The Merchant, The Noble, The Shepherd, And The King's Son Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFFFFFFFFG GH FFFFEIJCFFK L LG MFFFFNNOOFFF FFFFPP DQQD| A | |
| - | |
| Four voyagers to parts unknown | B |
| On shore not far from naked thrown | B |
| By furious waves a merchant now undone | C |
| A noble shepherd and a monarch's son | C |
| Brought to the lot of Belisarius | D |
| Their wants supplied on alms precarious | D |
| To tell what fates and winds and weather | E |
| Had brought these mortals all together | E |
| Though from far distant points abscinded | F |
| Would make my tale long winded | F |
| Suffice to say that by a fountain met | F |
| In council grave these outcasts held debate | F |
| The prince enlarged in an oration set | F |
| Upon the mis'ries that befall the great | F |
| The shepherd deem'd it best to cast | F |
| Off thought of all misfortune past | F |
| And each to do the best he could | F |
| In efforts for the common weal | G |
| 'Did ever a repining mood ' | - |
| He added 'a misfortune heal | G |
| Toil friends will take us back to Rome | H |
| Or make us here as good a home ' | - |
| A shepherd so to speak a shepherd What | F |
| As though crown'd heads were not | F |
| By Heaven's appointment fit | F |
| The sole receptacles of wit | F |
| As though a shepherd could be deeper | E |
| In thought or knowledge than his sheep are | I |
| The three howe'er at once approved his plan | J |
| Wreck'd as they were on shores American | C |
| 'I'll teach arithmetic ' the merchant said | F |
| Its rules of course well seated in his head | F |
| 'For monthly pay ' The prince replied 'And I | K |
| Will teach political economy ' | - |
| 'And I ' the noble said 'in heraldry | L |
| Well versed will open for that branch a school ' | - |
| As if beyond a thousand leagues of sea | L |
| That senseless jargon could befool | G |
| 'My friends you talk like men ' | - |
| The shepherd cried 'but then | M |
| The month has thirty days till they are spent | F |
| Are we upon your faith to keep full Lent | F |
| The hope you give is truly good | F |
| But ere it comes we starve for food | F |
| Pray tell me if you can divine | N |
| On what to morrow we shall dine | N |
| Or tell me rather whence we may | O |
| Obtain a supper for to day | O |
| This point if truth should be confess'd | F |
| Is first and vital to the rest | F |
| Your science short in this respect | F |
| My hands shall cover the defect ' | - |
| This said the nearest woods he sought | F |
| And thence for market fagots brought | F |
| Whose price that day and eke the next | F |
| Relieved the company perplex'd | F |
| Forbidding that by fasting they should go | P |
| To use their talents in the world below | P |
| - | |
| We learn from this adventure's course | D |
| There needs but little skill to get a living | Q |
| Thanks to the gifts of Nature's giving | Q |
| Our hands are much the readiest resource | D |
Jean De La Fontaine
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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