Municipal Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABACC AADD AEFF GGHH IJKK LMNN OOGP QLNDD| quot Why is my District death rate low quot | A |
| Said Binks of Hezabad | A |
| quot Well drains and sewage outfalls are | B |
| quot My own peculiar fad | A |
| quot I learnt a lesson once It ran | C |
| quot Thus quot quoth that most veracious man | C |
| - | |
| - | |
| It was an August evening and in snowy garments clad | A |
| I paid a round of visits in the lines of Hezabad | A |
| When presently my Waler saw and did not like at all | D |
| A Commissariat elephant careering down the Mall | D |
| - | |
| I couldn't see he driver and across my mind it rushed | A |
| That that Commissariat elephant had suddenly gone musth | E |
| I didn't care to meet him and I couldn't well get down | F |
| So I let the Waler have it and we headed for the town | F |
| - | |
| The buggy was a new one and praise Dykes it stood the strain | G |
| Till he Waler jumped a bullock just above the City Drain | G |
| And the next that I remember was a hurricane of squeals | H |
| And the creature making toothpicks of my five foot patent wheels | H |
| - | |
| He seemed to want the owner so I fled distraught with fear | I |
| To the Main Drain sewage outfall while he snorted in my ear | J |
| Reached the four foot drain head safely and in darkness and despair | K |
| Felt the brute's proboscis fingering my terror stiffened hair | K |
| - | |
| Heard it trumpet on my shoulder tried to crawl a little higher | L |
| Found the Main Drain sewage outfall blocked some eight feet up with mire | M |
| And for twenty reeking minutes Sir my very marrow froze | N |
| While the trunk was feeling blindly for a purchase on my toes | N |
| - | |
| It missed me by a fraction but my hair was turning grey | O |
| Before they called the drivers up and dragged the brute away | O |
| Then I sought the City Elders and my words were very plain | G |
| They flushed that four foot drain head and it never choked again | P |
| - | |
| You may hold with surface drainage and the sun for garbage cure | Q |
| Till you've been a periwinkle shrinking coyly up a sewer | L |
| I believe in well flushed culverts | N |
| This is why the death rate's small | D |
| And if you don't believe me get shikarred yourself That's all | D |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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