The Fagot[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDDEEFGHHEEIIJJEEEE EEKKEEEEEEEELLMMNNOO EEPQRSTTUUVW| Written in the year when the Queen's ministers were quarrelling among themselves | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| Observe the dying father speak | B |
| Try lads can you this bundle break | C |
| Then bids the youngest of the six | D |
| Take up a well bound heap of sticks | D |
| They thought it was an old man's maggot | E |
| And strove by turns to break the fagot | E |
| In vain the complicated wands | F |
| Were much too strong for all their hands | G |
| See said the sire how soon 'tis done | H |
| Then took and broke them one by one | H |
| So strong you'll be in friendship ty'd | E |
| So quickly broke if you divide | E |
| Keep close then boys and never quarrel | I |
| Here ends the fable and the moral | I |
| This tale may be applied in few words | J |
| To treasurers comptrollers stewards | J |
| And others who in solemn sort | E |
| Appear with slender wands at court | E |
| Not firmly join'd to keep their ground | E |
| But lashing one another round | E |
| While wise men think they ought to fight | E |
| With quarterstaffs instead of white | E |
| Or constable with staff of peace | K |
| Should come and make the clatt'ring cease | K |
| Which now disturbs the queen and court | E |
| And gives the Whigs and rabble sport | E |
| In history we never found | E |
| The consul's fasces were unbound | E |
| Those Romans were too wise to think on't | E |
| Except to lash some grand delinquent | E |
| How would they blush to hear it said | E |
| The praetor broke the consul's head | E |
| Or consul in his purple gown | L |
| Came up and knock'd the praetor down | L |
| Come courtiers every man his stick | M |
| Lord treasurer for once be quick | M |
| And that they may the closer cling | N |
| Take your blue ribbon for a string | N |
| Come trimming Harcourt bring your mace | O |
| And squeeze it in or quit your place | O |
| Dispatch or else that rascal Northey | E |
| Will undertake to do it for thee | E |
| And be assured the court will find him | P |
| Prepared to leap o'er sticks or bind them | Q |
| To make the bundle strong and safe | R |
| Great Ormond lend thy general's staff | S |
| And if the crosier could be cramm'd in | T |
| A fig for Lechmere King and Hambden | T |
| You'll then defy the strongest Whig | U |
| With both his hands to bend a twig | U |
| Though with united strength they all pull | V |
| From Somers down to Craggs and Walpole | W |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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