Mutatis Mutandis Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBBDEEDFGDFGD H I JKKJLCCLCMNBON H F JDDJDAADPAQNAN R L JJJJJMMJJMNJMN R N JAAJNJJNRJJ JJ R N JMMJNRRNDAMDAM R M ARRADMMDNDSNDS R D JNNJJMMJDDDDD J J JTTJADDARNDRND J U JJJJR N MRDMRD R R MDDMJDDJDNDDND J R MRRMMDDMDDRDDR J L JNNJEEEEMMNMMN R J NMMNNMMNDMED E R J ENNENMMNRNERNE R N RNNRNNNNDJNDJN R R JMMJNNNNMTUMTS R N JDDJMDDMEDJEDJ J N MRRME ENMJNMJ J N JMMJDJJDNDJNDJThe Fool | A |
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Here is a tale for children and their grannies | B |
There was a fool a man who'd had his chances | C |
But missed them somehow lost them just for fancies | B |
Tag ends of things with which he'd crammed crannies | B |
Of his cracked head as panes are crammed with paper | D |
Fragments of song and bits of worthless writing | E |
Which he was never weary of reciting | E |
Fluttered his mind as night a windy taper | D |
A witless fool who lived in some fair Venice | F |
Of his own building where he dreamed of Beauty | G |
Who swore each weed a flower the sorry pauper | D |
This would not do Men said he was a menace | F |
To all mankind and as it was their duty | G |
Clapped him in prison where he died as proper | D |
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II | H |
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The Scarecrow | I |
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Here is a tale for prelates and for parsons | J |
There was a scarecrow once a thing of tatters | K |
And sticks and straw to whom men trusted matters | K |
Of weighty moment murders thefts and arsons | J |
None saw he was a scarecrow Every worship | L |
And honour his Men set him in high places | C |
And ladies primped their bodies tinged their faces | C |
And kneeled to him as slaves to some great Sirship | L |
One night a storm none knew it blew to pieces | C |
Our jackstraw friend and the sweet air of heaven | M |
Knew him no more and was no longer tainted | N |
Then learned doctors put him in their theses | B |
The State set up his statue and thought even | O |
As thought the Church perhaps he should be sainted | N |
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III | H |
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Service | F |
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Here is a tale for proper men and virgins | J |
There was a woman once who had a daughter | D |
A fair faced wench as stable as is water | D |
And frailer than the first spring flower that burgeons | J |
She did not need to work but then her mother | D |
Thought it more suitable and circumspectly | A |
Put her with gentlefolks where indirectly | A |
She rose in service as has many another | D |
The house she served in soon became divided | P |
The wife and husband parted with some scandal | A |
But she remained and in the end was married | Q |
What happened then You'll say 'The girl decided | N |
She loved another 'Nay not so The vandal | A |
Wrecked no more homes but lived a life unvaried | N |
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IV | R |
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The Ape | L |
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Here is a tale for maidens and for mothers | J |
There was an ape a very prince of monkeys | J |
Who capered in the world of fools and flunkies | J |
The envy of his set and of all others | J |
He was the handbook of all social manners | J |
The beau of beaux and simian glass of fashion | M |
To whom all folly functioned played at passion | M |
And matrimony waved beleaguering banners | J |
A girl of girls one God had given graces | J |
And beauty more than oft He grants to human | M |
Captured the creature and they were united | N |
And strange to say she loved him Saw no traces | J |
Of ape in him And like a very woman | M |
Reformed her countenance and was delighted | N |
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V | R |
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The Pessimist | N |
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Here is a tale for uncles and old aunties | J |
There was a man once who denied the Devil | A |
Yet in the world saw nothing else but evil | A |
A pessimist with face as sour as Dante's | J |
Still people praised him men he loathed and hated | N |
And cursed beneath his breath for wretched sinners | J |
While still he drank with them and ate their dinners | J |
And listened to their talk and tolerated | N |
At last he wrote a book full of invective | R |
And vile abuse of earth and all its nations | J |
Denying God and Devil Heaven and Hades | J |
Fame followed this 'His was the right perspective ' | - |
'A great philosopher ' He lost all patience | J |
But still went out to dine with Lords and Ladies | J |
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VI | R |
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An Incident | N |
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Here is a tale for men and women teachers | J |
There was a girl who'd ceased to be a maiden | M |
Who walked by night with heart like Lilith's laden | M |
A child of sin anathemaed of preachers | J |
She had been lovely once but dye and scarlet | N |
On hair and face had ravaged all her beauty | R |
Only her eyes still did her girl soul duty | R |
Showing the hell that hounded her poor harlot | N |
One day a fisherman from out the river | D |
Fished her pale body like a branch of willlow | A |
Or golden weed self murdered drowned and broken | M |
The sight of it had made a strong man shiver | D |
And on her poor breast as upon a pillow | A |
A picture smiled a baby's like some token | M |
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VII | R |
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Vindication | M |
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Here is a tale for gossips and chaste people | A |
There lived a woman once a straight laced lady | R |
Whose only love was slander Nothing shady | R |
