The Moral Bully Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLMMNNOO PPQQRRQQJSTTQQUU RRVVTTWWTT| YON whey faced brother who delights to wear | A |
| A weedy flux of ill conditioned hair | A |
| Seems of the sort that in a crowded place | B |
| One elbows freely into smallest space | B |
| A timid creature lax of knee and hip | C |
| Whom small disturbance whitens round the lip | C |
| One of those harmless spectacled machines | D |
| The Holy Week of Protestants convenes | D |
| Whom school boys question if their walk transcends | E |
| The last advices of maternal friends | E |
| Whom John obedient to his master's sign | F |
| Conducts laborious up to ninety nine | F |
| While Peter glistening with luxurious scorn | G |
| Husks his white ivories like an ear of corn | G |
| Dark in the brow and bilious in the cheek | H |
| Whose yellowish linen flowers but once a week | H |
| Conspicuous annual in their threadbare suits | I |
| And the laced high lows which they call their boots | I |
| Well mayst thou shun that dingy front severe | J |
| But him O stranger him thou canst not fear | J |
| - | |
| Be slow to judge and slower to despise | K |
| Man of broad shoulders and heroic size | K |
| The tiger writhing from the boa's rings | L |
| Drops at the fountain where the cobra stings | L |
| In that lean phantom whose extended glove | M |
| Points to the text of universal love | M |
| Behold the master that can tame thee down | N |
| To crouch the vassal of his Sunday frown | N |
| His velvet throat against thy corded wrist | O |
| His loosened tongue against thy doubled fist | O |
| - | |
| The MORAL BULLY though he never swears | P |
| Nor kicks intruders down his entry stairs | P |
| Though meekness plants his backward sloping hat | Q |
| And non resistance ties his white cravat | Q |
| Though his black broadcloth glories to be seen | R |
| In the same plight with Shylock's gaberdine | R |
| Hugs the same passion to his narrow breast | Q |
| That heaves the cuirass on the trooper's chest | Q |
| Hears the same hell hounds yelling in his rear | J |
| That chase from port the maddened buccaneer | S |
| Feels the same comfort while his acrid words | T |
| Turn the sweet milk of kindness into curds | T |
| Or with grim logic prove beyond debate | Q |
| That all we love is worthiest of our hate | Q |
| As the scarred ruffian of the pirate's deck | U |
| When his long swivel rakes the staggering wreck | U |
| - | |
| Heaven keep us all Is every rascal clown | R |
| Whose arm is stronger free to knock us down | R |
| Has every scarecrow whose cachectic soul | V |
| Seems fresh from Bedlam airing on parole | V |
| Who though he carries but a doubtful trace | T |
| Of angel visits on his hungry face | T |
| From lack of marrow or the coins to pay | W |
| Has dodged some vices in a shabby way | W |
| The right to stick us with his cutthroat terms | T |
| And bait his homilies with his brother worms | T |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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