Peter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCD EFFGH IJJKL GGKGM NLLKG OMMLP GLLFM| Strong and slippery built for the midnight grass party confronted by four cats | A |
| he sleeps his time away the detached first claw on his foreleg which corresponds | B |
| to the thumb retracted to its tip the small tuft of fronds | B |
| or katydid legs above each eye still numbering the units in each group | C |
| the shadbones regularly set about his mouth to droop or rise | D |
| - | |
| in unison like the porcupine's quills motionless He lets himself be flat | E |
| tened out by gravity as it were a piece of seaweed tamed and weakened by | F |
| exposure to the sun compelled when extended to lie | F |
| stationary Sleep is the result of his delusion that one must do as | G |
| well as one can for oneself sleep epitome of what is to | H |
| - | |
| him as to the average person the end of life Demonstrate on him how | I |
| the lady caught the dangerous southern snake placing a forked stick on either | J |
| side of its innocuous neck one need not try to stir | J |
| him up his prune shaped head and alligator eyes are not a party to the | K |
| joke Lifted and handled he may be dangled like an eel or set | L |
| - | |
| up on the forearm like a mouse his eyes bisected by pupils of a pin's | G |
| width are flickeringly exhibited then covered up May be I should say | G |
| might have been when he has been got the better of in a | K |
| dream as in a fight with nature or with cats we all know it Profound sleep is | G |
| not with him a fixed illusion Springing about with froglike ac | M |
| - | |
| curacy emitting jerky cries when taken in the hand he is himself | N |
| again to sit caged by the rungs of a domestic chair would be unprofit | L |
| able human What is the good of hypocrisy It | L |
| is permissible to choose one's employment to abandon the wire nail the | K |
| roly poly when it shows signs of being no longer a pleas | G |
| - | |
| ure to score the adjacent magazine with a double line of strokes He can | O |
| talk but insolently says nothing What of it When one is frank one's very | M |
| presence is a compliment It is clear that he can see | M |
| the virtue of naturalness that he is one of those who do not regard | L |
| the published fact as a surrender As for the disposition | P |
| - | |
| invariably to affront an animal with claws wants to have to use | G |
| them that eel like extension of trunk into tail is not an accident To | L |
| leap to lengthen out divide the air to purloin to pursue | L |
| to tell the hen fly over the fence go in the wrong way in your perturba | F |
| tion this is life to do less would be nothing but dishonesty | M |
Marianne Moore
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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