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