Pairing Time Anticipated. A Fable Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDBEEFFGHCCIIJJ KLMMNOOPPQQBBRRSSJJT TUUUVWXXXYYAAZZCCNNC CBA2QA2Q| I shall not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau | A |
| If birds confabulate or no | A |
| 'Tis clear that they were always able | B |
| To hold discourse at least in fable | B |
| And e'en the child who knows no better | C |
| Than to interpret by the letter | C |
| A story of a cock and bull | D |
| Must have a most uncommon skull | B |
| It chanced then on a winter's day | E |
| But warm and bright and calm as May | E |
| The birds conceiving a design | F |
| To forestall sweet St Valentine | F |
| In many an orchard copse and grove | G |
| Assembled on affairs of love | H |
| And with much twitter and much chatter | C |
| Began to agitate the matter | C |
| At length a Bullfinch who could boast | I |
| More years and wisdom than the most | I |
| Entreated opening wide his beak | J |
| A moment's liberty to speak | J |
| And silence publicly enjoin'd | K |
| Deliver'd briefly thus his mind | L |
| My friends be cautious how ye treat | M |
| The subject upon which we meet | M |
| I fear we shall have winter yet | N |
| A Finch whose tongue knew no control | O |
| With golden wing and satin poll | O |
| A last year's bird who ne'er had tried | P |
| What marriage means thus pert replied | P |
| Methinks the gentleman quoth she | Q |
| Opposite in the apple tree | Q |
| By his good will would keep us single | B |
| Till yonder heaven and earth shall mingle | B |
| Or which is likelier to befall | R |
| Till death exterminate us all | R |
| I marry without more ado | S |
| My dear Dick Redcap what say you | S |
| Dick heard and tweedling ogling bridling | J |
| Turning short round strutting and sideling | J |
| Attested glad his approbation | T |
| Of an immediate conjugation | T |
| Their sentiments so well express'd | U |
| Influenced mightily the rest | U |
| All pair'd and each pair built a nest | U |
| But though the birds were thus in haste | V |
| The leaves came on not quite so fast | W |
| And destiny that sometimes bears | X |
| An aspect stern on man's affairs | X |
| Not altogether smiled on theirs | X |
| The wind of late breathed gently forth | Y |
| Now shifted east and east by north | Y |
| Bare trees and shrubs but ill you know | A |
| Could shelter them from rain or snow | A |
| Stepping into their nests they paddled | Z |
| Themselves were chill'd their eggs were addled | Z |
| Soon every father bird and mother | C |
| Grew quarrelsome and peck'd each other | C |
| Parted without the least regret | N |
| Except that they had ever met | N |
| And learn'd in future to be wiser | C |
| Than to neglect a good adviser | C |
| moral | B |
| Misses the tale that I relate | A2 |
| This lesson seems to carry | Q |
| Choose not alone a proper mate | A2 |
| But proper time to marry | Q |
William Cowper
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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