The Animals Sick Of The Plague Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDDCEEFGHHIIIJJKLM MNNOOPPGGPPPPQQRRRS RRTUUTTVWV XXVVRNRNR PPYYYZZA2 B2B2C2D2E2E2UC CC F2F2| A | |
| - | |
| The sorest ill that Heaven hath | B |
| Sent on this lower world in wrath | B |
| The plague to call it by its name | C |
| One single day of which | D |
| Would Pluto's ferryman enrich | D |
| Waged war on beasts both wild and tame | C |
| They died not all but all were sick | E |
| No hunting now by force or trick | E |
| To save what might so soon expire | F |
| No food excited their desire | G |
| Nor wolf nor fox now watch'd to slay | H |
| The innocent and tender prey | H |
| The turtles fled | I |
| So love and therefore joy were dead | I |
| The lion council held and said | I |
| 'My friends I do believe | J |
| This awful scourge for which we grieve | J |
| Is for our sins a punishment | K |
| Most righteously by Heaven sent | L |
| Let us our guiltiest beast resign | M |
| A sacrifice to wrath divine | M |
| Perhaps this offering truly small | N |
| May gain the life and health of all | N |
| By history we find it noted | O |
| That lives have been just so devoted | O |
| Then let us all turn eyes within | P |
| And ferret out the hidden sin | P |
| Himself let no one spare nor flatter | G |
| But make clean conscience in the matter | G |
| For me my appetite has play'd the glutton | P |
| Too much and often upon mutton | P |
| What harm had e'er my victims done | P |
| I answer truly None | P |
| Perhaps sometimes by hunger press'd | Q |
| I've eat the shepherd with the rest | Q |
| I yield myself if need there be | R |
| And yet I think in equity | R |
| Each should confess his sins with me | R |
| For laws of right and justice cry | S |
| The guiltiest alone should die ' | - |
| 'Sire ' said the fox 'your majesty | R |
| Is humbler than a king should be | R |
| And over squeamish in the case | T |
| What eating stupid sheep a crime | U |
| No never sire at any time | U |
| It rather was an act of grace | T |
| A mark of honour to their race | T |
| And as to shepherds one may swear | V |
| The fate your majesty describes | W |
| Is recompense less full than fair | V |
| For such usurpers o'er our tribes ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus Renard glibly spoke | X |
| And loud applause from flatterers broke | X |
| Of neither tiger boar nor bear | V |
| Did any keen inquirer dare | V |
| To ask for crimes of high degree | R |
| The fighters biters scratchers all | N |
| From every mortal sin were free | R |
| The very dogs both great and small | N |
| Were saints as far as dogs could be | R |
| - | |
| The ass confessing in his turn | P |
| Thus spoke in tones of deep concern | P |
| 'I happen'd through a mead to pass | Y |
| The monks its owners were at mass | Y |
| Keen hunger leisure tender grass | Y |
| And add to these the devil too | Z |
| All tempted me the deed to do | Z |
| I browsed the bigness of my tongue | A2 |
| Since truth must out I own it wrong ' | - |
| - | |
| On this a hue and cry arose | B2 |
| As if the beasts were all his foes | B2 |
| A wolf haranguing lawyer wise | C2 |
| Denounced the ass for sacrifice | D2 |
| The bald pate scabby ragged lout | E2 |
| By whom the plague had come no doubt | E2 |
| His fault was judged a hanging crime | U |
| 'What eat another's grass O shame | C |
| The noose of rope and death sublime ' | - |
| For that offence were all too tame | C |
| And soon poor Grizzle felt the same | C |
| - | |
| Thus human courts acquit the strong | F2 |
| And doom the weak as therefore wrong | F2 |
Jean De La Fontaine
(2)
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