Parson Turell's Legacy Or, The President's Old Arm-chair - A Mathematical Story Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBCCDE FFGGHHGGIIIJJJJJJJ KKLLIIMM MMMBBFFII AABBNNOOPPLLIIQQRRBB SSTTSSBBUMBBFFIIBBII AAABBBBBB VVAAAIIWWBBXXAAYYBBB B ZZA2A2FFB2B2LLC2C2BB FFBBFFCCBBAAD2D2AABB SSE2E2AAF2F2 G2H2I2I2J2J2FFFacts respecting an old arm chair | A |
At Cambridge Is kept in the College there | A |
Seems but little the worse for wear | A |
That 's remarkable when I say | B |
It was old in President Holyoke's day | B |
One of his boys perhaps you know | C |
Died at one hundred years ago | C |
He took lodgings for rain or shine | D |
Under green bed clothes in ' | E |
- | |
Know old Cambridge Hope you do | F |
Born there Don't say so I was too | F |
Born in a house with a gambrel roof | G |
Standing still if you must have proof | G |
Gambrel Gambrel Let me beg | H |
You'll look at a horse's hinder leg | H |
First great angle above the hoof | G |
That 's the gambrel hence gambrel roof | G |
Nicest place that ever was seen | I |
Colleges red and Common green | I |
Sidewalks brownish with trees between | I |
Sweetest spot beneath the skies | J |
When the canker worms don't rise | J |
When the dust that sometimes flies | J |
Into your mouth and ears and eyes | J |
In a quiet slumber lies | J |
Not in the shape of umbaked pies | J |
Such as barefoot children prize | J |
- | |
A kind of harbor it seems to be | K |
Facing the flow of a boundless sea | K |
Rows of gray old Tutors stand | L |
Ranged like rocks above the sand | L |
Rolling beneath them soft and green | I |
Breaks the tide of bright sixteen | I |
One wave two waves three waves four | M |
Sliding up the sparkling floor | M |
- | |
Then it ebbs to flow no more | M |
Wandering off from shore to shore | M |
With its freight of golden ore | M |
Pleasant place for boys to play | B |
Better keep your girls away | B |
Hearts get rolled as pebbles do | F |
Which countless fingering waves pursue | F |
And every classic beach is strown | I |
With heart shaped pebbles of blood red stone | I |
- | |
But this is neither here nor there | A |
I'm talking about an old arm chair | A |
You 've heard no doubt of PARSON TURELL | B |
Over at Medford he used to dwell | B |
Married one of the Mathers' folk | N |
Got with his wife a chair of oak | N |
Funny old chair with seat like wedge | O |
Sharp behind and broad front edge | O |
One of the oddest of human things | P |
Turned all over with knobs and rings | P |
But heavy and wide and deep and grand | L |
Fit for the worthies of the land | L |
Chief Justice Sewall a cause to try in | I |
Or Cotton Mather to sit and lie in | I |
Parson Turell bequeathed the same | Q |
To a certain student SMITH by name | Q |
These were the terms as we are told | R |
Saide Smith saide Chaire to have and holde | R |
When he doth graduate then to passe | B |
To ye oldest Youth in ye Senior Classe | B |
On payment of naming a certain sum | S |
By him to whom ye Chaire shall come | S |
He to ye oldest Senior next | T |
And soe forever thus runs the text | T |
But one Crown lesse then he gave to claime | S |
That being his Debte for use of same | S |
Smith transferred it to one of the BROWNS | B |
And took his money five silver crowns | B |
Brown delivered it up to MOORE | U |
Who paid it is plain not five but four | M |
Moore made over the chair to LEE | B |
Who gave him crowns of silver three | B |
Lee conveyed it unto DREW | F |
And now the payment of course was two | F |
Drew gave up the chair to DUNN | I |
All he got as you see was one | I |
Dunn released the chair to HALL | B |
And got by the bargain no crown at all | B |
And now it passed to a second BROWN | I |
Who took it and likewise claimed a crown | I |
When Brown conveyed it unto WARE | A |
Having had one crown to make it fair | A |
He paid him two crowns to take the chair | A |
And Ware being honest as all Wares be | B |
He paid one POTTER who took it three | B |
Four got ROBINSON five got Dix | B |
JOHNSON primus demanded six | B |
And so the sum kept gathering still | B |
Till after the battle of Bunker's Hill | B |
- | |
When paper money became so cheap | V |
Folks would n't count it but said a heap | V |
A certain RICHARDS the books declare | A |
A M in ' I've looked with care | A |
Through the Triennial name not there | A |
This person Richards was offered then | I |
Eightscore pounds but would have ten | I |
Nine I think was the sum he took | W |
Not quite certain but see the book | W |
By and by the wars were still | B |
But nothing had altered the Parson's will | B |
The old arm chair was solid yet | X |
But saddled with such a monstrous debt | X |
Things grew quite too bad to bear | A |
Paying such sums to get rid of the chair | A |
But dead men's fingers hold awful tight | Y |
And there was the will in black and white | Y |
Plain enough for a child to spell | B |
What should be done no man could tell | B |
For the chair was a kind of nightmare curse | B |
And every season but made it worse | B |
- | |
As a last resort to clear the doubt | Z |
They got old GOVERNOR HANCOCK out | Z |
The Governor came with his Lighthorse Troop | A2 |
And his mounted truckmen all cock a hoop | A2 |
Halberds glittered and colors flew | F |
French horns whinnied and trumpets blew | F |
The yellow fifes whistled between their teeth | B2 |
And the bumble bee bass drums boomed beneath | B2 |
So he rode with all his band | L |
Till the President met him cap in hand | L |
The Governor hefted the crowns and said | C2 |
A will is a will and the Parson's dead | C2 |
The Governor hefted the crowns Said he | B |
There is your p'int And here 's my fee | B |
- | |
These are the terms you must fulfil | F |
On such conditions I BREAK THE WILL | F |
The Governor mentioned what these should be | B |
Just wait a minute and then you 'll see | B |
The President prayed Then all was still | F |
And the Governor rose and BROKE THE WILL | F |
About those conditions Well now you go | C |
And do as I tell you and then you'll know | C |
Once a year on Commencement day | B |
If you 'll only take the pains to stay | B |
You'll see the President in the CHAIR | A |
Likewise the Governor sitting there | A |
The President rises both old and young | D2 |
May hear his speech in a foreign tongue | D2 |
The meaning whereof as lawyers swear | A |
Is this Can I keep this old arm chair | A |
And then his Excellency bows | B |
As much as to say that he allows | B |
The Vice Gub next is called by name | S |
He bows like t' other which means the same | S |
And all the officers round 'em bow | E2 |
As much as to say that they allow | E2 |
And a lot of parchments about the chair | A |
Are handed to witnesses then and there | A |
And then the lawyers hold it clear | F2 |
That the chair is safe for another year | F2 |
- | |
God bless you Gentlemen Learn to give | G2 |
Money to colleges while you live | H2 |
Don't be silly and think you'll try | I2 |
To bother the colleges when you die | I2 |
With codicil this and codicil that | J2 |
That Knowledge may starve while Law grows fat | J2 |
For there never was pitcher that wouldn't spill | F |
And there's always a flaw in a donkey's will | F |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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