The Swallow And The Little Birds.[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFFGHHGIIJKKJ LLMMNONPGGCCCCQPCCRP SSCCTTUUVVWAAWXXYYZA 2A2PCB2B2CC2C2D2D2 CCBy voyages in air | A |
With constant thought and care | A |
Much knowledge had a swallow gain'd | B |
Which she for public use retain'd | B |
The slightest storms she well foreknew | C |
And told the sailors ere they blew | D |
A farmer sowing hemp once having found | E |
She gather'd all the little birds around | E |
And said 'My friends the freedom let me take | F |
To prophesy a little for your sake | F |
Against this dangerous seed | G |
Though such a bird as I | H |
Knows how to hide or fly | H |
You birds a caution need | G |
See you that waving hand | I |
It scatters on the land | I |
What well may cause alarm | J |
'Twill grow to nets and snares | K |
To catch you unawares | K |
And work you fatal harm | J |
Great multitudes I fear | L |
Of you my birdies dear | L |
That falling seed so little | M |
Will bring to cage or kettle | M |
But though so perilous the plot | N |
You now may easily defeat it | O |
All lighting on the seeded spot | N |
Just scratch up every seed and eat it ' | P |
The little birds took little heed | G |
So fed were they with other seed | G |
Anon the field was seen | C |
Bedeck'd in tender green | C |
The swallow's warning voice was heard again | C |
'My friends the product of that deadly grain | C |
Seize now and pull it root by root | Q |
Or surely you'll repent its fruit ' | P |
'False babbling prophetess ' says one | C |
'You'd set us at some pretty fun | C |
To pull this field a thousand birds are needed | R |
While thousands more with hemp are seeded ' | P |
The crop now quite mature | S |
The swallow adds 'Thus far I've fail'd of cure | S |
I've prophesied in vain | C |
Against this fatal grain | C |
It's grown And now my bonny birds | T |
Though you have disbelieved my words | T |
Thus far take heed at last | U |
When you shall see the seed time past | U |
And men no crops to labour for | V |
On birds shall wage their cruel war | V |
With deadly net and noose | W |
Of flying then beware | A |
Unless you take the air | A |
Like woodcock crane or goose | W |
But stop you're not in plight | X |
For such adventurous flight | X |
O'er desert waves and sands | Y |
In search of other lands | Y |
Hence then to save your precious souls | Z |
Remaineth but to say | A2 |
'Twill be the safest way | A2 |
To chuck yourselves in holes ' | P |
Before she had thus far gone | C |
The birdlings tired of hearing | B2 |
And laughing more than fearing | B2 |
Set up a greater jargon | C |
Than did before the Trojan slaughter | C2 |
The Trojans round old Priam's daughter | C2 |
And many a bird in prison grate | D2 |
Lamented soon a Trojan fate | D2 |
- | |
'Tis thus we heed no instincts but our own | C |
Believe no evil till the evil's done | C |
Jean De La Fontaine
(1)
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