Balbus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEFE GHAH IJKJ DAIA LMIM KNDN OPKP QARA KSKS LTKT DUVU KADA ABLB AKAK LWLW LAKAI'll tell you the story of Balbus | A |
You know him as builded a wall | B |
I'll tell you the reason he built it | C |
And the place where it happened an' all | B |
- | |
This 'ere Balbus though only a Tackler | D |
Were the most enterprising of men | E |
He'd heard Chicken Farms were lucrative | F |
So he went out and purchased a hen | E |
- | |
'Twere a White Wyandot he called Mabel | G |
At laying she turned out a peach | H |
And her eggs being all double yoked ones | A |
He reckoned they'd fetch twopence each | H |
- | |
When he took them along to the market | I |
And found that the eggs that sold best | J |
Were them as came over from China | K |
He were vexed but in no ways depressed | J |
- | |
For Balbus though only a Tackler | D |
In business were far from a dunce | A |
So he packed Mabel up in a basket | I |
And started for China at once | A |
- | |
When he got there he took a small holding | L |
And selecting the sunniest part | M |
He lifted the lid of the basket | I |
And said Come on lass make a start | M |
- | |
The 'en needed no second biddin' | K |
She sat down and started to lay | N |
She'd been saving up all the way over | D |
And laid sixteen eggs straight away | N |
- | |
When the Chinamen heard what had happened | O |
Their cheeks went the colour of mud | P |
They said it were sheer mass production | K |
As had to be nipped in the bud | P |
- | |
They formed themselves in a committee | Q |
And tried to arrive at some course | A |
Whereby they could limit the output | R |
Without doing harm to the source | A |
- | |
At the finish they came to t' conclusion | K |
That the easiest road they could take | S |
Were to fill the 'en's nest up wi' scrap iron | K |
So as fast as she laid eggs they'd break | S |
- | |
When Balbus went out the next morning | L |
To fetch the eggs Mabel had laid | T |
He found nowt but shells and albumen | K |
He were hipped but in no ways dismayed | T |
- | |
For Balbus though only a Tackler | D |
He'd a brain that were fertile and quick | U |
He bought all the scrap iron in t' district | V |
To stop them repeating the trick | U |
- | |
But next day to his great consternation | K |
He were met with another reverse | A |
For instead of old iron they'd used clinker | D |
And the eggs looked the same or worse | A |
- | |
'Twere a bit of a set back for Balbus | A |
But he wasn't downhearted at all | B |
And when t' Chinamen came round next evening | L |
They found he were building a wall | B |
- | |
That won't keep us out of your 'en 'ouse | A |
Said one with a smug kind of grin | K |
It's not for that purpose said Balbus | A |
When it's done it will keep you lot in | K |
- | |
The Chinamen all burst out laffing | L |
They thowt as he'd gone proper daft | W |
But Balbus got on wi' his building | L |
And said He laffed last who last laffed | W |
- | |
Day by day Balbus stuck to his building | L |
And his efforts he never did cease | A |
Till he'd builded the Great Wall of China | K |
So as Mabel could lay eggs in peace | A |
Marriott Edgar
(1)
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