The Sweeps Complaint Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB CDC EEEFGGGFHHHIJJJIKKKA LLLAMMMMCCCM JJNNDDDOODDCCOOOOJJK KOOOOOOMMOOCCOOCCOOO OBOPPCCOOQROOCCOOOO

I like to meet a sweep such as come forth with the dawn or somewhat earlier with their little professional notes sounding like the peep peep of a young sparrowA
ESSAYS OF ELIAB
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A voice cried Sweep no moreC
Macbeth hath murdered sweepD
SHAKSPEAREC
-
-
One morning ere my usual timeE
I rose about the seventh chimeE
When little stunted boys that climbE
Still linger in the streetF
And as I walked I saw indeedG
A sample of the sooty breedG
Though he was rather run to seedG
In height above five feetF
A mongrel tint he seemed to takeH
Poetic simile to makeH
DAY through his MARTIN 'gan to breakH
White overcoming jetI
From side to side he crossed obliqueJ
Like Frenchman who has friends to seekJ
And yet no English word can speakJ
He walked upon the fretI
And while he sought the dingy jobK
His lab'ring breast appeared to throbK
And half a hiccup half a sobK
Betray'd internal woeA
To cry amain he had by roteL
He yearn'd but law forbade the noteL
Like Chanticleer with roupy throatL
He gaped but not a crowA
I watched him and the glimpse I snatchedM
Disclosed his sorry eyelids patch'dM
With red as if the soot had catch'dM
That hung about the lidM
And soon I saw the tear drop strayC
He did not care to brush awayC
Thought I the cause he will betrayC
And thus at last he didM
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Well here's a pretty go here's a Gagging Act if ever there was a gaggingJ
But I'm bound the members as silenced us in doing it had plenty of maggingJ
They had better send us all off they had to the School for the Deaf and DumbN
To unlarn us our mother tongues and to make signs and be regularly mumN
But they can't undo natur as sure as ever the morning begins to peepD
Directly I open my eyes I can't help calling out SweepD
As natural as the sparrows among the chimbley pots that say CheepD
For my own part I find my suppressed voice very uneasyO
And comparable to nothing but having your tissue stopt when you are sneezyO
Well it's all up with us tho' I suppose we mustn't cry all upD
Here's a precious merry Christmas I'm blest if I can earn either bit or supD
If crying Sweep of mornings is going beyond quietness's borderC
Them as pretends to be fond of silence oughtn't to cry hear hear and order orderC
I wonder Mr Sutton as we've sut on too don't sympathize with usO
As a Speaker what don't speak and that's exactly our own cusO
God help us if we don't not cry how are we to pursue our callingsO
I'm sure we're not half so bad as other businesses with their bawlingsO
For instance the general postmen that at six o'clock go about ringingJ
And wake up all the babbies that their mothers have just got to sleep with singingJ
Greens oughtn't to be cried no more than blacks to do the unpartial jobK
If they bring in a Sooty Bill they ought to have brought in a Dusty BobK
Is a dustman's voice more sweet than ourn when he comes a seeking arter the cindersO
Instead of a little boy like a blackbird in spring singing merrily under your windowsO
There's the omnibus cads as plies in Cheapside and keeps calling out Bank and CityO
Let his Worship the Mayor decide if our call of Sweep is not just as prettyO
I can't see why the Jews should be let go about crying Old Close thro' their hooky nosesO
And Christian laws should be ten times more hard than the old stone laws of MosesO
Why isn't the mouths of the muffin men compell'd to be equally shutM
Why because Parliament members eat muffins but they never eat no sutM
Next year there won't be any May day at all we shan't have no heart to danceO
And Jack in the Green will go in black like mourning for our mischanceO
If we live as long as May that's to say through the hard winter and pinching weatherC
For I don't see how we're to earn enough to keep body and soul togetherC
I only wish Mr Wilberforce or some of them that pities the niggersO
Would take a peep down in our cellars and look at our miserable starving figuresO
A sitting idle on our empty sacks and all ready to eat each otherC
And a brood of little ones crying for bread to a heartbreaking Father and MotherC
They havn't a rag of clothes to mend if their mothers had thread and needlesO
But crawl naked about the cellars poor things like a swarm of common black beadlesO
If they'd only inquired before passing the Act and taken a few such peepsO
I don't think that any real gentleman would have set his face against sweepsO
Climbing's an ancient respectable art and if History's of any vallyB
Was recommended by Queen Elizabeth to the great Sir Walter RaleighO
When he wrote on a pane of glass how I'd climb if the way I only knewP
And she writ beneath if your heart's afeard don't venture up the flueP
As for me I was always loyal and respected all powers that are higherC
But how can I now say God save the King if I ain't to be a CryerC
There's London milk that's one of the cries even on Sunday the law allowsO
But ought black sweeps that are human beasts to be worser off than black cowsO
Do we go calling about when it's church time like the noisy Billingsgate verminQ
And disturb the parson with All alive O in the middle of a funeral sermonR
But the fish won't keep not the mackerel won't is the cry of the Parliament elvesO
Everything except the sweeps I think is to be allowed to keep themselvesO
Lord help us what's to become of us if we mustn't cry no moreC
We shan't do for black mutes to go a standing at a death's doorC
And we shan't do to emigrate no not even to the Hottentot nationsO
For as time wears on our black will wear off and then think of our situationsO
And we should not do in lieu of black a moor footmen to serve ladies of quality nimblyO
For when we were drest in our sky blue and silver and large frills all clean and neat and white silk stockings if they pleased to desire us to sweep the hearth we couldn't resist the chimbleyO

Thomas Hood



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