The Philistine And The Bohemian Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFFGGHHHHII JJKKHHLLHHMMNNJJFF OOPQRSHHTTHHUUVWFF SSHHXXYYZZA2B2C2C2FF D2D2KKHHHH HHFFFFShe was a Philistine spick and span | A |
He was a bold Bohemian | B |
She had the mode and the last at that | C |
He had a cape and a brigand hat | C |
She was so riant and chic and trim | D |
He was so shaggy unkempt and grim | D |
On the rue de la Paix she was wont to shine | E |
The rue de la Ga icirc t eacute was more his line | E |
She doted on Barclay and Dell and Caine | F |
He quoted Mallarm eacute and Paul Verlaine | F |
She was a triumph at Tango teas | G |
At Vorticist's suppers he sought to please | G |
She thought that Franz Lehar was utterly great | H |
Of Strauss and Stravinsky he'd piously prate | H |
She loved elegance he loved art | H |
They were as wide as the poles apart | H |
Yet Cupid and Caprice are hand and glove | I |
They met at a dinner they fell in love | I |
- | |
Home he went to his garret bare | J |
Thrilling with rapture hope despair | J |
Swift he gazed in his looking glass | K |
Made a grimace and murmured Ass | K |
Seized his scissors and fiercely sheared | H |
Severed his buccaneering beard | H |
Grabbed his hair and clip clip clip | L |
Off came a bunch with every snip | L |
Ran to a tailor's in startled state | H |
Suits a dozen commanded straight | H |
Coats and overcoats pants in pairs | M |
Everything that a dandy wears | M |
Socks and collars and shoes and ties | N |
Everything that a dandy buys | N |
Chums looked at him with wondering stare | J |
Fancied they'd seen him before somewhere | J |
A Brummell a D'Orsay a beau so fine | F |
A shining immaculate Philistine | F |
- | |
Home she went in a raptured daze | O |
Looked in a mirror with startled gaze | O |
Didn't seem to be pleased at all | P |
Savagely muttered Insipid Doll | Q |
Clutched her hair and a pair of shears | R |
Cropped and bobbed it behind the ears | S |
Aimed at a wan and willowy necked | H |
Sort of a Holman Hunt effect | H |
Robed in subtile and sage green tones | T |
Like the dames of Rossetti and E Burne Jones | T |
Girdled her garments billowing wide | H |
Moved with an undulating glide | H |
All her frivolous friends forsook | U |
Cultivated a soulful look | U |
Gushed in a voice with a creamy throb | V |
Over some weirdly Futurist daub | W |
Did all in short that a woman can | F |
To be a consummate Bohemian | F |
- | |
A year went past with its hopes and fears | S |
A year that seemed like a dozen years | S |
They met once more Oh at last At last | H |
They rushed together they stopped aghast | H |
They looked at each other with blank dismay | X |
They simply hadn't a word to say | X |
He thought with a shiver Can this be she | Y |
She thought with a shudder This can't be he | Y |
This simpering dandy so sleek and spruce | Z |
This languorous lily in garments loose | Z |
They sought to brace from the awful shock | A2 |
Taking a seat they tried to talk | B2 |
She spoke of Bergson and Pater's prose | C2 |
He prattled of dances and ragtime shows | C2 |
She purred of pictures Matisse Cezanne | F |
His tastes to the girls of Kirchner ran | F |
She raved of Tchaikovsky and Caesar Franck | D2 |
He owned that he was a jazz band crank | D2 |
They made no headway Alas alas | K |
He thought her a bore she thought him an ass | K |
And so they arose and hurriedly fled | H |
Perish Illusion Romance you're dead | H |
He loved elegance she loved art | H |
Better at once to part to part | H |
- | |
And what is the moral of all this rot | H |
Don't try to be what you know you're not | H |
And if you're made on a muttonish plan | F |
Don't seek to seem a Bohemian | F |
And if to the goats your feet incline | F |
Don't try to pass for a Philistine | F |
Robert Service
(1)
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