The Magpie And Her Brood Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFGGHH IJIJKKLMMLLLLLNOOPPN LLQRRQSSTTUUVWLLXXYZ ZYKKA2A2B2B2C2D2E2C2 LLLGGL| From the Tales of Bonaventura des Periers Servant to Marguerite of Valois Queen of Navarre By HORACE LORD ORFORD | A |
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| How anxious is the pensive parents' thought | B |
| How blest the lot of fondlings early taught | B |
| Joy strings her hours on pleasure's golden twine | C |
| And fancy forms it to an endless line | C |
| But ah the charm must cease or soon or late | D |
| When chicks and misses rise to woman's state | D |
| The little tyrant grows in turn a slave | E |
| And feels the soft anxiety she gave | E |
| This truth my pretty friend an ancient sage | F |
| Who wrote in tale and legend many a page | F |
| Couch'd in that age's unaffected guise | G |
| When fables were the wisdom of the wise | G |
| To careless notes I've tuned his Gothic style | H |
| Content if you approve and LAURA smile | H |
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| Once on a time a magpie led | I |
| Her little family from home | J |
| To teach them how to win their bread | I |
| When she afar would roam | J |
| She pointed to each worm and fly | K |
| Inhabitants of earth and sky | K |
| Or where the beetle buzzed she called | L |
| But indications all were vain | M |
| They would not budge the urchin train | M |
| But cawed and cried and squalled | L |
| They wanted to return to nest | L |
| To nestle to mamma's warm breast | L |
| And thought that she should seek the meat | L |
| Which they were only born to eat | L |
| But Madge knew better things | N |
| My loves said she behold the plains | O |
| Where stores of food where plenty reigns | O |
| I was not half so big as you | P |
| When me my honoured mother drew | P |
| Forth to the groves and springs | N |
| She flew away before aright | L |
| I knew to read or knew to write | L |
| Yet I made shift to live | Q |
| So must you too come hop away | R |
| Get what you can steal what you may | R |
| For industry will thrive | Q |
| But bless us cried the peevish chits | S |
| Can babes like us live by our wits | S |
| With perils compassed round can we | T |
| Preserve our lives and liberty | T |
| Ah how escape the fowler's snare | U |
| And gard'ner with his gun in air | U |
| Who if we pilfer plums or pears | V |
| Will scatter lead about our ears | W |
| And you would drop a mournful head | L |
| To see your little pies lie dead | L |
| My dears she said and kissed their bills | X |
| The wise by foresight baffle ills | X |
| A wise descent you claim | Y |
| To bang a gun off takes some time | Z |
| A man must load a man must prime | Z |
| A man must take an aim | Y |
| He lifts the tube he shuts one eye | K |
| 'Twill then be time enough to fly | K |
| You out of reach may laugh and chatter | A2 |
| To cheat a man is no great matter | A2 |
| Ay but But what Why if the clown | B2 |
| Should take a stone to knock us down | B2 |
| Why if he do you flats | C2 |
| Must he not stoop to raise the stone | D2 |
| The stooping warns you to be gone | E2 |
| Birds are not killed like cats | C2 |
| But dear mamma we yet are scared | L |
| The rogue you know may come prepared | L |
| A big stone in his fist | L |
| Indeed my darlings Madge replies | G |
| If you already are so wise | G |
| Go cater where you list | L |
John Gay
(1)
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