The Emperor's Bird's-nest Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAAB CDCCD EFEEF GHGGI JFJJF KLKKL GDGGD MDMMD MMMMM MNMMN OMOOM| Once the Emperor Charles of Spain | A |
| With his swarthy grave commanders | B |
| I forget in what campaign | A |
| Long besieged in mud and rain | A |
| Some old frontier town of Flanders | B |
| - | |
| Up and down the dreary camp | C |
| In great boots of Spanish leather | D |
| Striding with a measured tramp | C |
| These Hidalgos dull and damp | C |
| Cursed the Frenchmen cursed the weather | D |
| - | |
| Thus as to and fro they went | E |
| Over upland and through hollow | F |
| Giving their impatience vent | E |
| Perched upon the Emperor's tent | E |
| In her nest they spied a swallow | F |
| - | |
| Yes it was a swallow's nest | G |
| Built of clay and hair of horses | H |
| Mane or tail or dragoon's crest | G |
| Found on hedge rows east and west | G |
| After skirmish of the forces | I |
| - | |
| Then an old Hidalgo said | J |
| As he twirled his gray mustachio | F |
| Sure this swallow overhead | J |
| Thinks the Emperor's tent a shed | J |
| And the Emperor but a Macho | F |
| - | |
| Hearing his imperial name | K |
| Coupled with those words of malice | L |
| Half in anger half in shame | K |
| Forth the great campaigner came | K |
| Slowly from his canvas palace | L |
| - | |
| Let no hand the bird molest | G |
| Said he solemnly nor hurt her | D |
| Adding then by way of jest | G |
| Golondrina is my guest | G |
| 'Tis the wife of some deserter | D |
| - | |
| Swift as bowstring speeds a shaft | M |
| Through the camp was spread the rumor | D |
| And the soldiers as they quaffed | M |
| Flemish beer at dinner laughed | M |
| At the Emperor's pleasant humor | D |
| - | |
| So unharmed and unafraid | M |
| Sat the swallow still and brooded | M |
| Till the constant cannonade | M |
| Through the walls a breach had made | M |
| And the siege was thus concluded | M |
| - | |
| Then the army elsewhere bent | M |
| Struck its tents as if disbanding | N |
| Only not the Emperor's tent | M |
| For he ordered ere he went | M |
| Very curtly Leave it standing | N |
| - | |
| So it stood there all alone | O |
| Loosely flapping torn and tattered | M |
| Till the brood was fledged and flown | O |
| Singing o'er those walls of stone | O |
| Which the cannon shot had shattered | M |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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