Voltaire At Ferney Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCA DEFFED GHIHIG JKLMKJ NODDON| Almost happy now he looked at his estate | A |
| An exile making watches glanced up as he passed | B |
| And went on working where a hospital was rising fast | B |
| A joiner touched his cap an agent came to tell | C |
| Some of the trees he'd planted were progressing well | C |
| The white alps glittered It was summer He was very great | A |
| - | |
| Far off in Paris where his enemies | D |
| Whsipered that he was wicked in an upright chair | E |
| A blind old woman longed for death and letters He would write | F |
| Nothing is better than life But was it Yes the fight | F |
| Against the false and the unfair | E |
| Was always worth it So was gardening Civilise | D |
| - | |
| Cajoling scolding screaming cleverest of them all | G |
| He'd had the other children in a holy war | H |
| Against the infamous grown ups and like a child been sly | I |
| And humble when there was occassion for | H |
| The two faced answer or the plain protective lie | I |
| But patient like a peasant waited for their fall | G |
| - | |
| And never doubted like D'Alembert he would win | J |
| Only Pascal was a great enemy the rest | K |
| Were rats already poisoned there was much though to be done | L |
| And only himself to count upon | M |
| Dear Diderot was dull but did his best | K |
| Rousseau he'd always known would blubber and give in | J |
| - | |
| So like a sentinel he could not sleep The night was full of wrong | N |
| Earthquakes and executions Soon he would be dead | O |
| And still all over Europe stood the horrible nurses | D |
| Itching to boil their children Only his verses | D |
| Perhaps could stop them He must go on working Overhead | O |
| The uncomplaining stars composed their lucid song | N |
W. H. Auden
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