The Rabbits Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CCDCCDEEFGGFHIBBBBII JJKKLLMMHMIBBBBNN HDDOPPQQ RRSSJEEJTTTDDBBBBUVU VWWWBBBBBBXYZZA2A2B2 B2C2KC2KKD2KD2A | |
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An Address To The Duke De La Rochefoucauld | B |
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While watching man in all his phases | C |
And seeing that in many cases | C |
He acts just like the brute creation | D |
I've thought the lord of all these races | C |
Of no less failings show'd the traces | C |
Than do his lieges in relation | D |
And that in making it Dame Nature | E |
Hath put a spice in every creature | E |
From off the self same spirit stuff | F |
Not from the immaterial | G |
But what we call ethereal | G |
Refined from matter rough | F |
An illustration please to hear | H |
Just on the still frontier | I |
Of either day or night | B |
Or when the lord of light | B |
Reclines his radiant head | B |
Upon his watery bed | B |
Or when he dons the gear | I |
To drive a new career | I |
While yet with doubtful sway | J |
The hour is ruled 'twixt night and day | J |
Some border forest tree I climb | K |
And acting Jove from height sublime | K |
My fatal bolt at will directing | L |
I kill some rabbit unsuspecting | L |
The rest that frolick'd on the heath | M |
Or browsed the thyme with dainty teeth | M |
With open eye and watchful ear | H |
Behold all scampering from beneath | M |
Instinct with mortal fear | I |
All frighten'd simply by the sound | B |
Hie to their city underground | B |
But soon the danger is forgot | B |
And just as soon the fear lives not | B |
The rabbits gayer than before | N |
I see beneath my hand once more | N |
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Are not mankind well pictured here | H |
By storms asunder driven | D |
They scarcely reach their haven | D |
And cast their anchor ere | O |
They tempt the same dread shocks | P |
Of tempests waves and rocks | P |
True rabbits back they frisk | Q |
To meet the self same risk | Q |
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I add another common case | R |
When dogs pass through a place | R |
Beyond their customary bounds | S |
And meet with others curs or hounds | S |
Imagine what a holiday | J |
The native dogs whose interests centre | E |
In one great organ term'd the venter | E |
The strangers rush at bite and bay | J |
With cynic pertness tease and worry | T |
And chase them off their territory | T |
So too do men Wealth grandeur glory | T |
To men of office or profession | D |
Of every sort in every nation | D |
As tempting are and sweet | B |
As is to dogs the refuse meat | B |
With us it is a general fact | B |
One sees the latest come attack'd | B |
And plunder'd to the skin | U |
Coquettes and authors we may view | V |
As samples of the sin | U |
For woe to belle or writer new | V |
The fewer eaters round the cake | W |
The fewer players for the stake | W |
The surer each one's self to take | W |
A hundred facts my truth might test | B |
But shortest works are always best | B |
In this I but pursue the chart | B |
Laid down by masters of the art | B |
And on the best of themes I hold | B |
The truth should never all be told | B |
Hence here my sermon ought to close | X |
O thou to whom my fable owes | Y |
Whate'er it has of solid worth | Z |
Who great by modesty as well as birth | Z |
Hast ever counted praise a pain | A2 |
Whose leave I could so ill obtain | A2 |
That here your name receiving homage | B2 |
Should save from every sort of damage | B2 |
My slender works which name well known | C2 |
To nations and to ancient Time | K |
All France delights to own | C2 |
Herself more rich in names sublime | K |
Than any other earthly clime | K |
Permit me here the world to teach | D2 |
That you have given my simple rhyme | K |
The text from which it dares to preach | D2 |
Jean De La Fontaine
(1)
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