The Birds And St. Valentine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC D BBEEFFGGHH IIJJKKLMHHNNBBFFOOBB PPQQ RRSSTTOO UVBBWWXY ZZA2A2B2B2C2C2BBD2E2 F2F2G2G2HH H2H2I2I2J2J2BBK2K2F2 F2L2H BBEEM2M2G2G2N2N2 F2F2G2G2K2K2 O2P2Q2R2G2G2 G2G2F2F2G2G2 D2S2F2F2 OOT2T2 EEPPG2G2 G2G2G2G2G2G2A2A2 PPOOG2G2 G2G2G2G2U2V2W2W2UUSorrow came with downcast eyes | A |
And stole the lyre of love away | B |
VAN DYK | C |
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From ACKERMANN'S Juvenile Forget me not | D |
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Some two or three weeks before Valentine's day | B |
Sir Winter grew kind and minded to play | B |
Shook hands with Miss Flora and woo'd her to spare | E |
A few pretty snowdrops to stick in his hair | E |
Intending for truth as he said to resign | F |
His throne to Miss Spring and her priest Valentine | F |
Which trifle he asked for before he set forth | G |
To remind him of all when he got in the North | G |
And this is the reason that snowdrops appear | H |
'Mid the cold of the Winter so soon in the year | H |
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Flora complied and the instant she heard | I |
Flew away with the news to each bachelor bird | I |
Who in raptures half moved on Love's errand to start | J |
Their songs muttered over to get them by heart | J |
Nay the Mavis at once sung aloud in his glee | K |
And looked for a spot where love's dwelling should be | K |
And ever since then both in garden and grove | L |
The Mavis tunes first a short ditty to love | M |
While all the young gentlemen birds that were near | H |
Fell to trimming their jackets anew for the year | H |
One and all they determined to seek for a mate | N |
And thought it a folly for seasons to wait | N |
So even agreed before Valentine's day | B |
To join hearts in love but the ladies said Nay | B |
Yet each one consented at once to resign | F |
Her heart unto Hymen on St Valentine | F |
While Winter who only pretended to go | O |
Lapt himself out of sight in some hillocks of snow | O |
That behind all the rest 'neath the wood hedges lay | B |
So close that the sun could not drive them away | B |
Yet the gentlemen birds on their love errands flew | P |
Thinking all Flora told them was nothing but true | P |
Till out Winter came and his frowns in a trice | Q |
Turned the lady birds' hearts all as hardened as ice | Q |
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In vain might the gentles in love sue and plead | R |
They heard but not once did they notice or heed | R |
From Winter they crept who in tyranny proud | S |
Yoked his horses of storms to his coach of a cloud | S |
For on Valentine's morn he was raving so high | T |
Lady Spring for the life of her durst not come nigh | T |
While Flora's gay feet were so numbed with the snow | O |
That she could not put on her best slippers to go | O |
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Then the Spring she fell ill and her health to regain | U |
On a sunbeam rode back to her South once again | V |
And as both were the bridesmaids their teasing delay | B |
Made the lady birds put off their weddings till May | B |
Some sighed their excuses and feared to catch cold | W |
And the Redcap in mantle all bordered with gold | W |
Sore feared that the weather would spoil her fine clothes | X |
And nought but complaints through the forest arose | Y |
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So St Valentine came on his journey alone | Z |
In the coach of the Morn for he'd none of his own | Z |
And put on his cassock and band and went in | A2 |
To the temple of Hymen the rites to begin | A2 |
Where the Mavis Thrush waited along with his bride | B2 |
Nor in the whole place was a lady beside | B2 |
The gentlemen they came alone to the saint | C2 |
And instead of being married each made a complaint | C2 |
Of Sir Winter whose folly had caused the delay | B |
And forced Love to put off the wedding till May | B |
So the priest shook his head and unrobed to be gone | D2 |
As he had no day for his leisure but one | E2 |
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And when the May came with Miss Flora and Spring | F2 |
They had nought but old cares and new sorrows to sing | F2 |
For some of the lady birds ceased to be kind | G2 |
To their old loves and changed for new comers their mind | G2 |
And some had resolved to keep single that year | H |
Until St Valentine with the next should appear | H |
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The birds sung their sorrows the whole Summer long | H2 |
And the Robin first mixed up his ills with his song | H2 |
He sung of his griefs how in love he'd been crossed | I2 |
