brushed and the woman looks neat | K |
It's man and woman everywhere | L |
Unless like me you lie here flat | M |
With a donkey for friend you must have a wife | N |
She pulls out your hair but she brushes your hat | M |
Appearances make the best half of life | N |
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IV | N |
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You nice little madam you know you're nice | O |
I remember hearing a parson say | P |
You're a plateful of vanity pepper'd with vice | O |
You chap at the gate thinks t' other way | P |
On his waistcoat you read both his head and his heart | Q |
There's a whole week's wages there figured in gold | R |
Yes when you turn round you may well give a start | Q |
It's fun to a fellow who's getting old | R |
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V | N |
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Now that's a good craft weaving waistcoats and flowers | S |
And selling of ribbons and scenting of lard | T |
It gives you a house to get in from the showers | S |
And food when your appetite jockeys you hard | T |
You live a respectable man but I ask | U |
If it's worth the trouble You use your tools | V |
And spend your time and what's your task | U |
Why to make a slide for a couple of fools | V |
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VI | N |
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You can't match the colour o' these heath mounds | W |
Nor better that peat fire's agreeable smell | X |
I'm clothed like with natural sights and sounds | W |
To myself I'm in tune I hope you're as well | X |
You jolly old cot though you don't own coal | Y |
It's a generous pot that's boiled with peat | K |
Let the Lord Mayor o' London roast oxen whole | Y |
His smoke at least don't smell so sweet | K |
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VII | N |
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I'm not a low Radical hating the laws | Z |
Who'd the aristocracy rebuke | A2 |
I talk o' the Lord Mayor o' London because | Z |
I once was on intimate terms with his cook | B2 |
I served him a turn and got pensioned on scraps | C2 |
And Lord Sir didn't I envy his place | D2 |
Till Death knock'd him down with the softest of taps | C2 |
And I knew what was meant by a tallowy face | D2 |
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VIII | N |
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On the contrary I'm Conservative quite | E2 |
There's beggars in Scripture 'mongst Gentiles and Jews | F2 |
It's nonsense trying to set things right | E2 |
For if people will give why who'll refuse | F2 |
That stopping old custom wakes my spleen | G2 |
The poor and the rich both in giving agree | N |
Your tight fisted shopman's the Radical mean | G2 |
There's nothing in common 'twixt him and me | N |
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IX | F2 |
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He says I'm no use but I won't reply | N |
You're lucky not being of use to him | H2 |
On week days he's playing at Spider and Fly | N |
And on Sundays he sings about Cherubim | H2 |
Nailing shillings to counters is his chief work | I2 |
He nods now and then at the name on his door | D |
But judge of us two at a bow and a smirk | I2 |
I think I'm his match and I'm honest that's more | D |
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X | F2 |
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No use well I mayn't be You ring a pig's snout | J2 |
And then call the animal glutton Now he | N |
Mr Shopman he's nought but a pipe and a spout | J2 |
Who won't let the goods o' this world pass free | N |
This blazing blue weather all round the brown crop | K2 |
He can't enjoy all but cash he hates | F2 |
He's only a snail that crawls under his shop | K2 |
Though he has got the ear o' the magistrates | F2 |
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XI | N |
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Now giving and taking's a proper exchange | L2 |
Like question and answer you're both content | M2 |
But buying and selling seems always strange | L2 |
You're hostile and that's the thing that's meant | M2 |
It's man against man you're almost brutes | N |
There's here no thanks and there's there no pride | N2 |
If Charity's Christian don't blame my pursuits | N |
I carry a touchstone by which you're tried | N2 |
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XII | N |
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'Take it ' says she 'it's all I've got' | N2 |
I remember a girl in London streets | N |
She stood by a coffee stall nice and hot | N2 |
My belly was like a lamb that bleats | N |
Says I to myself as her shilling I seized | N2 |
You haven't a character here my dear | B |
But for making a rascal like me so pleased | N2 |
I'll give you one in a better sphere | B |
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XIII | N |
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And that's where it is she made me feel | O2 |
I was a rascal but people who scorn | P2 |
And tell a poor patch breech he isn't genteel | O2 |
Why they make him kick up and he treads on a corn | P2 |
It isn't liking it's curst ill luck | Q2 |
Drives half of us into the begging trade | N2 |
If for taking to water you praise a duck | Q2 |
For taking to beer why a man upbraid | N2 |
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XIV | N |
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The sermon's over they're out of the porch | R2 |
And it's time for me to move a leg | S2 |
But in general people who come from church | T2 |
And have called themselves sinners hate chaps to beg | S2 |
I'll wager they'll all of 'em dine to day | N2 |
I was easy half a minute ago | G |
If that isn't pig that's baking away | N2 |
May I perish we're never contented heigho | N |
George Meredith
(1)
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