The Betrothed Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB AA AA CC DD EE FF AA GG AA HH II AA JK LL AA MN HH OO PP QQ AA RS TU VV WW XY| quot You must choose between me and your cigar quot | A |
| BREACH OF PROMISE CASE CIRCA | B |
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| Open the old cigar box get me a Cuba stout | A |
| For things are running crossways and Maggie and I are out | A |
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| We quarrelled about Havanas we fought o'er a good cheroot | A |
| And I knew she is exacting and she says I am a brute | A |
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| Open the old cigar box let me consider a space | C |
| In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face | C |
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| Maggie is pretty to look at Maggie's a loving lass | D |
| But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle the truest of loves must pass | D |
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| There's peace in a Larranaga there's calm in a Henry Clay | E |
| But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away | E |
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| Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown | F |
| But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town | F |
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| Maggie my wife at fifty grey and dour and old | A |
| With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold | A |
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| And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are | G |
| And Love's torch stinking and stale like the butt of a dead cigar | G |
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| The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket | A |
| With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket | A |
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| Open the old cigar box let me consider a while | H |
| Here is a mild Manila there is a wifely smile | H |
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| Which is the better portion bondage bought with a ring | I |
| Or a harem of dusky beauties fifty tied in a string | I |
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| Counsellors cunning and silent comforters true and tried | A |
| And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride | A |
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| Thought in the early morning solace in time of woes | J |
| Peace in the hush of the twilight balm ere my eyelids close | K |
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| This will the fifty give me asking nought in return | L |
| With only a Suttee's passion to do their duty and burn | L |
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| This will the fifty give me When they are spent and dead | A |
| Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead | A |
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| The furrows of far off Java the isles of the Spanish Main | M |
| When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again | N |
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| I will take no heed to their raiment nor food for their mouths withal | H |
| So long as the gulls are nesting so long as the showers fall | H |
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| I will scent 'em with best vanilla with tea will I temper their hides | O |
| And the Moor and the Mormon shall envy who read of the tale of my brides | O |
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| For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between | P |
| The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen | P |
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| And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear | Q |
| But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year | Q |
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| And the gloom of my bachelor days is flecked with the cheery light | A |
| Of stums that I burned to Friendship and Pleasure and Work and Fight | A |
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| And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove | R |
| But the only light on the marshes is the Will o' the Wisp of Love | S |
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| Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire | T |
| Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it shall I follow the fitful fire | U |
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| Open the old cigar box let me consider anew | V |
| Old friends and who is Maggie that I should abandon you | V |
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| A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke | W |
| And a woman is only a woman but a good Cigar is a Smoke | W |
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| Light me another Cuba I hold to my first sworn vows | X |
| If Maggie will have no rival I'll have no Maggie for Spouse | Y |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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