A Ballad Of Nursery Rhyme Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEG HIHI JKLK MNMN OPOP QRQR STST FUFU VRVR WXWX WYWY WZWZ WWWW WA2WA2Strawberries that in gardens grow | A |
Are plump and juicy fine | B |
But sweeter far as wise men know | A |
Spring from the woodland vine | B |
- | |
No need for bowl or silver spoon | C |
Sugar or spice or cream | D |
Has the wild berry plucked in June | C |
Beside the trickling stream | D |
- | |
One such to melt at the tongue's root | E |
Confounding taste with scent | F |
Beats a full peck of garden fruit | E |
Which points my argument | G |
- | |
May sudden justice overtake | H |
And snap the froward pen | I |
That old and palsied poets shake | H |
Against the minds of men | I |
- | |
Blasphemers trusting to hold caught | J |
In far flung webs of ink | K |
The utmost ends of human thought | L |
Till nothing's left to think | K |
- | |
But may the gift of heavenly peace | M |
And glory for all time | N |
Keep the boy Tom who tending geese | M |
First made the nursery rhyme | N |
- | |
By the brookside one August day | O |
Using the sun for clock | P |
Tom whiled the languid hours away | O |
Beside his scattering flock | P |
- | |
Carving with a sharp pointed stone | Q |
On a broad slab of slate | R |
The famous lives of Jumping Joan | Q |
Dan Fox and Greedy Kate | R |
- | |
Rhyming of wolves and bears and birds | S |
Spain Scotland Babylon | T |
That sister Kate might learn the words | S |
To tell to Toddling John | T |
- | |
But Kate who could not stay content | F |
To learn her lesson pat | U |
New beauty to the rough lines lent | F |
By changing this or that | U |
- | |
And she herself set fresh things down | V |
In corners of her slate | R |
Of lambs and lanes and London Town | V |
God's blessing fall on Kate | R |
- | |
The baby loved the simple sound | W |
With jolly glee he shook | X |
And soon the lines grew smooth and round | W |
Like pebbles in Tom's brook | X |
- | |
From mouth to mouth told and retold | W |
By children sprawled at ease | Y |
Before the fire in winter's cold | W |
In June beneath tall trees | Y |
- | |
Till though long lost are stone and slate | W |
Though the brook no more runs | Z |
And dead long time are Tom John Kate | W |
Their sons and their sons' sons | Z |
- | |
Yet as when Time with stealthy tread | W |
Lays the rich garden waste | W |
The woodland berry ripe and red | W |
Fails not in scent or taste | W |
- | |
So these same rhymes shall still be told | W |
To children yet unborn | A2 |
While false philosophy growing old | W |
Fades and is killed by scorn | A2 |
Robert Graves
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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