Escaped her vulture eye Like some prim steeple | A |
Her course of life pointed to Heaven ever | D |
And woe unto the sinner girl or woman | M |
Whom love undid She was their fiercest foeman | M |
No circumstance excused Misfortune never | D |
As she had lived she died The mourners gathered | N |
Parson and preacher this one and another | D |
And many gossips of most proper carriage | S |
Her will was read And then a child was fathered | N |
Fat Lechery had his day She'd been a mother | D |
A man was heir There'd never been a marriage | S |
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VIII | R |
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Treasure | D |
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Here is a tale for infants and old nurses | J |
There was a man who gathered rags and peddled | N |
Who lived alone with no one ever meddled | N |
And this old man was very fond of verses | J |
His house a ruin so the tale rehearses | J |
A hovel over run of rats and vermin | M |
Not fit for beast to live in Like a sermon | M |
Embodying misery and hell and curses | J |
There one grey dawn of rain and windy weather | D |
They found him dead starved o'er a written paper | D |
Beside a dim and half expiring taper | D |
It was a play the poor fool'd put together | D |
Of gnomes and fairies for his own sad pleasure | D |
And folks destroyed it saying 'We seek for treasure ' | - |
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IX | J |
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The Ass | J |
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Here is a tale for artists and for writers | J |
There was an ass in other words a critic | T |
Who brayed and balked and kicked most analytic | T |
And waved long ears above his brother smiters | J |
He could not tell a rose tree from a thistle | A |
But oft mistook the one thing for the other | D |
Then wagged his ears most wisely at some brother | D |
Sent him his he haw for the Penny Whistle | A |
A poet sent his volume to him' kindly | R |
Asking for criticism You might know it | N |
He made one mouthful of it weed and flower | D |
There rose a cry that he had done it blindly | R |
'Twas poetry What would he kill a poet | N |
Not he The ass had brayed him into power | D |
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X | J |
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The Cabbage | U |
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Here is a tale for any one who wishes | J |
There grew a cabbage once among the flowers | J |
A plain broad cabbage a good wench whose hours | J |
Were kitchen busy with plebeian dishes | J |
The rose and lily toilless without mottle | R |
Patricians born despised her 'How unpleasant ' | - |
They cried 'What odour Worse than any peasant | N |
Who soils God's air Give us our smelling bottle ' | - |
There came a gentleman who owned the garden | M |
Looking about him at both flower and edible | R |
Admiring here and there a simple sinner | D |
Who sought some bud to be his heart's sweet warden | M |
But passed the flowers and took it seems incredible | R |
That cabbage But a man must have his dinner | D |
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XI | R |
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The Criminal | R |
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Here is a tale for all who wish to listen | M |
There was a thief who in his cut throat quarter | D |
Was hailed as chief he had a way of barter | D |
Persuasion masked behind a weapon's glisten | M |
That made it cockrow with each good man's riches | J |
At last he joined the Brotherhood of Murder | D |
And rose in his profession lived a herder | D |
Of crime in some dark tavern of the ditches | J |
There was a war He went Became a gunner | D |
And slew as soldiers should his many a hundred | N |
In authorized and most professional manner | D |
Here he advanced again Was starred a oner | D |
Was captained pensioned and nobody wondered | N |
And lived and died respectable as a tanner | D |
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XII | J |
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Death And The Fool | R |
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Here is a tale for any man or woman | M |
A fool sought Death and braved him with his bauble | R |
Among the graves At last he heard a hobble | R |
And something passed him monstrous super human | M |
And by a tomb that reared a broken column | M |
He heard it stop And then Gargantuan laughter | D |
Shattered the hush Deep silence followed after | D |
Filled with the stir of bones cadaverous solemn | M |
Then said the fool 'Come show thyself old prancer | D |
I'll have a bout with thee I too can clatter | D |
My wand and motley Come now Death and Folly | R |
See who's the better man ' There was no answer | D |
Only his bauble broke a serious matter | D |
To the poor fool who died of melancholy | R |
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XIII | J |
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The Bagpipe | L |
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Here is a tale for poets and for players | J |
There was a bagpipe once that wheezed and whistled | N |
And droned vile discords notes that fairly bristled | N |
Nasal and harsh outbraying all the brayers | J |
And then the thing assumed another bearing | E |
Boasted itself an organ of God's making | E |
A world enduring instrument Earth shaking | E |
Greater than any organ more sky daring | E |
To prove which lo upon an elevation | M |
It pranced and blew to its own satisfaction | M |
Until 'twas heard from Key West far as Fundy | N |
But while it piped some schoolboy took occasion | M |
There was a blow a sudden sharp impaction | M |
The wind bag burst Sic transit gloria mundi | N |
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XIV | R |
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The Ox | J |
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Here is a tale for farmer and for peasant | N |
