Flies Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CDCDEFEF GHGHIJIJ KLKLMBMB NENEOPOP QRQROSOS ETTTUTVT TWTWTBTB TGTGXYXY ZA2ZA2I never kill a fly because | A |
I think that what we have of laws | A |
To regulate and civilize | B |
Our daily life we owe to flies | B |
- | |
Apropos I'll tell you of Choo the spouse | C |
Of the head of the hunters Wung | D |
Such a beautiful cave they had for a house | C |
And a brood of a dozen young | D |
And Wung would start by the dawn's red light | E |
On the trailing of bird or beast | F |
And crawl back tired on the brink of night | E |
With food for another feast | F |
- | |
Then the young would dance in their naked glee | G |
And Choo would fuel the fire | H |
Fur and feather how good to see | G |
And to gorge to heart's desire | H |
Flesh of rabbit and goose and deer | I |
With fang like teeth they tore | J |
And laughed with faces a bloody smear | I |
And flung their bones on the floor | J |
- | |
But with morning bright the flies would come | K |
Clouding into the cave | L |
You could hardly hear for their noisy hum | K |
They were big and black and brave | L |
Darkling the day with gust of greed | M |
They'd swarm in the warm sunrise | B |
On the litter of offal and bones to feed | M |
A million or so of flies | B |
- | |
Now flies were the wife of Wung's despair | N |
They would sting and buzz and bite | E |
And as her only attire was hair | N |
She would itch from morn to night | E |
But as one day she scratched her hide | O |
A thought there came to Choo | P |
If I were to throw the bones outside | O |
The flies would go there too | P |
- | |
That spark in a well nigh monkey mind | Q |
Nay do not laugh or scorn | R |
For there in the thoughts of Choo you'll find | Q |
Was the sense of Order born | R |
As she flung the offal far and wide | O |
And the fly cloud followed fast | S |
Battening on the bones outside | O |
The cave was clear at last | S |
- | |
And Wung was pleased when he came at night | E |
For the air was clean and sweet | T |
And the cave kids danced in the gay firelight | T |
And fed on the new killed meat | T |
But the children Choo would chide and boss | U |
For her cleanly floor was her pride | T |
And even the baby was taught to toss | V |
His bite of a bone outside | T |
- | |
Then the cave crones came and some admired | T |
But others were envious | W |
And they said She swanks she makes us tired | T |
With her complex modern fuss | W |
However most of the tribe complied | T |
Though tradition dourly dies | B |
And a few Conservatives crossly cried | T |
We'll keep our bones and our flies | B |
- | |
So Reformer Choo was much revered | T |
And to all she said You see | G |
How my hearth is clean and my floor is cleaned | T |
And there ain't no flies on me | G |
And that was how it all began | X |
Through horror of muck and mess | Y |
Even in prehistoric Man | X |
LAW ORDER and CLEANLINESS' | Y |
- | |
And that is why I never kill | Z |
A fly no matter how obscene | A2 |
For I believe in God's good will | Z |
He gave us vermin to make us clean | A2 |
Robert Service
(1)
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