The Pied Piper Of Hamelin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BACCCADDA EEFEFFFFGGF AGAGHHIFFGGGHH JFKFLMLNNNAAAAAFFAAA AAAAIIIIIIAAAOO JJAHHAPPAAQRQRQQAASS FSFFFFHH ATATAAAAAAQQQFFFFFFF FQQAAAAAARRRRFFFFFAF AH HHA A JJFFFFFFF UUQQVVDDQQQQQQQQQAA AASSHHAAAHH QQAAAA AHHAQAQQQQQQFFFAA AAAAAQQAAFFAAAAWWWAA AAAASXSXAAAAAAUUUAAF FAAYYYAA HAAAHZZSAASAAAAAAAAF FAAAAHHHHAAXXXA2A2FF HHXXXX FFFFA Child's Story | A |
- | |
Hamelin Town's in Brunswick | B |
By famous Hanover city | A |
The river Weser deep and wide | C |
Washes its wall on the southern side | C |
A pleasanter spot you never spied | C |
But when begins my ditty | A |
Almost five hundred years ago | D |
To see the townsfolk suffer so | D |
From vermin was a pity | A |
- | |
Rats | E |
They fought the dogs and killed the cats | E |
And bit the babies in the cradles | F |
And ate the cheeses out of the vats | E |
And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles | F |
Split open the kegs of salted sprats | F |
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats | F |
And even spoiled the women's chats | F |
By drowning their speaking | G |
With shrieking and squeaking | G |
In fifty different sharps and flats | F |
- | |
At last the people in a body | A |
To the Town Hall came flocking | G |
'Tis clear cried they our Mayor's a noddy | A |
And as for our Corporation shocking | G |
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine | H |
For dolts that can't or won't determine | H |
What's best to rid us of our vermin | I |
You hope because you're old and obese | F |
To find in the furry civic robe ease | F |
Rouse up Sirs Give your brains a racking | G |
To find the remedy we're lacking | G |
Or sure as fate we'll send you packing | G |
At this the Mayor and Corporation | H |
Quaked with a mighty consternation | H |
- | |
An hour they sate in council | J |
At length the Mayor broke silence | F |
For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell | K |
I wish I were a mile hence | F |
It's easy to bid one rack one's brain | L |
I'm sure my poor head aches again | M |
I've scratched it so and all in vain | L |
Oh for a trap a trap a trap | N |
Just as he said this what should hap | N |
At the chamber door but a gentle tap | N |
Bless us cried the Mayor what's that | A |
With the Corporation as he sat | A |
Looking little though wondrous fat | A |
Nor brighter was his eye nor moister | A |
Than a too long opened oyster | A |
Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous | F |
For a plate of turtle green and glutinous | F |
Only a scraping of shoes on the mat | A |
Anything like the sound of a rat | A |
Makes my heart go pit a pat | A |
- | |
Come in the Mayor cried looking bigger | A |
And in did come the strangest figure | A |
His queer long coat from heel to head | A |
Was half of yellow and half of red | A |
And he himself was tall and thin | I |
With sharp blue eyes each like a pin | I |
And light loose hair yet swarthy skin | I |
No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin | I |
But lips where smiles went out and in | I |
There was no guessing his kith and kin | I |
And nobody could enough admire | A |
The tall man and his quaint attire | A |
Quoth one It's as my great grandsire | A |
Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone | O |
Had walked this way from his painted tombstone | O |
- | |
He advanced to the council table | J |
And Please your honours said he I'm able | J |
By means of a secret charm to draw | A |
All creatures living beneath the sun | H |
That creep or swim or fly or run | H |
After me so as you never saw | A |
And I chiefly use my charm | P |
On creatures that do people harm | P |
The mole and toad and newt and viper | A |
And people call me the Pied Piper | A |
And here they noticed round his neck | Q |
A scarf of red and yellow stripe | R |
To match with his coat of the selfsame cheque | Q |
And at the scarf's end hung a pipe | R |
And his fingers they noticed were ever straying | Q |
As if impatient to be playing | Q |
Upon this pipe as low it dangled | A |
Over his vesture so old fangled | A |
Yet said he poor piper as I am | S |
In Tartary I freed the Cham | S |
Last June from his huge swarms of gnats | F |
I eased in Asia the Nizam | S |
Of a monstrous brood of vampire bats | F |
And as for what your brain bewilders | F |
If I can rid your town of rats | F |
Will you give me a thousand guilders | F |
One fifty thousand was the exclamation | H |
Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation | H |
- | |
Into the street the Piper stepped | A |
Smiling first a little smile | T |
As if he knew what magic slept | A |
