A Brisbane Reverie Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAA BBB CCC DDEFFF GGG HHH III JJJ FFF KKK LL L MNM OOO PPP QQQ RRR SSS QQQ TTT UUU FFFVVV WWWAs I sit beside my little study window looking down | A |
From the heights of contemplation attic front upon the town | A |
Attic front per week with board of course a sov'reign and a crown | A |
- | |
As I sit these sad digressions though are much to be deplored | B |
In my lonely little attic it is all I can afford | B |
And I should have mentioned washing not included in the board | B |
- | |
As I sit these wild parentheses my very soul abhors | C |
High above the ills of life its petty rumours paltry wars | C |
The attic back is cheaper but it wants a chest of drawers | C |
- | |
In the purpling light of half past six before the stars are met | D |
While the stricken sun clings fondly to his royal mantle yet | D |
Dying glorious on the hill tops in reluctant violet | E |
Just the time that favours vision blissful moments that unbar | F |
The inner sight assisted by a very mild cigar | F |
To behold the things that are not side by side with those that are | F |
- | |
Just the very light and very time that suit the bard's complaint | G |
When through present past and future roams his soul without restraint | G |
When no clearer are the things that are than are the things that ain't | G |
- | |
With a dual apperception metaphysical profound | H |
Past and present running parallel I scan the scene around | H |
Were there two of us the attic front would only be a pound | H |
- | |
Beneath mine eyes the buried past arises from the tomb | I |
Not cadaverous or ghostly but in all its living bloom | I |
I would rather pay the odds than have a partner in my room | I |
- | |
How the complex now contrasteth with the elemental then | J |
Tide of change outflowing flow of ink outstripping stride of pen | J |
Unless it were but no they only take in single men | J |
- | |
Where trackless wilderness lay wide a hundred ages through | F |
I can see a man with papers from my attic point of view | F |
Who for gath'ring house assessments gets a very decent screw | F |
- | |
Where forest contiguity assuaged the summer heats | K |
It is now an argued question when the City Council meets | K |
If we mightn't buy a tree or two to shade the glaring streets | K |
- | |
Where no sound announced the flight of time not even crow of cock | L |
I can see the gun that stuns the town with monitory shock | L |
- | |
And a son of that same weapon hired to shoot at one o'clock | L |
- | |
Where the kangaroo gave hops the old man fleetest of the fleet | M |
Mrs Pursy gives a hop to night to all the town's lite | N |
But her old man cannot hop because of bunions on his feet | M |
- | |
Where the emu at its own sweet will went wandering all the day | O |
And left its bill prints on whate'er came handy in its way | O |
There are printed bills that advertise The Emu for the Bay | O |
- | |
Where of old with awful mysteries and diabolic din | P |
They kippered adolescents in the presence of their kin | P |
There's a grocer selling herrings kippered half a crown per tin | P |
- | |
Where the savage only used his club to supplement his fist | Q |
The white man uses his for friendly intercourse and whist | Q |
Not to mention sherry port bordeaux et cetera see list | Q |
- | |
Where dress was at a discount or at most a modest fall | R |
Rise Criterion Cosmopolitan and City Clothing Hall | R |
And neither men nor women count for much the dress is all | R |
- | |
Where a bride's trousseau consisted of an extra coat of grease | S |
And Nature gave the pair a suit of glossy black apiece | S |
Now the matrimonial outfit is a perfect golden fleece | S |
- | |
Where lorn widows wore the knee joints of the late lamented dead | Q |
We have dashing wives who wear their living husbands' joints instead | Q |
Yea their vitals for embellishment of bosom neck and head | Q |
- | |
Where the blacks ignoring livers lived according to their wills | T |
Nor knew that flesh is heir to quite a lexicon of ills | T |
Five white chemists in one street grow rich through antibilious pills | T |
- | |
Where the only bell was the bell bird's note now many mingling bells | U |
Make Catholic the trembling air as famed George Eliot tells | U |
Of another town somewhere between more northern parallels | U |
- | |
But in case the name of Catholic offend protesting ear | F |
Let Wesleyan or Baptist be interpolated here | F |
Or that bells make Presbyterian the trembling atmosphere | F |
Where the savage learned no love from earth nor from the shining frame | V |
And merely feared the devil under some outlandish name | V |
There are heaps of Britishers whose creed is very much the same | V |
- | |
Where the gin was black methinks'tis time the bard were shutting up | W |
The bell is ringing for the non inebriating cup | W |
And even attic bards must have their little bite and sup | W |
James Brunton Stephens
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about A Brisbane Reverie poem by James Brunton Stephens
Best Poems of James Brunton Stephens