The Shepherd And The King Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEEE FFGHIIJ KLLKKMMNNOONNPPNQQNR RNNSLLSLLST NUVUUNN WNNNNNNNNNNNIIUUXXDY Z| A | |
| - | |
| Two demons at their pleasure share our being | B |
| The cause of Reason from her homestead fleeing | B |
| No heart but on their altars kindleth flames | C |
| If you demand their purposes and names | C |
| The one is Love the other is Ambition | D |
| Of far the greater share this takes possession | D |
| For even into love it enters | E |
| Which I might prove but now my story centres | E |
| Upon a shepherd clothed with lofty powers | E |
| The tale belongs to older times than ours | E |
| - | |
| A king observed a flock wide spread | F |
| Upon the plains most admirably fed | F |
| O'erpaying largely as return'd the years | G |
| Their shepherd's care by harvests for his shears | H |
| Such pleasure in this man the monarch took | I |
| 'Thou meritest ' said he 'to wield a crook | I |
| O'er higher flock than this and my esteem | J |
| O'er men now makes thee judge supreme ' | - |
| Behold our shepherd scales in hand | K |
| Although a hermit and a wolf or two | L |
| Besides his flock and dogs were all he knew | L |
| Well stock'd with sense all else upon demand | K |
| Would come of course and did we understand | K |
| His neighbour hermit came to him to say | M |
| 'Am I awake Is this no dream I pray | M |
| You favourite you great Beware of kings | N |
| Their favours are but slippery things | N |
| Dear bought to mount the heights to which they call | O |
| Is but to court a more illustrious fall | O |
| You little know to what this lure beguiles | N |
| My friend I say Beware ' The other smiles | N |
| The hermit adds 'See how | P |
| The court has marr'd your wisdom even now | P |
| That purblind traveller I seem to see | N |
| Who having lost his whip by strange mistake | Q |
| Took for a better one a snake | Q |
| But while he thank'd his stars brimful of glee | N |
| Outcried a passenger God shield your breast | R |
| Why man for life throw down that treacherous pest | R |
| That snake It is my whip A snake I say | N |
| What selfish end could prompt my warning pray | N |
| Think you to keep your prize And wherefore not | S |
| My whip was worn I've found another new | L |
| This counsel grave from envy springs in you | L |
| The stubborn wight would not believe a jot | S |
| Till warm and lithe the serpent grew | L |
| And striking with his venom slew | L |
| The man almost upon the spot | S |
| And as to you I dare predict | T |
| That something worse will soon afflict ' | - |
| 'Indeed What worse than death prophetic hermit ' | - |
| 'Perhaps the compound heartache I may term it ' | - |
| And never was there truer prophecy | N |
| Full many a courtier pest by many a lie | U |
| Contrived and many a cruel slander | V |
| To make the king suspect the judge awry | U |
| In both ability and candour | U |
| Cabals were raised and dark conspiracies | N |
| Of men that felt aggrieved by his decrees | N |
| 'With wealth of ours he hath a palace built ' | - |
| Said they The king astonish'd at his guilt | W |
| His ill got riches ask'd to see | N |
| He found but mediocrity | N |
| Bespeaking strictest honesty | N |
| So much for his magnificence | N |
| Anon his plunder was a hoard immense | N |
| Of precious stones that fill'd an iron box | N |
| All fast secur'd by half a score of locks | N |
| Himself the coffer oped and sad surprise | N |
| Befell those manufacturers of lies | N |
| The open'd lid disclosed no other matters | N |
| Than first a shepherd's suit in tatters | N |
| And then a cap and jacket pipe and crook | I |
| And scrip mayhap with pebbles from the brook | I |
| 'O treasure sweet ' said he 'that never drew | U |
| The viper brood of envy's lies on you | U |
| I take you back and leave this palace splendid | X |
| As some roused sleeper doth a dream that's ended | X |
| Forgive me sire this exclamation | D |
| In mounting up my fall I had foreseen | Y |
| Yet loved the height too well for who hath been | Z |
| Of mortal race devoid of all ambition ' | - |
Jean De La Fontaine
(1)
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