The Green Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBACDCCDEFFFEEEGDGD CHCH CCCCCICIJCCJJBKBKLMM L DDNCCNCCOCOCCPQQPRSR S CSCS LT CUUCVVCQQCVVWSSW RRQCCQXVVXX YZZYDVVDA2A2B2B2C2D2 C2D2E2E2EF2EF2G2G2ZE 2E2WW H2H2I2J2J2I2E2K2E2K2 F2F2 L2E2L2E2E2M2E2E2M2M2 CDDCCE2E2N2N2DO2O2DE 2E2CK2CK2 K2N2N2K2K2DK2DK2P2K2 K2P2CCP2Q2K2Q2K2 E2CE2CCCCCE2CCE2E2CE 2CCE2E2CN2N2N2N2 N2N2E2E2E2CDDCCCCTom Simpson was as nice a kind of man | A |
As ever lived at least at number Four | B |
In Austin Friars in Mrs Brown's first floor | B |
At fifty pounds or thereabouts per ann | A |
The Lady reckon'd him her best of lodgers | C |
His rent so punctually paid each quarter | D |
He did not smoke like nasty foreign codgers | C |
Or play French horns like Mr Rogers | C |
Or talk his flirting nonsense to her daughter | D |
Not that the girl was light behaved or courtable | E |
Still on one failing tenderly to touch | F |
The Gentleman did like a drop too much | F |
Tho' there are many such | F |
And took more Port than was exactly portable | E |
In fact to put the cap upon the nipple | E |
And try the charge Tom certainly did tipple | E |
He thought the motto was but sorry stuff | G |
On Cribb's Prize Cup Yes wrong in ev'ry letter | D |
That D d be he who first cries Hold Enough | G |
The more cups hold and if enough the better | D |
And so to set example in the eyes | C |
Of Fancy's lads and give a broadish hint to them | H |
All his cups were of such ample size | C |
That he got into them | H |
- | |
Once in the company of merry mates | C |
In spite of Temperance's if's and buts | C |
So sure as Eating is set off with plates | C |
His Drinking always was bound up with cuts | C |
Howbeit such Bacchanalian revels | C |
Bring very sad catastrophes about | I |
Palsy Dyspepsy Dropsy and Blue Devils | C |
Not to forget the Gout | I |
Sometimes the liver takes a spleenful whim | J |
To grow to Strasburg's regulation size | C |
As if for those hepatical goose pies | C |
Or out of depth the head begins to swim | J |
Poor Simpson what a thing occurred to him | J |
'Twas Christmas he had drunk the night before | B |
Like Baxter who so went beyond his last | K |
One bottle more and then one bottle more | B |
Till oh the red wine Ruby con was pass'd | K |
And homeward by the short small chimes of day | L |
With many a circumbendibus to spare | M |
For instance twice round Finsbury Square | M |
To use a fitting phrase he wound his way | L |
- | |
Then comes the rising with repentance bitter | D |
And all the nerves and sparrows in a twitter | D |
Till settled by the sober Chinese cup | N |
The hands o'er all are members that make motions | C |
A sort of wavering just like the ocean's | C |
Which has its swell too when it's getting up | N |
An awkward circumstance enough for elves | C |
Who shave themselves | C |
And Simpson just was ready to go thro' it | O |
When lo the first short glimpse within the glass | C |
He jump'd and who alive would fail to do it | O |
To see however it had come to pass | C |
One section of his face as green as grass | C |
In vain each eager wipe | P |
With soap without wet hot or cold or dry | Q |
Still still and still to his astonished eye | Q |
One cheek was green the other cherry ripe | P |
Plump in the nearest chair he sat him down | R |
Quaking and quite absorb'd in a deep study | S |
But verdant and not brown | R |
What could have happened to a tint so ruddy | S |
- | |
Indeed it was a very novel case | C |
By way of penalty for being jolly | S |
To have that evergreen stuck in his face | C |
Just like the windows with their Christmas holly | S |
- | |
All claret marks thought he Tom knew his forte | L |
Are red this color CANNOT come from Port | T |
- | |
One thing was plain with such a face as his | C |
'Twas quite impossible to ever greet | U |
Good Mrs Brown nay any party meet | U |
Altho' 'twas such a parti colored phiz | C |
As for the public fancy Sarcy Ned | V |
The coachman flying dog like at his head | V |
With Ax your pardon Sir but if you please | C |
Unless it comes too high | Q |
Vere ought a feller now to go to buy | Q |
The t'other half Sir of that 'ere green cheese | C |
His mind recoil'd so he tied up his head | V |
As with a raging tooth and took to bed | V |
Of course with feelings far from the serene | W |
For all his future prospects seemed to be | S |
To match his customary tea | S |
Black mixt with green | W |
- | |
Meanwhile good Mrs Brown | R |
Wondered at Mr S not coming down | R |
And sent the maid up stairs to learn the why | Q |
To whom poor Simpson half delirious | C |
Returned an answer so mysterious | C |
That curiosity began to fry | Q |
The more as Betty who had caught a snatch | X |
By peeping in upon the patient's bed | V |
Reported a most bloody tied up head | V |
Got over night of course Harm watch harm catch | X |
From Watchmen in a boxing match | X |
- | |
So liberty or not | Y |
Good lodgers are too scarce to let them off in | Z |
A suicidal coffin | Z |
The dame ran up as fast as she could trot | Y |
Appearance fiddle sticks should not deter | D |
From going to the bed | V |
And looking at the head | V |
La Mister S he need not care for her | D |
A married woman that had had | A2 |
Nine boys and gals and none had turned out bad | A2 |
