The Smoking Frog Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDEF GHGH IJIJ KHLH MKMK NKNK ONON PNQN KNKN RKRK ININ| Three men I saw beside a bar | A |
| Regarding o'er their bottle | B |
| A frog who smoked a rank cigar | A |
| They'd jammed within its throttle | B |
| - | |
| A Pasha frog it must have been | C |
| So big it as and bloated | D |
| And from its lips the nicotine | E |
| In graceful festoon floated | F |
| - | |
| And while the trio jeered and joked | G |
| As if it quite enjoyed it | H |
| Impassively it smoked and smoked | G |
| It could now well avoid it | H |
| - | |
| A ring of fire its lips were nigh | I |
| Yet it seemed all unwitting | J |
| It could not spit like you and I | I |
| Who've learned the art of spitting | J |
| - | |
| It did not wink it did not shrink | K |
| As there serene it squatted' | H |
| Its eyes were clear it did not fear | L |
| The fate the Gods allotted | H |
| - | |
| It squatted there with calm sublime | M |
| Amid their cruel guying | K |
| Grave as a god and all the time | M |
| It knew that it was dying | K |
| - | |
| And somehow then it seemed to me | N |
| These men expectorating | K |
| Were infinitely less than he | N |
| The dumb thing they were baiting | K |
| - | |
| It seemed to say despite their jokes | O |
| This is my hour of glory | N |
| It isn't every frog that smokes | O |
| My name will live in story | N |
| - | |
| Before its nose the smoke arose | P |
| The flame grew nigher nigher | N |
| And then I saw its bright eyes close | Q |
| Beside that ring of fire | N |
| - | |
| They turned it on its warty back | K |
| From off its bloated belly | N |
| It legs jerked out then dangled slack | K |
| It quivered like a jelly | N |
| - | |
| And then the fellows went away | R |
| Contented with their joking | K |
| But even as in death it lay | R |
| The frog continued smoking | K |
| - | |
| Life's like a lighted fag thought I | I |
| We smoke it stale then after | N |
| Death turns our belly to the sky | I |
| The Gods must have their laughter | N |
Robert William Service
(1)
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