And gave up his heart as eternally lost | I2 |
'T was burnt to a coal as sly Cupid let fall | J2 |
A spark that scorched through both the feathers and all | J2 |
To cure it Time tried but ne'er found out the way | B |
So the mark on his bosom he wears to this day | B |
And when birds are all silent and not a leaf seen | K2 |
On the trees but the ivy and holly so green | K2 |
In frost and in snow little Robin will sing | F2 |
To put off the sorrow that ruffles his wing | F2 |
And that is the cause in our gardens we hear | L2 |
The Robin's sweet note at the close of the year | H |
- | |
The Wagtail too mourned in his doublet of grey | B |
As if powdered with rime on a dull winter's day | B |
He twittered of love how he courted a fair | E |
Who altered her mind and so made him despair | E |
In a stone pit he chose her a place for a nest | M2 |
But she like a wanton but made it a jest | M2 |
Though he dabbled in brooks to convince her how kind | G2 |
He would feed her with worms which he laboured to find | G2 |
Till he e'en got the ague still nought could prevail | N2 |
So ever since then he's been wagging his tail | N2 |
- | |
In the whitethorn the Linnet bides lonely to sing | F2 |
How his lady love shunned his embraces in Spring | F2 |
Though he found out a bush that the sun had half drest | G2 |
With leaves quite sufficient to shelter their nest | G2 |
And yet she forsook him no more to be seen | K2 |
So that is the reason he dresses in green | K2 |
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Then aloud in his grief sings the gay speckled Thrush | O2 |
That changes his music on every bush | P2 |
My love she has left me to sorrow and mourn | Q2 |
Yet I hope in my heart she'll repent and return | R2 |
So he tries at all notes her approval to meet | G2 |
And that is the reason he singeth so sweet | G2 |
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And as sweet sang the Bullfinch although he confest | G2 |
That the anguish he felt was more deep than the rest | G2 |
And they all marvelled much how he'd spirits to sing | F2 |
When to show them his anguish he held up his wing | F2 |
From his throat to his tail not a feather was found | G2 |
But what had been stained red with blood from the wound | G2 |
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And sad chirped the Sparrow of joys fled and gone | D2 |
Of his love being lost he so doted upon | S2 |
So he vowed constant silence for that very thing | F2 |
And this is the reason why Sparrows don't sing | F2 |
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Then next came the Rook and the sorrowful Crow | O |
To tell birds the cause why in mourning they go | O |
Ever since their old loves their embraces forsook | T2 |
And all seemed to pity the Crow and the Rook | T2 |
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The Jay he affected to hide his despair | E |
And rather than mourn he had spirits to wear | E |
A coat of all colours but in it some blue | P |
Denoted his passion though crossed 't was true | P |
So now in lone woods he will hide him all day | G2 |
And aloud he scolds all that intrude in his way | G2 |
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The Magpie declared it should never be said | G2 |
That he mourned for a lover though fifty had fled | G2 |
Yet his heart all the while was so burnt and distrest | G2 |
That it turned all the feathers coal black on his breast | G2 |
The birds they all marvelled but still he denied | G2 |
And wore a black cap his deep blushes to hide | G2 |
So that is the reason himself and his kin | A2 |
Wear hoods with the lappets quite under the chin | A2 |
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Then last came the Owl grieving loud as he flew | P |
Saying how his false lover had bade him adieu | P |
And though he knew not where to find her or follow | O |
Yet round their old haunts he would still whoop and halloo | O |
For no sleep could he get in his sorrowful plight | G2 |
So that is the reason Owls halloo at night | G2 |
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And here ends the song of each woe stricken bird | G2 |
Now was a more pitiful story e'er heard | G2 |
The rest were all coupled and happy and they | G2 |
Sung the old merry songs which they sing at this day | G2 |
And good little boys when this tale they read o'er | U2 |
Will ne'er have the heart to hurt birds any more | V2 |
And add to the griefs they already have sung | W2 |
By robbing their nests of their eggs and their young | W2 |
But feel for their sufferings and pity their pain | U |
Nor give them new cause of their lot to complain | U |
John Clare
(1)
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