How Thomas A Maid From A Dragon Released Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCBDDEEED FFGHHGIIFFFI JJBKCBLLHHHL FFMNNMOOMMMO HHPCCPQQMM MQ JJRHHRSSJJJS JJMTTJUUMMMU HHVHHVWWXXXW MYMThough Philip the Second | A |
Of France was reckoned | A |
No coward his breath came short | B |
When they told him a dragon | C |
As big as a wagon | C |
Was waiting below in the court | B |
A dragon so long and so wide and so fat | D |
That he couldn't get in at the door to chat | D |
The king couldn't leave him | E |
Outside and grieve him | E |
He had to receive him | E |
Upon the mat | D |
- | |
The dragon bowed nicely | F |
And very concisely | F |
He stated the reason he'd called | G |
He made the disclosure | H |
With frigid composure | H |
King Philip was simply appalled | G |
He demanded for eating a fortnight apart | I |
The monarch's ten daughters all dear to his heart | I |
And now you'll produce he | F |
Concluded the juicy | F |
And succulent Lucie | F |
By way of start | I |
- | |
King Philip was pliant | J |
And far from defiant | J |
And servile no doubt you retort | B |
But if you struck a snag on | K |
A bottle green dragon | C |
Who filled up two thirds of your court | B |
And curled up his tail on your new tin roof | L |
And made your piazza groan under his hoof | L |
Would you threaten and thunder | H |
Or just knuckle under | H |
Completely I wonder | H |
If put to proof | L |
- | |
By way of a truce he | F |
Brought out little Lucie | F |
And watched her conducted away | M |
But all of the others | N |
Were out with their brothers | N |
Thus gaining a little delay | M |
He promised through heralds sent west and east | O |
His crown and his kingdom and last not least | O |
His daughter so sightly | M |
To any one knightly | M |
Who'd come and politely | M |
Wipe out that beast | O |
- | |
For love of the charmer | H |
Arrayed in his armor | H |
Each suitor for glory who yearned | P |
Would gallantly hasten | C |
The dragon to chasten | C |
But none of them ever returned | P |
When the dragon had eaten some sixteen score | Q |
He hung up this sign on his cavern door | Q |
Whereat he lay pronely | M |
In majesty lonely | M |
- | |
- | |
There's Standing Room Only | M |
For Three Knights More | Q |
- | |
- | |
A slim adolescent | J |
His beard only crescent | J |
Rode up at this stage of the game | R |
To where the old sinner | H |
Lay gorged with his dinner | H |
And breathing out torrents of flame | R |
He gathered a tip from the flaunting sign | S |
And took his position the fourth in line | S |
Until as foreboded | J |
By food incommoded | J |
The dragon exploded | J |
At half past nine | S |
- | |
The king was delighted | J |
At first when he sighted | J |
The victor but then in dismay | M |
Regretted his promise | T |
The stripling was Thomas | T |
His Majesty's valet de pied | J |
He asked him at once Will you compromise | U |
But Thomas looked straight in his master's eyes | U |
And answered severely | M |
I see your game clearly | M |
And scorn it sincerely | M |
Hand out the prize | U |
- | |
Not long did he linger | H |
Before on the finger | H |
Of Lucie he fitted a ring | V |
A month or two later | H |
They made him dictator | H |
In place of the elderly king | V |
He was lauded by pulpit and boomed by press | W |
And no one had ever a chance to guess | W |
Beholding this hero | X |
Who ruled like a Nero | X |
His valor was zero | X |
Or something less | W |
- | |
- | |
The Moral And still from Nice to Calais | M |
Discretion's the better part of | Y |
valets | M |
Guy Wetmore Carryl
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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