The Irish Schoolmaster Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCDCDD A EDFDDGDGG A EHEDHHIHII J EHEKKLKLL K MKMFFDFDD J KKKKKNDNN J MHMHHKHKK J KOKOODODD K HKHKKDKKJ K PDPDDHDHH D MDMDDDDDD D HHHHHHHHH D MKMFFDFDD O DKDKKDQDD O QQQQQDQDD O DODOORORR O QDQDDSDSS O HHHHHDHDD D TKTKKKKKK D DMDMMDMDD D HUHUUHUHH D KDKDDDDDD D DDDDDVDVV O HDHDDHDHH O WDXDDDDDD O DKDKKMKMM O HDHDDMDFM O HFHFFDFDD D DKDKQGDGGI | A |
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Alack 'tis melancholy theme to think | B |
How Learning doth in rugged states abide | C |
And like her bashful owl obscurely blink | B |
In pensive glooms and corners scarcely spied | C |
Not as in Founders' Halls and domes of pride | C |
Served with grave homage like a tragic queen | D |
But with one lonely priest compell'd to hide | C |
In midst of foggy moors and mosses green | D |
In that clay cabin hight the College of Kilreen | D |
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II | A |
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This College looketh South and West alsoe | E |
Because it hath a cast in windows twain | D |
Crazy and crack'd they be and wind doth blow | F |
Through transparent holes in every pane | D |
Which Pan with many paines makes whole again | D |
With nether garments which his thrift doth teach | G |
To stand for glass like pronouns and when rain | D |
Stormeth he puts once more unto the breach | G |
Outside and in tho' broke yet so he mendeth each | G |
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III | A |
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And in the midst a little door there is | E |
Whereon a board that doth congratulate | H |
With painted letters red as blood I wis | E |
Thus written | D |
CHILDREN TAKEN IN TO BATE | H |
And oft indeed the inward of that gate | H |
Most ventriloque doth utter tender squeak | I |
And moans of infants that bemoan their fate | H |
In midst of sounds of Latin French and Greek | I |
Which all i' the Irish tongue he teacheth them to speak | I |
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IV | J |
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For some are meant to right illegal wrongs | E |
And some for Doctors of Divinitie | H |
Whom he doth teach to murder the dead tongues | E |
And soe win academical degree | K |
But some are bred for service of the sea | K |
Howbeit their store of learning is but small | L |
For mickle waste he counteth it would be | K |
To stock a head with bookish wares at all | L |
Only to be knock'd off by ruthless cannon ball | L |
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V | K |
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Six babes he sways some little and some big | M |
Divided into classes six alsoe | K |
He keeps a parlor boarder of a pig | M |
That in the College fareth to and fro | F |
And picketh up the urchins' crumbs below | F |
And eke the learned rudiments they scan | D |
And thus his A B C doth wisely know | F |
Hereafter to be shown in caravan | D |
And raise the wonderment of many a learned man | D |
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VI | J |
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Alsoe he schools some tame familiar fowls | K |
Whereof above his head some two or three | K |
Sit darkly squatting like Minerva's owls | K |
But on the branches of no living tree | K |
And overlook the learned family | K |
While sometimes Partlet from her gloomy perch | N |
Drops feather on the nose of Dominie | D |
Meanwhile with serious eye he makes research | N |
In leaves of that sour tree of knowledge now a birch | N |
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VII | J |
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No chair he hath the awful Pedagogue | M |
Such as would magisterial hams imbed | H |
But sitteth lowly on a beechen log | M |
Secure in high authority and dread | H |
Large as a dome for Learning seems his head | H |
And like Apollo's all beset with rays | K |
Because his locks are so unkempt and red | H |
And stand abroad in many several ways | K |
No laurel crown he wears howbeit his cap is baize | K |
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VIII | J |
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And underneath a pair of shaggy brows | K |
O'erhang as many eyes of gizzard hue | O |
That inward giblet of a fowl which shows | K |
A mongrel tint that is ne brown ne blue | O |
His nose it is a coral to the view | O |
Well nourish'd with Pierian Potheen | D |
For much he loves his native mountain dew | O |
But to depict the dye would lack I ween | D |
A bottle red in terms as well as bottle green | D |
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IX | K |
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As for his coat 'tis such a jerkin short | H |
As Spenser had ere he composed his Tales | K |
But underneath he hath no vest nor aught | H |
So that the wind his airy breast assails | K |
Below he wears the nether garb of males | K |
Of crimson plush but non plushed at the knee | D |
Thence further down the native red prevails | K |
Of his own naked fleecy hosierie | K |
Two sandals without soles complete his cap a pie | J |
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X | K |
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Nathless for dignity he now doth lap | P |
His function in a magisterial gown | D |
