Contentment Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDD EFEFGG HIHIJJ AKLKII MNMNAA OPOPQQ RIRISS CTCTSS TITIUU VWVWXX YZYZII A2B2A2B2C2C2| Man wants but little here below | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| LITTLE I ask my wants are few | B |
| I only wish a hut of stone | C |
| A very plain brown stone will do | B |
| That I may call my own | C |
| And close at hand is such a one | D |
| In yonder street that fronts the sun | D |
| - | |
| Plain food is quite enough for me | E |
| Three courses are as good as ten | F |
| If Nature can subsist on three | E |
| Thank Heaven for three Amen | F |
| I always thought cold victual nice | G |
| My choice would be vanilla ice | G |
| - | |
| I care not much for gold or land | H |
| Give me a mortgage here and there | I |
| Some good bank stock some note of hand | H |
| Or trifling railroad share | I |
| I only ask that Fortune send | J |
| A little more than I shall spend | J |
| - | |
| Honors are silly toys I know | A |
| And titles are but empty names | K |
| I would perhaps be Plenipo | L |
| But only near St James | K |
| I'm very sure I should not care | I |
| To fill our Gubernator's chair | I |
| - | |
| Jewels are baubles 't is a sin | M |
| To care for such unfruitful things | N |
| One good sized diamond in a pin | M |
| Some not so large in rings | N |
| A ruby and a pearl or so | A |
| Will do for me I laugh at show | A |
| - | |
| My dame should dress in cheap attire | O |
| Good heavy silks are never dear | P |
| I own perhaps I might desire | O |
| Some shawls of true Cashmere | P |
| Some marrowy crapes of China silk | Q |
| Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk | Q |
| - | |
| I would not have the horse I drive | R |
| So fast that folks must stop and stare | I |
| An easy gait two forty five | R |
| Suits me I do not care | I |
| Perhaps for just a single spurt | S |
| Some seconds less would do no hurt | S |
| - | |
| Of pictures I should like to own | C |
| Titians aud Raphaels three or four | T |
| I love so much their style and tone | C |
| One Turner and no more | T |
| A landscape foreground golden dirt | S |
| The sunshine painted with a squirt | S |
| - | |
| Of books but few some fifty score | T |
| For daily use and bound for wear | I |
| The rest upon an upper floor | T |
| Some little luxury there | I |
| Of red morocco's gilded gleam | U |
| And vellum rich as country cream | U |
| - | |
| Busts cameos gems such things as these | V |
| Which others often show for pride | W |
| I value for their power to please | V |
| And selfish churls deride | W |
| One Stradivarius I confess | X |
| Two Meerschaums I would fain possess | X |
| - | |
| Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn | Y |
| Nor ape the glittering upstart fool | Z |
| Shall not carved tables serve my turn | Y |
| But all must be of buhl | Z |
| Give grasping pomp its double share | I |
| I ask but one recumbent chair | I |
| - | |
| Thus humble let me live and die | A2 |
| Nor long for Midas' golden touch | B2 |
| If Heaven more generous gifts deny | A2 |
| I shall not miss them much | B2 |
| Too grateful for the blessing lent | C2 |
| Of simple tastes and mind content | C2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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