An Only Child's Tea-party. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBAACCDD AAEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMM DDNNOOPPP| When I go to tea with the little Smiths there are eight of them there but there's only one of me | A |
| Which makes it not so easy to have a fancy tea party as if there were two or three | A |
| I had a tea party on my birthday but Joe Smith says it can't have been a regular one | B |
| Because as to a tea party with only one teacup and no teapot sugar basin cream jug or slop basin he never heard of such a thing under the sun | B |
| But it was a very big teacup and quite full of milk and water and you see | A |
| There wasn't anybody there who could really drink milk and water except Towser and me | A |
| The dolls can only pretend and then it washes the paint off their lips | C |
| And what Charles the canary drinks isn't worth speaking of for he takes such very small sips | C |
| Joe says a kitchen chair isn't a table but it has got four legs and a top so it would be if the back wasn't there | D |
| And that does for Charles to perch on and I have to put the Prince of Wales to lean against it because his legs have no joints to sit on a chair | D |
| - | |
| That's the small doll I call him the Prince of Wales because he's the eldest son you see | A |
| For I've taken him for my brother and he was Mother's doll before I was born so of course he is older than me | A |
| Towser is my real live brother but I don't think he's as old as the Prince of Wales | E |
| He's a perfect darling though he whisks everything over he comes near and I tell him I don't know what we should do if we all had tails | E |
| His hair curls like mine in front and grows short like a lion behind but no one need be frightened for he's as good as good | F |
| And as to roaring like a real menagerie lion or eating people up I don't believe he would if he could | F |
| He has his tea out of the saucer after I've had mine out of the cup | G |
| You see I am sure to leave some for him but if I let him begin first he would drink it all up | G |
| The big doll Godmamma gave me this birthday and the chair she gave me the year before | H |
| I haven't many toys but I take great care of them and every birthday I shall have more and more | H |
| You've no idea what a beautiful doll she is and when I pinch her in the middle she can squeak | I |
| It quite frightened Towser for he didn't know that any of us but he and I and Charles were able to speak | I |
| I've taken her for my only sister for of course I may take anybody I choose | J |
| I've called her Cinderella because I'm so fond of the story and because she's got real shoes | J |
| I don't feel so only now there are so many of us for counting Cinderella there are five | K |
| She and I and Towser and Charles and the Prince of Wales and three of us are really alive | K |
| And four of us can speak and I'm sure the Prince of Wales is wonderful for his size | L |
| For his things at least he's only got one thing take off and on and though he's nothing but wood he's got real glass eyes | L |
| And perhaps in three birthdays more there may be as many of us as the Smiths for five and three make eight | M |
| I shall be seven years old then as old as Joe but I don't like to think too much of it it's so long to wait | M |
| And after all I don't know that I want any more of us I think I'd rather my sister had a chair | D |
| Like mine and the next year I should like a collar for Towser if it wouldn't rub off his hair | D |
| And it would be very nice if the Prince of Wales could be dressed like a Field marshal for he's got nothing on his legs | N |
| And Cinderella's beautifully dressed and Towser looks quite as if he'd got a fur coat on when he begs | N |
| Joe says it's perfectly absurd and that I can't take a Pomeranian in earnest for my brother | O |
| But I don't think he really and truly knows how much Towser and I love each other | O |
| I didn't like his saying Well there's one thing about your lot you can always have your own way | P |
| And then he says You can't possibly have fun with four people when you have to pretend what they say | P |
| But whatever he says I don't believe I shall ever enjoy a tea party more than the one that we had on that day | P |
Juliana Horatia Ewing
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