That shows more countries in it than a map | P |
Blue tinct and red and green and russet brown | D |
Besides some blots standing for country town | D |
And eke some rents for streams and rivers wide | H |
But sometimes bashful when he looks adown | D |
He turns the garment of the other side | H |
Hopeful that so the holes may never be espied | H |
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XI | D |
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And soe he sits amidst the little pack | M |
That look for shady or for sunny noon | D |
Within his visage like an almanack | M |
His quiet smile foretelling gracious boon | D |
But when his mouth droops down like rainy moon | D |
With horrid chill each little heart unwarms | D |
Knowing that infant show'rs will follow soon | D |
And with forebodings of near wrath and storms | D |
They sit like timid hares all trembling on their forms | D |
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XII | D |
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Ah luckless wight who cannot then repeat | H |
Corduroy Colloquy or Ki K Kod | H |
Full soon his tears shall make his turfy seat | H |
More sodden tho' already made of sod | H |
For Dan shall whip him with the word of God | H |
Severe by rule and not by nature mild | H |
He never spoils the child and spares the rod | H |
But spoils the rod and never spares the child | H |
And soe with holy rule deems he is reconcil'd | H |
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XIII | D |
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But surely the just sky will never wink | M |
At men who take delight in childish throe | K |
And stripe the nether urchin like a pink | M |
Or tender hyacinth inscribed with woe | F |
Such bloody Pedagogues when they shall know | F |
By useless birches that forlorn recess | D |
Which is no holiday in Pit below | F |
Will hell not seem design'd for their distress | D |
A melancholy place that is all bottomlesse | D |
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XIV | O |
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Yet would the Muse not chide the wholesome use | D |
Of needful discipline in due degree | K |
Devoid of sway what wrongs will time produce | D |
Whene'er the twig untrained grows up a tree | K |
This shall a Carder that a Whiteboy be | K |
Ferocious leaders of atrocious bands | D |
And Learning's help be used for infamie | Q |
By lawless clerks that with their bloody hands | D |
In murder'd English write Rock's murderous commands | D |
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XV | O |
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But ah what shrilly cry doth now alarm | Q |
The sooty fowls that dozed upon the beam | Q |
All sudden fluttering from the brandish'd arm | Q |
And cackling chorus with the human scream | Q |
Meanwhile the scourge plies that unkindly seam | Q |
In Phelim's brogues which bares his naked skin | D |
Like traitor gap in warlike fort I deem | Q |
That falsely lets the fierce besieger in | D |
Nor seeks the Pedagogue by other course to win | D |
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XVI | O |
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No parent dear he hath to heed his cries | D |
Alas his parent dear is far aloof | O |
And deep in Seven Dial cellar lies | D |
Killed by kind cudgel play or gin of proof | O |
Or climbeth catwise on some London roof | O |
Singing perchance a lay of Erin's Isle | R |
Or whilst he labors weaves a fancy woof | O |
Dreaming he sees his home his Phelim smile | R |
Ah me that luckless imp who weepeth all the while | R |
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XVII | O |
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Ah who can paint that hard and heavy time | Q |
When first the scholar lists in Learning's train | D |
And mounts her rugged steep enforc'd to climb | Q |
Like sooty imp by sharp posterior pain | D |
From bloody twig and eke that Indian cane | D |
Wherein alas no sugar'd juices dwell | S |
For this the while one stripling's sluices drain | D |
Another weepeth over chilblains fell | S |
Always upon the heel yet never to be well | S |
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XVIII | O |
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Anon a third for his delicious root | H |
Late ravish'd from his tooth by elder chit | H |
So soon is human violence afoot | H |
So hardly is the harmless biter bit | H |
Meanwhile the tyrant with untimely wit | H |
And mouthing face derides the small one's moan | D |
Who all lamenting for his loss doth sit | H |
Alack mischance comes seldomtimes alone | D |
But aye the worried dog must rue more curs than one | D |
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XIX | D |
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For lo the Pedagogue with sudden drub | T |
Smites his scald head that is already sore | K |
Superfluous wound such is Misfortune's rub | T |
Who straight makes answer with redoubled roar | K |
And sheds salt tears twice faster than before | K |
That still with backward fist he strives to dry | K |
Washing with brackish moisture o'er and o'er | K |
His muddy cheek that grows more foul thereby | K |
Till all his rainy face looks grim as rainy sky | K |
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XX | D |
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So Dan by dint of noise obtains a peace | D |
