The Animals Sending Tribute To Alexander Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEDDFFGGFHHIIJ JDGDGDDKKLLDDMNODPPB BQQGRGRG STMJJMFFUURVRVQWQWWX XG GGGGGGG GGGGFFGJJ YY| A | |
| - | |
| A fable flourished with antiquity | B |
| Whose meaning I could never clearly see | B |
| Kind reader draw the moral if you're able | C |
| I give you here the naked fable | C |
| Fame having bruited that a great commander | D |
| A son of Jove a certain Alexander | D |
| Resolved to leave nought free on this our ball | E |
| Had to his footstool gravely summon'd all | E |
| Men quadrupeds and nullipeds together | D |
| With all the bird republics every feather | D |
| The goddess of the hundred mouths I say | F |
| Thus having spread dismay | F |
| By widely publishing abroad | G |
| This mandate of the demigod | G |
| The animals and all that do obey | F |
| Their appetite alone mistrusted now | H |
| That to another sceptre they must bow | H |
| Far in the desert met their various races | I |
| All gathering from their hiding places | I |
| Discuss'd was many a notion | J |
| At last it was resolved on motion | J |
| To pacify the conquering banner | D |
| By sending homage in and tribute | G |
| With both the homage and its manner | D |
| They charged the monkey as a glib brute | G |
| And lest the chap should too much chatter | D |
| In black on white they wrote the matter | D |
| Nought but the tribute served to fash | K |
| As that must needs be paid in cash | K |
| A prince who chanced a mine to own | L |
| At last obliged them with a loan | L |
| The mule and ass to bear the treasure | D |
| Their service tender'd full of pleasure | D |
| And then the caravan was none the worse | M |
| Assisted by the camel and the horse | N |
| Forthwith proceeded all the four | O |
| Behind the new ambassador | D |
| And saw erelong within a narrow place | P |
| Monseigneur Lion's quite unwelcome face | P |
| 'Well met and all in time ' said he | B |
| 'Myself your fellow traveller will be | B |
| I wend my tribute by itself to bear | Q |
| And though 'tis light I well might spare | Q |
| The unaccustom'd load | G |
| Take each a quarter if you please | R |
| And I will guard you on the road | G |
| More free and at my ease | R |
| In better plight you understand | G |
| To fight with any robber band ' | - |
| A lion to refuse the fact is | S |
| Is not a very usual practice | T |
| So in he comes for better and for worse | M |
| Whatever he demands is done | J |
| And spite of Jove's heroic son | J |
| He fattens freely from the public purse | M |
| While wending on their way | F |
| They found a spot one day | F |
| With waters hemm'd of crystal sheen | U |
| Its carpet flower besprinkled green | U |
| Where pastured at their ease | R |
| Both flocks of sheep and dainty heifers | V |
| And play'd the cooling breeze | R |
| The native land of all the zephyrs | V |
| No sooner is the lion there | Q |
| Than of some sickness he complains | W |
| Says he 'You on your mission fare | Q |
| A fever with its thirst and pains | W |
| Dries up my blood and bakes my brains | W |
| And I must search some herb | X |
| Its fatal power to curb | X |
| For you there is no time to waste | G |
| Pay me my money and make haste ' | - |
| The treasures were unbound | G |
| And placed upon the ground | G |
| Then with a look which testified | G |
| His royal joy the lion cried | G |
| 'My coins good heavens have multiplied | G |
| And see the young ones of the gold | G |
| As big already as the old | G |
| The increase belongs to me no doubt ' | - |
| And eagerly he took it out | G |
| 'Twas little staid beneath the lid | G |
| The wonder was that any did | G |
| Confounded were the monkey and his suite | G |
| And dumb with fear betook them to their way | F |
| And bore complaint to Jove's great son they say | F |
| Complaint without a reason meet | G |
| For what could he Though a celestial scion | J |
| He could but fight as lion versus lion | J |
| - | |
| When corsairs battle Turk with Turk | Y |
| They're not about their proper work | Y |
Jean De La Fontaine
(2)
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