Craniology Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDAAEEAAFFGG HHIIAAAAJKLLMMNN OONNPPGGAAGGAAFFAAAA AANNNNNNQRGGSSPPTUVV LLNNAAGG AAAAGGRGLLGG GGLLNNRRLLGGNNBBWWRR SS

'Tis strange how like a very dunceA
Man with his bumps upon his sconceA
Has lived so long and yet no knowledge heB
Has had till lately of PhrenologyC
A science that by simple dint ofD
Head combing he should find a hint ofD
When scratching o'er those little poll hillsA
The faculties throw up like mole hillsA
A science that in very spiteE
Of all his teeth ne'er came to lightE
For though he knew his skull had grindersA
Still there turned up no organ findersA
Still sages wrote and ages fledF
And no man's head came in his headF
Not even the pate of Erra PaterG
Knew aught about its pia materG
-
At last great Dr Gall bestirs himH
I don't know but it might be SpurzheimH
Tho' native of a dull and slow landI
And makes partition of our Poll landI
At our Acquisitiveness guessesA
And all those necessary nessesA
Indicative of human habitsA
All burrowing in the head like rabbitsA
Thus Veneration he made knownJ
Had got a lodging at the CrownK
And Music see Deville's exampleL
A set of chambers in the TempleL
That Language taught the tongues close byM
And took in pupils thro' the eyeM
Close by his neighbor ComputationN
Who taught the eyebrows numerationN
-
The science thus to speak in fitO
Terms having struggled from its nitO
Was seized on by a swarm of ScotchmenN
Those scientifical hotch potch menN
Who have at least a penny dipP
And wallop in all doctorshipP
Just as in making broth they smatterG
By bobbing twenty things in waterG
These men I say made quick applianceA
And close to phrenologic scienceA
For of all learned themes whateverG
That schools and colleges deliverG
There's none they love so near the bodlesA
As analysing their own noddlesA
Thus in a trice each northern blockheadF
Had got his fingers in his shock headF
And of his bumps was babbling yet worseA
Than poor Miss Capulet's dry wet nurseA
Till having been sufficient rangersA
Of their own heads they took to strangers'A
And found in Presbyterians' pollsA
The things they hated in their soulsA
For Presbyterians hear with passionN
Of organs joined with venerationN
No kind there was of human pumpkinN
But at its bumps it had a bumpkinN
Down to the very lowest gullionN
And oiliest skull of oily scullionN
No great man died but this they did doQ
They begged his cranium of his widowR
No murderer died by law disasterG
But they took off his sconce in plasterG
For thereon they could show dependingS
The head and front of his offendingS
How that his philanthropic bumpP
Was mastered by a baser lumpP
For every bump these wags insistT
Has its direct antagonistU
Each striving stoutly to prevailV
Like horses knotted tail to tailV
And many a stiff and sturdy battleL
Occurs between these adverse cattleL
The secret cause beyond all questionN
Of aches ascribed to indigestionN
Whereas 'tis but two knobby rivalsA
Tugging together like sheer devilsA
Till one gets mastery good or sinisterG
And comes in like a new prime ministerG
-
Each bias in some master node isA
What takes M'Adam where a road isA
To hammer little pebbles lessA
His organ of DestructivenessA
What makes great Joseph so encumberG
Debate a lumping lump of NumberG
Or Malthas rail at babies soR
The smallness of his PhiloproG
What severs man and wife a simpleL
Defect of the Adhesive pimpleL
Or makes weak women go astrayG
Their bumps are more in fault than theyG
-
These facts being found and set in orderG
By grave M D 's beyond the BorderG
To make them for some months eternalL
Were entered monthly in a journalL
That many a northern sage still writes inN
And throws his little Northern Lights inN
And proves and proves about the phrenosR
A great deal more than I or he knowsR
How Music suffers par exempleL
By wearing tight hats round the templeL
What ills great boxers have to fearG
From blisters put behind the earG
And how a porter's VenerationN
Is hurt by porter's occupationN
Whether shillelaghs in realityB
May deaden IndividualityB
Or tongs and poker be creativeW
Of alterations in th' AmativeW
If falls from scaffolds make us lessR
Inclined to all ConstructivenessR
With more such matters all applyingS
To heads and therefore head ifyingS

Thomas Hood



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