The Merdle Origin. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABACAC DEDECF GHGHIJIJKIKI LGLG HHGG MNMNOPOPQMQM RSRSTUTUVVWXWX| Now Merdle en passant I had known for a score | A |
| Of years when a dinner with Jones Brown or Smith | B |
| As good as one gets for a quarter or more | A |
| Was a thing unthought of or else but a myth | B |
| In Merde's day dreaming of things yet in store | A |
| When hope painted visions of a painted abode | C |
| And hope never hoped for anything more | A |
| I'm sure never dreamed he would dine a la mode | C |
| - | |
| In dreams wildest fancy I doubt if he dreamed | D |
| That time in its changes that wears rocky shores | E |
| Should change what so changeless certainly seemed | D |
| Till Merdle Jack Merdle would own twenty stores | E |
| Much more own a bank e'en the horse that he rode | C |
| Or pay half the debts of the wild oats he sowed | F |
| - | |
| I knew when he worked at his old father's trade | G |
| And thought he would stick to his wax and the last | H |
| But Fortune the fickle incontinent jade | G |
| A turn to his fortune has given a cast | H |
| A wife with a fortune which men hunt in packs | I |
| To Jack was the fortune that fell to his share | J |
| A fortune that often is such a hard tax | I |
| That men hurry through it with nothing to spare | J |
| With nothing to eat or a house fit to live in | K |
| With nothing half decent to put on their backs | I |
| With nothing exclusive to have or believe in | K |
| Except what is common to common street hacks | I |
| - | |
| So fortune and comfort that should be like brothers | L |
| Though fought for and bled for where fortunes are made | G |
| Though sought for and failed of by ten thousand others | L |
| Are not worth the fighting and fuss that is made | G |
| - | |
| But fortune for Merdle by Cupid was cast | H |
| And bade him look higher than wax and the last | H |
| That Merdle his father with good honest trade | G |
| Had used with the stitches his waxed end had made | G |
| - | |
| I knew when old Merdle lived down by the mill | M |
| I often went fishing and Jack dug the bait | N |
| But Jack Merdle then never thought he should fill | M |
| With fish and roast meat such a full dinner plate | N |
| Nor I when my line which I threw for a trout | O |
| While Jack watched the bob of the light floating cork | P |
| Ever thought of the time in a Merdle turn out | O |
| To ride or to dine with a pearl handle fork | P |
| In Jack's splendid mansion where taste waste and style | Q |
| Contend for preemption as then by the mill | M |
| Old Merdle contended with fortune the while | Q |
| For bread wherewithal Jack's belly to fill | M |
| - | |
| - | |
| I never thought then little Kitty Malone | R |
| As heir to old Gripus would bring him the cash | S |
| 'Pon which as a banker Jack Merdle has shone | R |
| And Kitty in fashion has cut such a dash | S |
| Nor when as a girl not a shoe to her feet | T |
| She accepted my offers of coppers or candy | U |
| She would tell me in satin we've nothing to eat | T |
| While eating from silver or sipping her brandy | U |
| And wond'ring that Merdle the Jack I have named | V |
| Should bring home a friend 'twas thus she exclaimed | V |
| The day that I've mentioned a day to remember | W |
| When Merdle and I in his carriage and bays | X |
| Through Avenue Five on a day in September | W |
| Drove up to a mansion with gas light ablaze | X |
Horatio Alger, Jr.
(1)
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