Her own dear late would come home late at night | B2 |
And liquor always got him in a fight | B2 |
She'd been in hospitals she wouldn't faint | C2 |
At gores and gashes fingers wide and deep | D2 |
She knew what's good for bruises and what ain't | C2 |
Turlington's Drops she made a pint to keep | D2 |
Cases she'd seen beneath the surgent's hand | E2 |
Such skulls japann'd she meant to say trepann'd | E2 |
Poor wretches you would think they'd been in battle | E |
And hadn't hours to live | F2 |
From tearing horses' kicks or Smithfield cattle | E |
Shamefully over driv | F2 |
Heads forced to have a silver plate atop | G2 |
To get the brains to stop | G2 |
At imputations of the legs she'd been | Z |
And neither screech'd nor cried | E2 |
Hereat she pluck'd the white cravat aside | E2 |
And lo the whole phenomenon was seen | W |
Preserve us all He's going to gangrene | W |
- | |
Alas through Simpson's brain | H2 |
Shot the remark like ball with mortal pain | H2 |
It tallied truly with his own misgiving | I2 |
And brought a groan | J2 |
To move a heart of stone | J2 |
A sort of farewell to the land of living | I2 |
And as the case was imminent and urgent | E2 |
He did not make a shadow of objection | K2 |
To Mrs B 's proposal for a surgent | E2 |
But merely gave a sigh of deep dejection | K2 |
While down the verdant cheek a tear of grief | F2 |
Stole like a dew drop on a cabbage leaf | F2 |
- | |
Swift flew the summons it was life or death | L2 |
And in as short a time as he could race it | E2 |
Came Doctor Puddicome as short of breath | L2 |
To try his Latin charms against Hic Jacet | E2 |
He took a seat beside the patient's bed | E2 |
Saw tongue felt pulse examined the bad cheek | M2 |
Poked strok'd pinch'd kneaded it hemm'd | E2 |
shook his head | E2 |
Took a long solemn pause the cause to seek | M2 |
Thinking it seem'd in Greek | M2 |
Then ask'd 'twas Christmas Had he eaten grass | C |
Or greens and if the cook was so improper | D |
To boil them up with copper | D |
Or farthings made of brass | C |
Or if he drank his Hock from dark green glass | C |
Or dined at City Festivals whereat | E2 |
There's turtle and green fat | E2 |
To all of which with serious tone of woe | N2 |
Poor Simpson answered No | N2 |
Indeed he might have said in form auricular | D |
Supposing Puddicome had been a monk | O2 |
He had not eaten he had only drunk | O2 |
Of anything Particular | D |
The Doctor was at fault | E2 |
A thing so new quite brought him to a halt | E2 |
Cases of other colors came in crowds | C |
He could have found their remedy and soon | K2 |
But green it sent him up among the clouds | C |
As if he had gone up with Green's balloon | K2 |
- | |
Black with Black Jaundice he had seen the skin | K2 |
From Yellow Jaundice yellow | N2 |
From saffron tints to sallow | N2 |
Then retrospective memory lugg'd in | K2 |
Old Purple Face the Host at Kentish Town | K2 |
East Indians without number | D |
He knew familiarly by heat done Brown | K2 |
From tan to a burnt umber | D |
Ev'n those eruptions he had never seen | K2 |
Of which the Caledonian Poet spoke | P2 |
As rashes growing green | K2 |
Phoo phoo a rash grow green | K2 |
Nothing of course but a broad Scottish joke | P2 |
Then as to flaming visages for those | C |
The Scarlet Fever answer'd or the Rose | C |
But verdant that was quite a novel stroke | P2 |
Men turn'd to blue by Cholera's last stage | Q2 |
In common practice he had really seen | K2 |
But Green he was too old and grave and sage | Q2 |
To think of the last stage to Turnham Green | K2 |
- | |
So matters stood in doors meanwhile without | E2 |
Growing in going like all other rumors | C |
The modern miracle was buzz'd about | E2 |
By people of all humors | C |
Native or foreign in their dialecticals | C |
Till all the neighborhood as if their noses | C |
Had taken the odd gross from little Moses | C |
Seemed looking thro' green spectacles | C |
Green faces so they all began to comment | E2 |
Yes opposite to Druggists' lighted shops | C |
But that's a flying color never stops | C |
A bottle green that's vanish'd in a moment | E2 |
Green nothing of the sort occurs to mind | E2 |
Nothing at all to match the present piece | C |
Jack in the Green has nothing of the kind | E2 |
Green grocers are not green nor yet green geese | C |
The oldest Supercargoes or Old Sailors | C |
Of such a case had never heard | E2 |
From Emerald Isle to Cape de Verd | E2 |
Or Greenland cried the whalers | C |
All tongues were full of the Green Man and still | N2 |
They could not make him out with all their skill | N2 |
No soul could shape the matter head or tail | N2 |
But Truth steps in where all conjectures fail | N2 |
- | |
A long half hour in needless puzzle | N2 |
Our Galen's cane had rubbed against his muzzle | N2 |
He thought and thought and thought and | E2 |
thought and thought | E2 |
And still it came to nought | E2 |
When up rush'd Betty loudest of Town Criers | C |
Lord Ma'am the new Police is at the door | D |
It's B ma'am Twenty four | D |
As brought home Mister S to Austin Friars | C |
And says there's nothing but a simple case | C |
He got that 'ere green face | C |
By sleeping in the kennel near the Dyer's | C |
Thomas Hood
(1)
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