The Enemy's Portrait Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBBDBD AEFEEFEF FGHGGIGI JFFFFKFK KLFLLMLM| He saw the portrait of his enemy offered | A |
| At auction in a street he journeyed nigh | B |
| That enemy now late dead who in his life time | C |
| Had injured deeply him the passer by | B |
| To get that picture pleased be God I'll try | B |
| And utterly destroy it and no more | D |
| Shall be inflicted on man's mortal eye | B |
| A countenance so sinister and sore | D |
| - | |
| And so he bought the painting Driving homeward | A |
| The frame will come in useful he declared | E |
| The rest is fuel On his arrival weary | F |
| Asked what he bore with him and how he fared | E |
| He said he had bid for a picture though he cared | E |
| For the frame only on the morrow he | F |
| Would burn the canvas which could well be spared | E |
| Seeing that it portrayed his enemy | F |
| - | |
| Next day some other duty found him busy | F |
| The foe was laid his face against the wall | G |
| But on the next he set himself to loosen | H |
| The straining strips And then a casual call | G |
| Prevented his proceeding therewithal | G |
| And thus the picture waited day by day | I |
| Its owner's pleasure like a wretched thrall | G |
| Until a month and more had slipped away | I |
| - | |
| And then upon a morn he found it shifted | J |
| Hung in a corner by a servitor | F |
| Why did you take on you to hang that picture | F |
| You know it was the frame I bought it for | F |
| It stood in the way of every visitor | F |
| And I just hitched it there Well it must go | K |
| I don't commemorate men whom I abhor | F |
| Remind me 'tis to do The frame I'll stow | K |
| - | |
| But things become forgotten In the shadow | K |
| Of the dark corner hung it by its string | L |
| And there it stayed once noticed by its owner | F |
| Who said Ah me I must destroy that thing | L |
| But when he died there none remembering | L |
| It hung till moved to prominence as one sees | M |
| And comers pause and say examining | L |
| I thought they were the bitterest enemies | M |
Thomas Hardy
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