The Ballad Of Casey's Billy-goat Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCB DEDEFGFG HIHIHBHB HFHFJKJK JLJLMNMN JOJOFNFN GNGNJNJN GJGJFFFF MGMGPJPJ NQPQRJRJ NSNTPGPG JFJFJNJN PIPIJJJJYou've heard of Casey at The Bat | A |
And Casey's Tabble Dote | B |
But now it's time | C |
To write a rhyme | C |
Of Casey's Billy goat | B |
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Pat Casey had a billy goat he gave the name of Shamus | D |
Because it was the neighbours said a national disgrace | E |
And sure enough that animal was eminently famous | D |
For masticating every rag of laundry round the place | E |
For shirts to skirts prodigiously it proved its powers of chewing | F |
The question of digestion seemed to matter not at all | G |
But you'll agree I think with me its limit of misdoing | F |
Was reached the day it swallowed Missis Rooney's ould red shawl | G |
- | |
Now Missis Annie Rooney was a winsome widow women | H |
And many a bouncing boy had sought to make her change her name | I |
And living just across the way 'twas surely only human | H |
A lonesome man like Casey should be wishfully the same | I |
So every Sunday shaved and shined he'd make the fine occasion | H |
To call upon the lady and she'd take his and coat | B |
And supping tea it seemed that she might yield to his persuasion | H |
But alas he hadn't counted on that devastating goat | B |
- | |
For Shamus loved his master with a deep and dumb devotion | H |
And everywhere that Casey went that goat would want to go | F |
And though I cannot analyze a quadruped's emotion | H |
They said the baste was jealous and I reckon it was so | F |
For every time that Casey went to call on Missis Rooney | J |
Beside the gate the goat would wait with woefulness intense | K |
Until one day it chanced that they were fast becoming spooney | J |
When Shamus spied that ould red shawl a flutter on the fence | K |
- | |
Now Missis Rooney loved that shawl beyond all rhyme or reason | J |
And maybe 'twas an heirloom or a cherished souvenir | L |
For judging by the way she wore it season after season | J |
I might have been as precious as a product of Cashmere | L |
So Shamus strolled towards it and no doubt the colour pleased him | M |
For he biffed it and he sniffed it as most any goat might do | N |
Then his melancholy vanished as a sense of hunger seized him | M |
And he wagged his tail with rapture as he started in to chew | N |
- | |
Begorrah you're a daisy said the doting Mister Casey | J |
to the blushing Widow Rooney as they parted at the door | O |
Wid yer tinderness an' tazin' sure ye've set me heart a blazin' | J |
And I dread the day I'll nivver see me Anniw anny more | O |
Go on now wid yer blarney said the widow softly sighing | F |
And she went to pull his whiskers when dismay her bosom smote | N |
Her ould red shawl 'Twas missin' where she'd left it bravely drying | F |
Then she saw it disappearing down the neck of Casey's goat | N |
- | |
Fiercely flamed her Irish temper Look says she The thavin' divvle | G |
Sure he's made me shawl his supper Well I hope it's to his taste | N |
But excuse me Mister Casey if I seem to be oncivil | G |
For I'll nivver wed a man wid such a misbegotten baste | N |
So she slammed the door and left him in a state of consternation | J |
And he couldn't understand it till he saw that grinning goat | N |
Then with eloquence he cussed it and his final fulmination | J |
Was a poem of profanity impossible to quote | N |
- | |
So blasting goats and petticoats and feeling downright sinful | G |
Despairfully he wandered in to Shinnigan's shebeen | J |
And straightway he proceeded to absorb a might skinful | G |
Of the deadliest variety of Shinnigan's potheen | J |
And when he started homeward it was in the early morning | F |
But Shamus followed faithfully a yard behind his back | F |
Then Casey slipped and stumbled and without the slightest warning | F |
like a lump of lead he tumbled right across the railroad track | F |
- | |
And there he lay serenely and defied the powers to budge him | M |
Reposing like a baby with his head upon the rail | G |
But Shamus seemed unhappy and from time to time would nudge him | M |
Though his prods to protestation were without the least avail | G |
Then to that goatish mind maybe a sense of fell disaster | P |
Came stealing like a spectre in the dim and dreary dawn | J |
For his bleat of warning blended with the snoring of his master | P |
In a chorus of calamity but Casey slumbered on | J |
- | |
Yet oh that goat was troubled for his efforts were redoubled | N |
Now he tugged at Casey's whisker now he nibbled at his ear | Q |
Now he shook him by the shoulder and with fear become bolder | P |
He bellowed like a fog horn but the sleeper did not hear | Q |
Then up and down the railway line he scampered for assistance | R |
But anxiously he hurried back and sought with tug and strain | J |
To pull his master off the track when sudden in the distance | R |
He heard the roar and rumble of the fast approaching train | J |
- | |
Did Shamus faint and falter No he stood there stark and splendid | N |
True his tummy was distended but he gave his horns a toss | S |
By them his goathood's honour would be gallantly defended | N |
And if their valour failed him he would perish with his boss | T |
So dauntlessly he lowered his head and ever clearer clearer | P |
He heard the throb and thunder of the Continental Mail | G |
He would face the mighty monster It was coming nearer nearer | P |
He would fight it he would smite it but he'd never show his tail | G |
- | |
Can you see that hirsute hero standing there in tragic glory | J |
Can you hear the Pullman porters shrieking horror to the sky | F |
No you can't because my story has no end so grim and gory | J |
For Shamus did not perish and his master did not die | F |
At this very present moment Casey swaggers hale and hearty | J |
And Shamus strolls beside him with a bright bell at his throat | N |
While recent Missis Rooney is the gayest of the party | J |
For now she's Missis Casey and she's crazy for that goat | N |
- | |
You're wondering what happened Well you know that truth is stranger | P |
Than the wildest brand of fiction so Ill tell you without shame | I |
There was Shamus and his master in the face of awful danger | P |
And the giant locomotive dashing down in smoke and flame | I |
What power on earth could save them Yet a golden inspiration | J |
To gods and goats alike may come so in that brutish brain | J |
A thought was born the ould red shawl Then rearing with elation | J |
Like lightning Shamus threw it up AND FLAGGED AND STOPPED THE TRAIN | J |
Robert Service
(1)
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