The First Fan Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDC EFEF GHGH I I JKJL EBEB BFB MNMN BNB BBBB OLOL PBOB NQNQ BHBH MBMB RBRB LFLF LOLO BBBB HNHN LSL BHBH BBBB ETET UNUN LLLL VFVF BHBH WCWC XYXF BFBFREAD AT A MEETING OF THE BOSTON BRIC A BRAC | A |
CLUB FEBRUARY | B |
- | |
WHEN rose the cry 'Great Pan is dead ' | - |
And Jove's high palace closed its portal | C |
The fallen gods before they fled | D |
Sold out their frippery to a mortal | C |
- | |
'To whom ' you ask I ask of you | E |
The answer hardly needs suggestion | F |
Of course it was the Wandering Jew | E |
How could you put me such a question | F |
- | |
A purple robe a little worn | G |
The Thunderer deigned himself to offer | H |
The bearded wanderer laughed in scorn | G |
You know he always was a scoffer | H |
- | |
'Vife shillins 't is a monstrous price | I |
Say two and six and further talk shun ' | - |
'Take it ' cried Jove 'we can't be nice | I |
'T would fetch twice that at Leonard's auction ' | - |
- | |
The ice was broken up they came | J |
All sharp for bargains god and goddess | K |
Each ready with the price to name | J |
For robe or head dress scarf or bodice | L |
- | |
First Juno out of temper too | E |
Her queenly forehead somewhat cloudy | B |
Then Pallas in her stockings blue | E |
Imposing but a little dowdy | B |
- | |
The scowling queen of heaven unrolled | B |
Before the Jew a threadbare turban | F |
'Three shillings ' 'One 'T will suit some old | B |
Terrific feminine suburban ' | - |
- | |
But as for Pallas how to tell | M |
In seemly phrase a fact so shocking | N |
She pointed pray excuse me well | M |
She pointed to her azure stocking | N |
- | |
And if the honest truth were told | B |
Its heel confessed the need of darning | N |
'Gods ' low bred Vulcan cried 'behold | B |
There that's what comes of too much larning ' | - |
- | |
Pale Proserpine came groping round | B |
Her pupils dreadfully dilated | B |
With too much living underground | B |
A residence quite overrated | B |
- | |
This kerchief's what you want I know | O |
Don't cheat poor Venus of her cestus | L |
You'll find it handy when you go | O |
To you know where it's pure asbestus | L |
- | |
Then Phoebus of the silverr bow | P |
And Hebe dimpled as a baby | B |
And Dian with the breast of snow | O |
Chaser and chased and caught it may be | B |
- | |
One took the quiver from her back | N |
One held the cap he spent the night in | Q |
And one a bit of bric a brac | N |
Such as the gods themselves delight in | Q |
- | |
Then Mars the foe of human kind | B |
Strode up and showed his suit of armor | H |
So none at last was left behind | B |
Save Venus the celestial charmer | H |
- | |
Poor Venus What had she to sell | M |
For all she looked so fresh and jaunty | B |
Her wardrobe as I blush' to tell | M |
Already seemed but quite too scanty | B |
- | |
Her gems were sold her sandals gone | R |
She always would be rash and flighty | B |
Her winter garments all in pawn | R |
Alas for charming Aphrodite | B |
- | |
The lady of a thousand loves | L |
The darling of the old religion | F |
Had only left of all the doves | L |
That drew her car one fan tailed pigeon | F |
- | |
How oft upon her finger tips | L |
He perched afraid of Cupid's arrow | O |
Or kissed her on the rosebud lips | L |
Like Roman Lesbia's loving sparrow | O |
- | |
'My bird I want your train ' she cried | B |
'Come don't let's have a fuss about it | B |
I'll make it beauty's pet and pride | B |
And you'll be better off without it | B |
- | |
'So vulgar Have you noticed pray | H |
An earthly belle or dashing bride walk | N |
And how her flounces track her way | H |
Like slimy serpents on the sidewalk | N |
- | |
'A lover's heart it quickly cools | L |
In mine it kindles up enough rage | S |
To wring their necks How can such fools | L |
Ask men to vote for woman suffrage ' | - |
- | |
The goddess spoke and gently stripped | B |
Her bird of every caudal feather | H |
A strand of gold bright hair she clipped | B |
And bound the glossy plumes together | H |
- | |
And lo the Fan for beauty's hand | B |
The lovely queen of beauty made it | B |
The price she named was hard to stand | B |
But Venus smiled the Hebrew paid it | B |
- | |
Jove Juno Venus where are you | E |
Mars Mercury Phoebus Neptune Saturn | T |
But o'er the world the Wandering Jew | E |
Has borne the Fan's celestial pattern | T |
- | |
So everywhere we find the Fan | U |
In lonely isles of the Pacific | N |
In farthest China and Japan | U |
Wherever suns are sudorific | N |
- | |
Nay even the oily Esquimaux | L |
In summer court its cooling breezes | L |
In fact in every clime 't is so | L |
No matter if it fries or freezes | L |
- | |
And since from Aphrodite's dove | V |
The pattern of the fan was given | F |
No wonder that it breathes of love | V |
And wafts the perfumed gales of heaven | F |
- | |
Before this new Pandora's gift | B |
In slavery woman's tyrant kept her | H |
But now he kneels her glove to lift | B |
The fan is mightier than the sceptre | H |
- | |
The tap it gives how arch and sly | W |
The breath it wakes how fresh and grateful | C |
Behind its shield how soft the sigh | W |
The whispered tale of shame how fateful | C |
- | |
Its empire shadows every throne | X |
And every shore that man is tost on | Y |
It rules the lords of every zone | X |
Nay even the bluest blood of Boston | F |
- | |
But every one that swings to night | B |
Of fairest shape from farthest region | F |
May trace its pedigree aright | B |
To Aphrodite's fan tailed pigeon | F |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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