In his quiet pipe the while | T |
Then like a musical adept | A |
To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled | A |
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled | A |
Like a candle flame where salt is sprinkled | A |
And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered | A |
You heard as if an army muttered | A |
And the muttering grew to a grumbling | Q |
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling | Q |
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling | Q |
Great rats small rats lean rats brawny rats | F |
Brown rats black rats grey rats tawny rats | F |
Grave old plodders gay young friskers | F |
Fathers mothers uncles cousins | F |
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers | F |
Families by tens and dozens | F |
Brothers sisters husbands wives | F |
Followed the Piper for their lives | F |
From street to street he piped advancing | Q |
And step for step they followed dancing | Q |
Until they came to the river Weser | A |
Wherein all plunged and perished | A |
Save one who stout a Julius Caesar | A |
Swam across and lived to carry | A |
As he the manuscript he cherished | A |
To Rat land home his commentary | A |
Which was At the first shrill notes of the pipe | R |
I heard a sound as of scraping tripe | R |
And putting apples wondrous ripe | R |
Into a cider press's gripe | R |
And a moving away of pickle tub boards | F |
And a leaving ajar of conserve cupboards | F |
And a drawing the corks of train oil flasks | F |
And a breaking the hoops of butter casks | F |
And it seemed as if a voice | F |
Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery | A |
Is breathed called out 'Oh rats rejoice | F |
The world is grown to one vast drysaltery | A |
So munch on crunch on take your nuncheon | H |
Breakfast supper dinner luncheon ' | - |
And just as a bulky sugar puncheon | H |
All ready staved like a great sun shone | H |
Glorious scarce and inch before me | A |
Just as methought it said 'Come bore me ' | - |
I found the Weser rolling o'er me | A |
- | |
You should have heard the Hamelin people | J |
Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple | J |
Go cried the Mayor and get long poles | F |
Poke out the nests and block up the holes | F |
Consult with carpenters and builders | F |
And leave in our town not even a trace | F |
Of the rats when suddenly up the face | F |
Of the Piper perked in the market place | F |
With a First if you please my thousand guilders | F |
- | |
A thousand guilders The Mayor looked blue | U |
So did the Corporation too | U |
For council dinners made rare havoc | Q |
With Claret Moselle Vin de Grave Hock | Q |
And half the money would replenish | V |
Their cellar's biggest butt with Rhenish | V |
To pay this sum to a wandering fellow | D |
With a gypsy coat of red and yellow | D |
Beside quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink | Q |
Our business was done at the river's brink | Q |
We saw with our eyes the vermin sink | Q |
And what's dead can't come to life I think | Q |
So friend we're not the folks to shrink | Q |
From the duty of giving you something for drink | Q |
And a matter of money to put in your poke | Q |
But as for the guilders what we spoke | Q |
Of them as you very well know was in joke | Q |
Beside our losses have made us thrifty | A |
A thousand guilders Come take fifty | A |
- | |
The Piper's face fell and he cried | A |
No trifling I can't wait beside | A |
I've promised to visit by dinner time | S |
Bagdat and accept the prime | S |
Of the Head Cook's pottage all he's rich in | H |
For having left in the Calip's kitchen | H |
Of a nest of scorpions no survivor | A |
With him I proved no bargain driver | A |
With you don't think I'll bate a stiver | A |
And folks who put me in a passion | H |
May find me pipe to another fashion | H |
- | |
How cried the Mayor d'ye think I'll brook | Q |
Being worse treated than a Cook | Q |
Insulted by a lazy ribald | A |
With idle pipe and vesture piebald | A |
You threaten us fellow Do your worst | A |
Blow your pipe there till you burst | A |
- | |
Once more he stepped into the street | A |
And to his lips again | H |
Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane | H |
And ere he blew three notes such sweet | A |
Soft notes as yet musician's cunning | Q |
Never gave the enraptured air | A |
There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling | Q |
Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling | Q |
Small feet were pattering wooden shoes clattering | Q |
Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering | Q |
And like fowls in a farmyard when barley is scattering | Q |
