Up At A Villa--down In The City Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AAA BBB CDCC EEEEEF GGHH IJKKK LLLLL MMDDNNN OOOPPQQ RRSSTTUUVV WWFFXXXXVV

Had I but plenty of money money enough and to spareA
The house for me no doubt were a house in the city squareA
Ah such a life such a life as one leads at the window thereA
-
Something to see by Bacchus something to hear at leastB
There the whole day long one's life is a perfect feastB
While up at a villa one lives I maintain it no more than a beastB
-
Well now look at our villa stuck like the horn of a bullC
Just on a mountain edge as bare as the creature's skullD
Save a mere shag of a bush with hardly a leaf to pullC
I scratch my own sometimes to see if the hair's turned woolC
-
But the city oh the city the square with the houses WhyE
They are stone faced white as a curd there's something to take the eyeE
Houses in four straight lines not a single front awryE
You watch who crosses and gossips who saunters who hurries byE
Green blinds as a matter of course to draw when the sun gets highE
And the shops with fanciful signs which are painted properlyF
-
What of a villa Though winter be over in March by rightsG
'Tis May perhaps ere the snow shall have withered well off the heightsG
You've the brown ploughed land before where the oxen steam and wheezeH
And the hills over smoked behind by the faint gray olive treesH
-
Is it better in May I ask you You've summer all at onceI
In a day he leaps complete with a few strong April sunsJ
'Mid the sharp short emerald wheat scarce risen three fingers wellK
The wild tulip at end of its tube blows out its great red bellK
Like a thin clear bubble of blood for the children to pick and sellK
-
Is it ever hot in the square There's a fountain to spout and splashL
In the shade it sings and springs in the shine such foambows flashL
On the horses with curling fish tails that prance and paddle and pashL
Round the lady atop in her conch fifty gazers do not abashL
Though all that she wears is some weeds round her waist in a sort of sashL
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All the year long at the villa nothing to see though you lingerM
Except yon cypress that points like death's lean lifted forefingerM
Some think fireflies pretty when they mix in the corn and mingleD
Or thrid the stinking hemp till the stalks of it seem a tingleD
Late August or early September the stunning cicala is shrillN
And the bees keep their tiresome whine round the resinous firs on the hillN
Enough of the seasons I spare you the months of the fever and chillN
-
Ere you open your eyes in the city the blessed church bells beginO
No sooner the bells leave off than the diligence rattles inO
You get the pick of the news and it costs you never a pinO
By and by there's the travelling doctor gives pills lets blood draws teethP
Or the Pulcinello trumpet breaks up the market beneathP
At the post office such a scene picture the new play piping hotQ
And a notice how only this morning three liberal thieves were shotQ
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Above it behold the Archbishop's most fatherly of rebukesR
And beneath with his crown and his lion some little new law of the Duke'sR
Or a sonnet with flowery marge to the Reverend Don So and soS
Who is Dante Boccaccio Petrarca Saint Jerome and CiceroS
And moreover the sonnet goes rhyming the skirts of Saint Paul has reachedT
Having preached us those six Lent lectures more unctuous than ever he preachedT
Noon strikes here sweeps the procession our Lady borne smiling and smartU
With a pink gauze gown all spangles and seven swords stuck in her heartU
Bang whang whang goes the drum tootle te tootle the fifeV
No keeping one's haunches still it's the greatest pleasure in lifeV
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But bless you it's dear it's dear fowls wine at double the rateW
They have clapped a new tax upon salt and what oil pays passing the gateW
It's a horror to think of And so the villa for me not the cityF
Beggars can scarcely be choosers but still ah the pity the pityF
Look two and two go the priests then the monks with cowls and sandalsX
And the penitents dressed in white shirts a holding the yellow candlesX
One he carries a flag up straight and another a cross with handlesX
And the Duke's guard brings up the rear for the better prevention of scandalsX
Bang whang whang goes the drum tootle te tootle the fifeV
Oh a day in the city square there is no such pleasure in lifeV

Robert Browning



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