And with his natural untender knack | M |
By new distress bids former grievance cease | D |
Like tears dried up with rugged huckaback | M |
That sets the mournful visage all awrack | M |
Yet soon the childish countenance will shine | D |
Even as thorough storms the soonest slack | M |
For grief and beef in adverse ways incline | D |
This keeps and that decays when duly soak'd in brine | D |
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XXI | D |
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Now all is hushed and with a look profound | H |
The Dominie lays ope the learned page | U |
So be it called although he doth expound | H |
Without a book both Greek and Latin sage | U |
Now telleth he of Rome's rude infant age | U |
How Romulus was bred in savage wood | H |
By wet nurse wolf devoid of wolfish rage | U |
And laid foundation stone of walls of mud | H |
But watered it alas with warm fraternal blood | H |
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XXII | D |
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Anon he turns to that Homeric war | K |
How Troy was sieged like Londonderry town | D |
And stout Achilles at his jaunting car | K |
Dragged mighty Hector with a bloody crown | D |
And eke the bard that sung of their renown | D |
In garb of Greece most beggar like and torn | D |
He paints with colly wand'ring up and down | D |
Because at once in seven cities born | D |
And so of parish rights was all his days forlorn | D |
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XXIII | D |
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Anon through old Mythology he goes | D |
Of Gods defunct and all their pedigrees | D |
But shuns their scandalous amours and shows | D |
How Plato wise and clear ey'd Socrates | D |
Confess'd not to those heathen hes and shes | D |
But thro' the clouds of the Olympic cope | V |
Beheld St Peter with his holy keys | D |
And own'd their love was naught and bow'd to Pope | V |
Whilst all their purblind race in Pagan mist did grope | V |
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XXIV | O |
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From such quaint themes he turns at last aside | H |
To new philosophies that still are green | D |
And shows what railroads have been track'd to guide | H |
The wheels of great political machine | D |
If English corn should grow abroad I ween | D |
And gold be made of gold or paper sheet | H |
How many pigs be born to each spalpeen | D |
And ah how man shall thrive beyond his meat | H |
With twenty souls alive to one square sod of peat | H |
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XXV | O |
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Here he makes end and all the fry of youth | W |
That stood around with serious look intense | D |
Close up again their gaping eyes and mouth | X |
Which they had opened to his eloquence | D |
As if their hearing were a threefold sense | D |
But now the current of his words is done | D |
And whether any fruits shall spring from thence | D |
In future time with any mother's son | D |
It is a thing God wot that can be told by none | D |
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XXVI | O |
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Now by the creeping shadows of the noon | D |
The hour is come to lay aside their lore | K |
The cheerful Pedagogue perceives it soon | D |
And cries Begone unto the imps and four | K |
Snatch their two hats and struggle for the door | K |
Like ardent spirits vented from a cask | M |
All blithe and boisterous but leave two more | K |
With Reading made Uneasy for a task | M |
To weep whilst all their mates in merry sunshine bask | M |
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XXVII | O |
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Like sportive Elfins on the verdant sod | H |
With tender moss so sleekly overgrown | D |
That doth not hurt but kiss the sole unshod | H |
So soothly kind is Erin to her own | D |
And one at Hare and Hound plays all alone | D |
For Phelim's gone to tend his step dame's cow | M |
Ah Phelim's step dame is a canker'd crone | D |
Whilst other twain play at an Irish row | F |
And with shillelah small break one another's brow | M |
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XXVIII | O |
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But careful Dominie with ceaseless thrift | H |
Now changeth ferula for rural hoe | F |
But first of all with tender hand doth shift | H |
His college gown because of solar glow | F |
And hangs it on a bush to scare the crow | F |
Meanwhile he plants in earth the dappled bean | D |
Or trains the young potatoes all a row | F |
Or plucks the fragrant leek for pottage green | D |
With that crisp curly herb call'd Kale in Aberdeen | D |
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XXIX | D |
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And so he wisely spends the fruitful hours | D |
Linked each to each by labor like a bee | K |
Or rules in Learning's hall or trims her bow'rs | D |
Would there were many more such wights as he | K |
To sway each capital academie | Q |
Of Cam and Isis for alack at each | G |
There dwells I wot some dronish Dominie | D |
That does no garden work nor yet doth teach | G |
But wears a floury head and talks in flow'ry speech | G |
Thomas Hood
(1)
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