-big Benâ? Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCB DDCEFC CCGHHI JJBKKB LLMNNM CCCOOC CCPQQP CCRSSR CCKOOK TTUCCU VVICWX AAKYYK| De mortuis nil ni | A |
| Si bonum R I P | A |
| No more upbraid him | B |
| Nay rather plead his cause | C |
| For Ben exactly was | C |
| What Nature made him | B |
| - | |
| Not radically bad | D |
| He naturally had | D |
| No leaning sinwards | C |
| But Nature saw it good | E |
| One life long crave for food | F |
| Should rack his inwards | C |
| - | |
| According to his lights | C |
| And to the appetites | C |
| In him implanted | G |
| He did his level best | H |
| To feed and all the rest | H |
| He took for granted | I |
| - | |
| Ere birth he was laid low | J |
| And yet no man I know | J |
| For high birth matched him | B |
| Apollo was his sire | K |
| Who with life giving fire | K |
| Ab ovo hatched him | B |
| - | |
| Just over Capricorn | L |
| This same Big Ben was born | L |
| A feeble lizard | M |
| But with the years came strength | N |
| And twenty feet of length | N |
| The most part gizzard | M |
| - | |
| By Fitzroy's rugged crags | C |
| Its sawyers and its snags | C |
| He roamed piscivorous | C |
| Or watching for his prey | O |
| By Yaamba creek he lay | O |
| In mood carnivorous | C |
| - | |
| Unthinking little hogs | C |
| And careless puppy dogs | C |
| Fitzroy ward straying | P |
| Were grist unto his mill | Q |
| His grinders now are still | Q |
| Himself past preying | P |
| - | |
| Whether in self defence | C |
| Or out of hate prepense | C |
| Or just for fun shot | R |
| Are things beyond my ken | S |
| I only know Big Ben | S |
| Died of a gunshot | R |
| - | |
| It was a sorry case | C |
| For Ben loved all our race | C |
| Both saint and sinner | K |
| If he had had his way | O |
| He would have brought each day | O |
| One home to dinner | K |
| - | |
| Loved with that longing love | T |
| Such as is felt above | T |
| The Southern Tropic | U |
| Small chance was ever his | C |
| But his proclivities | C |
| Were philanthropic | U |
| - | |
| There are who would insist | V |
| He was misogynist | V |
| 'Tis slander horrid | I |
| For every nymph he saw | C |
| He would have liked her raw | W |
| From toe to forehead | X |
| - | |
| Then let his memory be | A |
| No misanthrope was he | A |
| No woman hater | K |
| But just what you may call | Y |
| Take him for all in all | Y |
| An alligator | K |
James Brunton Stephens
(1)
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