Out came the children running | Q |
All the little boys and girls | F |
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls | F |
And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls | F |
Tripping and skipping ran merrily after | A |
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter | A |
- | |
The Mayor was dumb and the Council stood | A |
As if they were changed into blocks of wood | A |
Unable to move a step or cry | A |
To the children merrily skipping by | A |
And could only follow with the eye | A |
That joyous crowd at the Piper's back | Q |
But how the Mayor was on the rack | Q |
And the wretched Council's bosoms beat | A |
As the Piper turned from the High Street | A |
To where the Weser rolled its waters | F |
Right in the way of their sons and daughters | F |
However he turned from South to West | A |
And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed | A |
And after him the children pressed | A |
Great was the joy in every breast | A |
He never can cross that mighty top | W |
He's forced to let the piping drop | W |
And we shall see our children stop | W |
When lo as they reached the mountain's side | A |
A wondrous portal opened wide | A |
As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed | A |
And the Piper advanced and the children followed | A |
And when all were in to the very last | A |
The door in the mountain side shut fast | A |
Did I say all No One was lame | S |
And could not dance the whole of the way | X |
And in after years if you would blame | S |
His sadness he was used to say | X |
It's dull in our town since my playmates left | A |
I can't forget that I'm bereft | A |
Of all the pleasant sights they see | A |
Which the Piper also promised me | A |
For he led us he said to a joyous land | A |
Joining the town and just at hand | A |
Where waters gushed and fruit trees grew | U |
And flowers put forth a fairer hue | U |
And everything was strange and new | U |
The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here | A |
And their dogs outran our fallow deer | A |
And honey bees had lost their stings | F |
And horses were born with eagles' wings | F |
And just as I became assured | A |
My lame foot would be speedily cured | A |
The music stopped and I stood still | Y |
And found myself outside the Hill | Y |
Left alone against my will | Y |
To go now limping as before | A |
And never hear of that country more | A |
- | |
Alas alas for Hamelin | H |
There came into many a burgher's pate | A |
A text which says that Heaven's Gate | A |
Opes to the Rich at as easy rate | A |
As the needle's eye takes a camel in | H |
The Mayor sent East West North and South | Z |
To offer the Piper by word of mouth | Z |
Wherever it was men's lot to find him | S |
Silver and gold to his heart's content | A |
If he'd only return the way he went | A |
And bring the children behind him | S |
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavour | A |
And Piper and dancers were gone for ever | A |
They made a decree that lawyers never | A |
Should think their records dated duly | A |
If after the day of the month and year | A |
These words did not as well appear | A |
And so long after what happened here | A |
On the Twenty second of July | A |
Thirteen hundred and seventy six | F |
And the better in memory to fix | F |
The place of the children's last retreat | A |
They called it the Pied Piper's Street | A |
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor | A |
Was sure for the future to lose his labour | A |
Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern | H |
To shock with mirth a street so solemn | H |
But opposite the place of the cavern | H |
They wrote the story on a column | H |
And on the great Church Window painted | A |
The same to make the world acquainted | A |
How their children were stolen away | X |
And there it stands to this very day | X |
And I must not omit to say | X |
That in Transylvania there's a tribe | A2 |
Of alien people that ascribe | A2 |
The outlandish ways and dress | F |
On which their neighbours lay such stress | F |
To their fathers and mothers having risen | H |
Out of some subterraneous prison | H |
Into which they were trepanned | X |
Long time ago in a mighty band | X |
Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land | X |
But how or why they don't understand | X |
- | |
So Willy let you and me be wipers | F |
Of scores out with all men especially pipers | F |
And whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice | F |
If we've promised them aught let us keep our promise | F |
Robert Browning
(1)
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