A True Story. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCC DEFF GHII FFJJ KELL MMNN OOPP FFQQ RRSS TTUU VVRR WWTT PPXY MMMM VVZZ LLMM A2B2C2C2 QQMM D2D2E2E2 F2F2G2G2 H2H2WW| Read Before A Meeting Of The Danville Scribbler Club | A |
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| Dear friends to night the inspiration of my theme | B |
| Is not the baseless fabric of a weird fantastic dream | B |
| For truth combined with justice doth impel | C |
| And therefore it is fact not fiction that I tell | C |
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| Truth crushed to earth will rise again | D |
| A maxim true as holy writ then it is plain | E |
| If rudely woven by an untaught hand it be | F |
| Sustains but transitory wrong and injury | F |
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| And thus it is in homely rhyme I venture forth | G |
| Relating nothing here but under oath | H |
| And if perchance at times it sounds a little strange | I |
| You know that truth o'er fiction hath a wider range | I |
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| These stanzas three I hope you'll deem explanatory | F |
| As introductory and preliminary to the story | F |
| A preface simply used before I introduce | J |
| The proper characters essential for our use | J |
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| And just one moment more attention I will claim | K |
| And crave indulgence while I here explain | E |
| That character is used in a Pickwickian sense | L |
| So truth and justice need not take offense | L |
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| 'Twas when the Autumn leaves with russet hue | M |
| Scarce quivered in the gentle wind and when the dew | M |
| Lay sparkling on the grass beneath the argent moon | N |
| A tragedy took place of which I'll tell you soon | N |
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| And ever and anon a fleecy drifting cloud | O |
| Meek Dian's face would veil with filmy shroud | O |
| And lend to wood and field that softened ray | P |
| Unmatched in beauty from the glaring god of day | P |
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| But I will tell the story as 'twas told to me | F |
| And vouched for by some others two or three | F |
| Whose word to doubt would be a heinous sin | Q |
| So armed with truth in confidence I will begin | Q |
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| Ah memory Thou art a fickle jade | R |
| And oft responsible when grave mistakes are made | R |
| And therefore 'tis with caution that I hesitate | S |
| When truthful things I undertake to state | S |
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| This much is due to accuracy and circumspection | T |
| As well as to a rather faulty recollection | T |
| And so I'll trespass on your patience now no more | U |
| But straightway tell the story as I said before | U |
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| All good beginnings have that natural trend | V |
| Which safely leads to a successful end | V |
| And stories all should have their plots well laid | R |
| Which neither prose nor verse can do when haste is made | R |
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| 'Tis said procrastination is the thief of time | W |
| And this might seem to be the object of my rhyme | W |
| Had I not told you as I should have done | T |
| The reason why the story's not begun | T |
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| 'Tis my sole object then to give without delay | P |
| The narrative in a direct and proper way | P |
| For as you know some critics may be here | X |
| Whom scribbling rhymesters may with justice fear | Y |
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| What shameless bards we have And yet 'tis true | M |
| There are as mad abandoned critics too | M |
| This couplet penned by Pope is ever new | M |
| But then dear friends the second line was not for you | M |
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| I only quote that you may comprehend | V |
| How modesty in me has missed its end | V |
| And why it is I ever undertook to write | Z |
| The story that I'm going to tell sometime to night | Z |
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| An introduction that will keep the listener in suspense | L |
| I deem derogatory to good taste and sense | L |
| And this is also why I'll nothing put as prefatory | M |
| Before I launch right out into the story | M |
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| I'm going to make it thrilling crisp and short | A2 |
| In purest diction drest with gems of thought | B2 |
| So intermingled with the story's warp and woof | C2 |
| That from beginning I can scarcely keep aloof | C2 |
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| I'll put quotation marks to shrive me of the sin | Q |
| Of plagiarism when such language I begin | Q |
| That every one of you may plainly see | M |
| I tell the story as 'twas told to me | M |
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| So calmly coolly then I think I will proceed | D2 |
| To give you now the story taking heed | D2 |
| To curtail all that truth and justice will permit | E2 |
| Remembering that brevity's the soul of wit | E2 |
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| But undue haste would cause me to forget | F2 |
| And mar the memory of its telling with regret | F2 |
| If I had overlooked some startling fact | G2 |
| Which on both truth and justice would re act | G2 |
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| And now dear friends don't think that you are sold | H2 |
| If still as yet the story's left untold | H2 |
| But paper ink your patience and my time | W |
| Are all exhausted in this race with rhyme | W |
George W. Doneghy
(1)
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