The Sweet Little Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC DCDC BCBC ECEC BCBC FCFC BC C BCBC BCBC BCBC BCBC BCBC BCBC GCGC FCFC| DEDICATED TO THE STAY AT HOME RANGERS | A |
| - | |
| Now while our soldiers are fighting our battles | B |
| Each at his post to do all that he can | C |
| Down among rebels and contraband chattels | B |
| What are you doing my sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| All the brave boys under canvas are sleeping | D |
| All of them pressing to march with the van | C |
| Far from the home where their sweethearts are weeping | D |
| What are you waiting for sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| You with the terrible warlike mustaches | B |
| Fit for a colonel or chief of a clan | C |
| You with the waist made for sword belts and sashes | B |
| Where are your shoulder straps sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Bring him the buttonless garment of woman | E |
| Cover his face lest it freckle and tan | C |
| Muster the Apron String Guards on the Common | E |
| That is the corps for the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Give him for escort a file of young misses | B |
| Each of them armed with a deadly rattan | C |
| They shall defend him from laughter and hisses | B |
| Aimed by low boys at the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| All the fair maidens about him shall cluster | F |
| Pluck the white feathers from bonnet and fan | C |
| Make him a plume like a turkey wing duster | F |
| That is the crest for the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Oh but the Apron String Guards are the fellows | B |
| Drilling each day since our troubles began | C |
| 'Handle your walking sticks ' 'Shoulder umbrellas ' | - |
| That is the style for the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Have we a nation to save In the first place | B |
| Saving ourselves is the sensible plan | C |
| Surely the spot where there's shooting's the worst place | B |
| Where I can stand says the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Catch me confiding my person with strangers | B |
| Think how the cowardly Bull Runners ran | C |
| In the brigade of the Stay at Home Rangers | B |
| Marches my corps says the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Such was the stuff of the Malakoff takers | B |
| Such were the soldiers that scaled the Redan | C |
| Truculent housemaids and bloodthirsty Quakers | B |
| Brave not the wrath of the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Yield him the sidewalk ye nursery maidens | B |
| Sauve qui peut Bridget and right about Ann | C |
| Fierce as a shark in a school of menhadens | B |
| See him advancing the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| When the red flails of the battle field's threshers | B |
| Beat out the continent's wheat from its bran | C |
| While the wind scatters the chaffy seceshers | B |
| What will become of our sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| When the brown soldiers come back from the borders | B |
| How will he look while his features they scan | C |
| How will he feel when he gets marching orders | B |
| Signed by his lady love sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Fear not for him though the rebels expect him | G |
| Life is too precious to shorten its span | C |
| Woman her broomstick shall raise to protect him | G |
| Will she not fight for the sweet little man | C |
| - | |
| Now then nine cheers for the Stay at Home Ranger | F |
| Blow the great fish horn and beat the big pan | C |
| First in the field that is farthest from danger | F |
| Take your white feather plume sweet little man | C |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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