There was an ox who might have ploughed for Jason | M |
So strong was he his huge head like a bason | M |
A Gothic helmet with enormous crescent | N |
Stolid of look and slow of hoof and steady | N |
Meek was the beast and born but to be driven | M |
Unmindful of the yoke which toil had given | M |
Toil with his goad and lash for ever ready | N |
One day a bull who was the bullock's neighbor | D |
Proud as a sultan haremed with his women | M |
Lowed to the ox who had received a beating | E |
'You are a fool What have you for your labour | D |
Blows and bad food Go to Why don't you show men ' | - |
The ox was but an ox and went on eating | E |
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XV | R |
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The Goose | J |
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Here is a tale for spinsters at their sewing | E |
There was a goose a little gosling surely | N |
Who went her goose girl way and looked demurely | N |
As every goose should when 'tis wise and knowing | E |
Proper was she as every gosling should be | N |
And innocent as Margarete or Gretchen | M |
And did her duty in the house and kitchen | M |
And like a goose was happy as she could be | N |
Smug was she with a sleek and dove like dimple | R |
Great gooseberry eyes and cheeks out of the dairy | N |
A goose aye just a goose a little dumb thing | E |
One day the goose was gone The tale is simple | R |
She had eloped 'Twas nothing ordinary | N |
A married man with children That was something | E |
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XVI | R |
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The Beast | N |
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Here is a tale for sportsmen when at table | R |
There was a boar like that Atalanta hunted | N |
Who gorged and snored and unmolested grunted | N |
His fat way through the world as such able | R |
Huge jowled and paunched and porcine limbed and marrowed | N |
King of his kind deep in his lair he squatted | N |
And round him fames of many maidens rotted | N |
Where Licence whelped and Lust her monsters farrowed | N |
There came a damsel like the one in Spenser | D |
A Britomart as sorcerous as Circe | J |
Who pierced him with a tract her spear and ended | N |
The beast's career Made him a man a censor | D |
Of public morals arbiter of mercy | J |
And led him by the nose and called him splendid | N |
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XVII | R |
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The Owl | R |
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Here is a tale for ladies with romances | J |
There was an owl composer and musician | M |
Who looked as wise as if he had a mission | M |
And at all art cast supercilious glances | J |
People proclaimed him great because he said it | N |
And like the great he never played nor printed | N |
His compositions 'though 'twas whispered hinted | N |
He'd written something but no one had read it | N |
Owl eyed he posed at functions of position | M |
Hirsute and eye glassed looking analytic | T |
Opening his mouth to worshipping female knowledge | U |
And then he married A woman of ambition | M |
A singer teacher and a musical critic | T |
Just what he wanted He became a college | S |
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XVIII | R |
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The Toad | N |
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Here is a tale to tell to rich relations | J |
There was a toad a Calibanic monster | D |
In whose squat head ambition had ensconced her | D |
Most bloated jewel dear to highest stations | J |
He was received though mottled as a lichen | M |
In coat and character because the creature | D |
Croaked as the devil prompted him or nature | D |
And said the right thing both in hall and kitchen | M |
To each he sang according to their liking | E |
And purred his flattery in the ear of Leisure | D |
Cringing attendance on the proud and wealthy | J |
One day a crane with features of a Viking | E |
Swallowed him whole and did it with great pleasure | D |
His system needed such toads kept him healthy | J |
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XIX | J |
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The Cricket | N |
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Here is a tale for those who sing with reason | M |
There was a cricket troubadouring fellow | R |
Who chirped his lay or zoomed it like a 'cello | R |
Day in day out no matter what the season | M |
Great was his love for his own violining | E |
He never wearied saying 'What performing ' | - |
And oft when through would ask 'Was not that charming ' | - |
Then play it over right from the beginning | E |
A talent such as his should be rewarded | N |
So thought he all unconscious of intention | M |
Of any one among the violin sects | J |
Until by some one lo he was regarded | N |
Lifted examined given special mention | M |
And placed within a case with other insects | J |
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XX | J |
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The Torrent | N |
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Here is a tale for workmen and their masters | J |
There was a torrent once that down a mountain | M |
Flashed its resistless way a foaming fountain | M |
Basaltic built 'twixt cataract hewn pilasters | J |
Down from its eagle eyrie nearer nearer | D |
Its savage beauty born mid rocks and cedars | J |
Swept free as tempest wild as mountain leaders | J |
Of stars and storms the swiftly moving mirror | D |
Men found it out and set to work to tame it | N |
Put it to pounding rock and rafting lumber | D |
Made it a carrier of the filth of cities | J |
Harnessed its joy to engines tried to shame it | N |
Saying 'Be civilized ' and piled their cumber | D |
Upon it bound it God of all the Pities | J |
Madison Julius Cawein
(1)
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