The Deacon's Masterpiece Or, The Wonderful "one-hoss Shay" - A Logical Story Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAAABBA CCCDDDDAA EFGGGGHHH IJDDDDDDKK LLLMMMMMNNMMMIIIOOOI I MMAAAAA PPDDNNCCCCAA QRRSSTT AAAAUUUAAVVVVHH AAWWWGGGGXXXPPPPAAYY AAHave you heard of the wonderful one hoss shay | A |
That was built in such a logical way | A |
It ran a hundred years to a day | A |
And then of a sudden it ah but stay | A |
I 'll tell you what happened without delay | A |
Scaring the parson into fits | B |
Frightening people out of their wits | B |
Have you ever heard of that I say | A |
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Seventeen hundred and fifty five | C |
Georgius Secundus was then alive | C |
Snuffy old drone from the German hive | C |
That was the year when Lisbon town | D |
Saw the earth open and gulp her down | D |
And Braddock's army was done so brown | D |
Left without a scalp to its crown | D |
It was on the terrible Earthquake day | A |
That the Deacon finished the one hoss shay | A |
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Now in building of chaises I tell you what | E |
There is always somewhere a weakest spot | F |
In hub tire felloe in spring or thill | G |
In panel or crossbar or floor or sill | G |
In screw bolt thoroughbrace lurking still | G |
Find it somewhere you must and will | G |
Above or below or within or without | H |
And that 's the reason beyond a doubt | H |
That a chaise breaks down but does n't wear out | H |
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But the Deacon swore as Deacons do | I |
With an I dew vum or an I tell yeou | J |
He would build one shay to beat the taown | D |
'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun' | D |
It should be so built that it couldn' break daown | D |
Fur said the Deacon 't 's mighty plain | D |
Thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain | D |
'n' the way t' fix it uz I maintain | D |
Is only jest | K |
T' make that place uz strong uz the rest | K |
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So the Deacon inquired of the village folk | L |
Where he could find the strongest oak | L |
That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke | L |
That was for spokes and floor and sills | M |
He sent for lancewood to make the thills | M |
The crossbars were ash from the straightest trees | M |
The panels of white wood that cuts like cheese | M |
But lasts like iron for things like these | M |
The hubs of logs from the Settler's ellum | N |
Last of its timber they could n't sell 'em | N |
Never an axe had seen their chips | M |
And the wedges flew from between their lips | M |
Their blunt ends frizzled like celery tips | M |
Step and prop iron bolt and screw | I |
Spring tire axle and linchpin too | I |
Steel of the finest bright and blue | I |
Thoroughbrace bison skin thick and wide | O |
Boot top dasher from tough old hide | O |
Found in the pit when the tanner died | O |
That was the way he put her through | I |
There said the Deacon naow she 'll dew | I |
- | |
Do I tell you I rather guess | M |
She was a wonder and nothing less | M |
Colts grew horses beards turned gray | A |
Deacon and deaconess dropped away | A |
Children and grandchildren where were they | A |
But there stood the stout old one hoss shay | A |
As fresh as on Lisbon earthquake day | A |
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EIGHTEEN HUNDRED it came and found | P |
The Deacon's masterpiece strong and sound | P |
Eighteen hundred increased by ten | D |
Hahnsum kerridge they called it then | D |
Eighteen hundred and twenty came | N |
Running as usual much the same | N |
Thirty and forty at last arrive | C |
And then come fifty and FIFTY FIVE | C |
First of November 'Fifty five | C |
This morning the parson takes a drive | C |
Now small boys get out of the way | A |
Here comes the wonderful one hoss shay | A |
- | |
Little of all we value here | Q |
Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year | R |
Without both feeling and looking queer | R |
In fact there 's nothing that keeps its youth | S |
So far as I know but a tree and truth | S |
This is a moral that runs at large | T |
Take it You 're welcome No extra charge | T |
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FIRST OF NOVEMBER the Earthquake day | A |
There are traces of age in the one hoss shay | A |
A general flavor of mild decay | A |
But nothing local as one may say | A |
There couldn't be for the Deacon's art | U |
Had made it so like in every part | U |
That there was n't a chance for one to start | U |
For the wheels were just as strong as the thills | A |
And the floor was just as strong as the sills | A |
And the panels just as strong as the floor | V |
And the whipple tree neither less nor more | V |
And the back crossbar as strong as the fore | V |
And spring and axle and hub encore | V |
And yet as a whole it is past a doubt | H |
In another hour it will be worn out | H |
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Drawn by a rat tailed ewe necked bay | A |
Huddup said the parson Off went they | A |
The parson was working his Sunday's text | W |
Had got to fifthly and stopped perplexed | W |
At what the Moses was coming next | W |
All at once the horse stood still | G |
Close by the meet'n' house on the hill | G |
First a shiver and then a thrill | G |
Then something decidedly like a spill | G |
And the parson was sitting upon a rock | X |
At half past nine by the meet'n' house clock | X |
Just the hour of the Earthquake shock | X |
What do you think the parson found | P |
When he got up and stared around | P |
The poor old chaise in a heap or mound | P |
As if it had been to the mill and ground | P |
You see of course if you 're not a dunce | A |
How it went to pieces all at once | A |
All at once and nothing first | Y |
Just as bubbles do when they burst | Y |
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End of the wonderful one hoss shay | A |
Logic is logic That's all I say | A |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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