Hiawatha's Photographing Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDE FFFCG HCFIF CFJFF CFCDDEKLLFEF JDDL MJJJFFJLMELLNDCCD ODCLPPP FDEJCC CDC DQQFF NJLLC L JD F JFFLCFR CFDL ACJLCLF LLCRFFFF FDFFLF FFLDDJJLDDLMLFLFLNA| From his shoulder Hiawatha | A |
| Took the camera of rosewood | B |
| Made of sliding folding rosewood | B |
| Neatly put it all together | C |
| In its case it lay compactly | D |
| Folded into nearly nothing | E |
| - | |
| But he opened out the hinges | F |
| Pushed and pulled the joints and hinges | F |
| Till it looked all squares and oblongs | F |
| Like a complicated figure | C |
| In the Second Book of Euclid | G |
| - | |
| This he perched upon a tripod | H |
| Crouched beneath its dusky cover | C |
| Stretched his hand enforcing silence | F |
| Said Be motionless I beg you | I |
| Mystic awful was the process | F |
| - | |
| All the family in order | C |
| Sat before him for their pictures | F |
| Each in turn as he was taken | J |
| Volunteered his own suggestions | F |
| His ingenious suggestions | F |
| - | |
| First the Governor the Father | C |
| He suggested velvet curtains | F |
| Looped about a massy pillar | C |
| And the corner of a table | D |
| Of a rosewood dining table | D |
| He would hold a scroll of something | E |
| Hold it firmly in his left hand | K |
| He would keep his right hand buried | L |
| Like Napoleon in his waistcoat | L |
| He would contemplate the distance | F |
| With a look of pensive meaning | E |
| As of ducks that die ill tempests | F |
| - | |
| Grand heroic was the notion | J |
| Yet the picture failed entirely | D |
| Failed because he moved a little | D |
| Moved because he couldn't help it | L |
| - | |
| Next his better half took courage | M |
| SHE would have her picture taken | J |
| She came dressed beyond description | J |
| Dressed in jewels and in satin | J |
| Far too gorgeous for an empress | F |
| Gracefully she sat down sideways | F |
| With a simper scarcely human | J |
| Holding in her hand a bouquet | L |
| Rather larger than a cabbage | M |
| All the while that she was sitting | E |
| Still the lady chattered chattered | L |
| Like a monkey in the forest | L |
| Am I sitting still she asked him | N |
| Is my face enough in profile | D |
| Shall I hold the bouquet higher | C |
| Will it came into the picture | C |
| And the picture failed completely | D |
| - | |
| Next the Son the Stunning Cantab | O |
| He suggested curves of beauty | D |
| Curves pervading all his figure | C |
| Which the eye might follow onward | L |
| Till they centered in the breast pin | P |
| Centered in the golden breast pin | P |
| He had learnt it all from Ruskin | P |
| Author of 'The Stones of Venice ' | - |
| 'Seven Lamps of Architecture ' | - |
| 'Modern Painters ' and some others | F |
| And perhaps he had not fully | D |
| Understood his author's meaning | E |
| But whatever was the reason | J |
| All was fruitless as the picture | C |
| Ended in an utter failure | C |
| - | |
| Next to him the eldest daughter | C |
| She suggested very little | D |
| Only asked if he would take her | C |
| With her look of 'passive beauty ' | - |
| - | |
| Her idea of passive beauty | D |
| Was a squinting of the left eye | Q |
| Was a drooping of the right eye | Q |
| Was a smile that went up sideways | F |
| To the corner of the nostrils | F |
| - | |
| Hiawatha when she asked him | N |
| Took no notice of the question | J |
| Looked as if he hadn't heard it | L |
| But when pointedly appealed to | L |
| Smiled in his peculiar manner | C |
| Coughed and said it 'didn't matter ' | - |
| Bit his lip and changed the subject | L |
| - | |
| Nor in this was he mistaken | J |
| As the picture failed completely | D |
| - | |
| So in turn the other sisters | F |
| - | |
| Last the youngest son was taken | J |
| Very rough and thick his hair was | F |
| Very round and red his face was | F |
| Very dusty was his jacket | L |
| Very fidgety his manner | C |
| And his overbearing sisters | F |
| Called him names he disapproved of | R |
| Called him Johnny 'Daddy's Darling ' | - |
| Called him Jacky 'Scrubby School boy ' | - |
| And so awful was the picture | C |
| In comparison the others | F |
| Seemed to one's bewildered fancy | D |
| To have partially succeeded | L |
| - | |
| Finally my Hiawatha | A |
| Tumbled all the tribe together | C |
| 'Grouped' is not the right expression | J |
| And as happy chance would have it | L |
| Did at last obtain a picture | C |
| Where the faces all succeeded | L |
| Each came out a perfect likeness | F |
| - | |
| Then they joined and all abused it | L |
| Unrestrainedly abused it | L |
| As the worst and ugliest picture | C |
| They could possibly have dreamed of | R |
| 'Giving one such strange expressions | F |
| Sullen stupid pert expressions | F |
| Really any one would take us | F |
| Any one that did not know us | F |
| For the most unpleasant people ' | - |
| Hiawatha seemed to think so | F |
| Seemed to think it not unlikely | D |
| All together rang their voices | F |
| Angry loud discordant voices | F |
| As of dogs that howl in concert | L |
| As of cats that wail in chorus | F |
| - | |
| But my Hiawatha's patience | F |
| His politeness and his patience | F |
| Unaccountably had vanished | L |
| And he left that happy party | D |
| Neither did he leave them slowly | D |
| With the calm deliberation | J |
| The intense deliberation | J |
| Of a photographic artist | L |
| But he left them in a hurry | D |
| Left them in a mighty hurry | D |
| Stating that he would not stand it | L |
| Stating in emphatic language | M |
| What he'd be before he'd stand it | L |
| Hurriedly he packed his boxes | F |
| Hurriedly the porter trundled | L |
| On a barrow all his boxes | F |
| Hurriedly he took his ticket | L |
| Hurriedly the train received him | N |
| Thus departed Hiawatha | A |
Lewis Carroll
(1)
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