The Golden Pitcher Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEEFFGGDH IJKKBBDDLLGGMMAANNOO PPQQA RRSSCCTTNN| A father once whose sons were two | A |
| For each a gift had much ado | A |
| At last upon this course he fell | B |
| 'My sons ' said he 'within our well | B |
| Two treasures lodge as I am told | C |
| The one a sunken piece of gold | C |
| A bowl it may be or a pitcher | D |
| The other is a thing far richer | D |
| These treasures if you can but find | E |
| Each may be suited to his mind | E |
| For both are precious in their kind | E |
| To gain the one you'll need a hook | F |
| The other will but cost a look | F |
| But O of this I pray beware | G |
| You who may choose the tempting share | G |
| Too eager fishing for the pitcher | D |
| May ruin that which is far richer ' | H |
| - | |
| Out ran the boys their gifts to draw | I |
| But eagerness was check'd with awe | J |
| How could there be a richer prize | K |
| Than solid gold beneath the skies | K |
| Or if there could how could it dwell | B |
| Within their own old mossy well | B |
| Were questions which excited wonder | D |
| And kept their headlong av'rice under | D |
| The golden cup each fear'd to choose | L |
| Lest he the better gift should lose | L |
| And so resolved our prudent pair | G |
| The gifts in common they would share | G |
| The well was open to the sky | M |
| As o'er its curb they keenly pry | M |
| It seems a tunnel piercing through | A |
| From sky to sky from blue to blue | A |
| And at its nether mouth each sees | N |
| A brace of their antipodes | N |
| With earnest faces peering up | O |
| As if themselves might seek the cup | O |
| 'Ha ' said the elder with a laugh | P |
| 'We need not share it by the half | P |
| The mystery is clear to me | Q |
| That richer gift to all is free | Q |
| Be only as that water true | A |
| And then the whole belongs to you ' | - |
| - | |
| That truth itself was worth so much | R |
| It cannot be supposed that such | R |
| A pair of lads were satisfied | S |
| And yet they were before they died | S |
| But whether they fish'd up the gold | C |
| I'm sure I never have been told | C |
| Thus much they learn'd I take for granted | T |
| And that was what their father wanted | T |
| If truth for wealth we sacrifice | N |
| We throw away the richer prize | N |
Jean De La Fontaine
(3)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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