The Poet, The Oyster, And Sensitive Plant Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGHIIJJKLMM NNOPQQHHRRSTUUVVUUWW XXCBYYZZA2A2B2B2MMQQ C2C2D2RE2F2IIG2G2An Oyster cast upon the shore | A |
Was heard though never heard before | A |
Complaining in a speech well worded | B |
And worthy thus to be recorded | C |
Ah hapless wretch condemn d to dwell | D |
For ever in my native shell | D |
Ordain'd to move when others please | E |
Not for my own content or ease | E |
But toss d and buffeted about | F |
Now in the water and now out | F |
'Twere better to be born a stone | G |
Of ruder shape and feeling none | H |
Than with a tenderness like mine | I |
And sensibilities so fine | I |
I envy that unfeeling shrub | J |
Fast rooted against every rub | J |
The plant he meant grew not far off | K |
And felt the sneer with scorn enough | L |
Was hurt disgusted mortified | M |
And with asperity replied | M |
When cry the botanists and stare | N |
Did plants call'd sensitive grow there | N |
No matter when a poet's muse is | O |
To make them grow just where she chooses | P |
You shapeless nothing in a dish | Q |
You that are but almost a fish | Q |
I scorn your coarse insinuation | H |
And have most plentiful occasion | H |
To wish myself the rock I view | R |
Or such another dolt as you | R |
For many a grave and learned clerk | S |
And many a gay unletter'd spark | T |
With curious touch examines me | U |
If I can feel as well as he | U |
And when I bend retire and shrink | V |
Says Well 'tis more than one would think | V |
Thus life is spent oh fie upon't | U |
In being touch'd and crying Don t | U |
A poet in his evening walk | W |
O erheard and check'd this idle talk | W |
And your fine sense he said and yours | X |
Whatever evil it endures | X |
Deserves not if so soon offended | C |
Much to be pitied or commended | B |
Disputes though short are far too long | Y |
Where both alike are in the wrong | Y |
Your feelings in their full amount | Z |
Are all upon your own account | Z |
You in your grotto work enclosed | A2 |
Complain of being thus exposed | A2 |
Yet nothing feel in that rough coat | B2 |
Save when the knife is at your throat | B2 |
Wherever driven by wind or tide | M |
Exempt from every ill beside | M |
And as for you my Lady Squeamish | Q |
Who reckon every touch a blemish | Q |
If all the plants that can be found | C2 |
Embellishing the scene around | C2 |
Should droop and wither where they grow | D2 |
You would not feel at all not you | R |
The noblest minds their virtue prove | E2 |
By pity sympathy and love | F2 |
These these are feelings truly fine | I |
And prove their owner half divine | I |
His censure reach d them as he dealt it | G2 |
And each by shrinking show d he felt it | G2 |
William Cowper
(1)
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