The Battle Of The Rats And The Weasels Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDEEED EEEEFFGGHIHIJJKKEEKK EEFFGGEELLGGEEEEGGGG KFKFEE MMEEKKEE| A | |
| - | |
| The weasels live no more than cats | B |
| On terms of friendship with the rats | B |
| And were it not that these | C |
| Through doors contrive to squeeze | C |
| Too narrow for their foes | D |
| The animals long snouted | E |
| Would long ago have routed | E |
| And from the planet scouted | E |
| Their race as I suppose | D |
| - | |
| One year it did betide | E |
| When they were multiplied | E |
| An army took the field | E |
| Of rats with spear and shield | E |
| Whose crowded ranks led on | F |
| A king named Ratapon | F |
| The weasels too their banner | G |
| Unfurl'd in warlike manner | G |
| As Fame her trumpet sounds | H |
| The victory balanced well | I |
| Enrich'd were fallow grounds | H |
| Where slaughter'd legions fell | I |
| But by said trollop's tattle | J |
| The loss of life in battle | J |
| Thinn'd most the rattish race | K |
| In almost every place | K |
| And finally their rout | E |
| Was total spite of stout | E |
| Artarpax and Psicarpax | K |
| And valiant Meridarpax | K |
| Who cover'd o'er with dust | E |
| Long time sustain'd their host | E |
| Down sinking on the plain | F |
| Their efforts were in vain | F |
| Fate ruled that final hour | G |
| Inexorable power | G |
| And so the captains fled | E |
| As well as those they led | E |
| The princes perish'd all | L |
| The undistinguish'd small | L |
| In certain holes found shelter | G |
| In crowding helter skelter | G |
| But the nobility | E |
| Could not go in so free | E |
| Who proudly had assumed | E |
| Each one a helmet plumed | E |
| We know not truly whether | G |
| For honour's sake the feather | G |
| Or foes to strike with terror | G |
| But truly 'twas their error | G |
| Nor hole nor crack nor crevice | K |
| Will let their head gear in | F |
| While meaner rats in bevies | K |
| An easy passage win | F |
| So that the shafts of fate | E |
| Do chiefly hit the great | E |
| - | |
| A feather in the cap | M |
| Is oft a great mishap | M |
| An equipage too grand | E |
| Comes often to a stand | E |
| Within a narrow place | K |
| The small whate'er the case | K |
| With ease slip through a strait | E |
| Where larger folks must wait | E |
Jean De La Fontaine
(1)
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