A Nightmare Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFEGHIHHDJDKHBH LMNOPQRQSTUTVWEWXDYD ZCA2CB2C2D2C2E2BF2BB A2G2G2H2HWHWF2ZI2F2C WLG2W| When you're lying awake with a dismal headache and repose is | A |
| taboo'd by anxiety | B |
| I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in | C |
| without impropriety | B |
| For your brain is on fire the bedclothes conspire of usual | D |
| slumber to plunder you | E |
| First your counterpane goes and uncovers your toes and your sheet | F |
| slips demurely from under you | E |
| Then the blanketing tickles you feel like mixed pickles so | G |
| terribly sharp is the pricking | H |
| And you're hot and you're cross and you tumble and toss till | I |
| there's nothing 'twixt you and the ticking | H |
| Then the bedclothes all creep to the ground in a heap and you pick | H |
| 'em all up in a tangle | D |
| Next your pillow resigns and politely declines to remain at its | J |
| usual angle | D |
| Well you get some repose in the form of a doze with hot eyeballs | K |
| and head ever aching | H |
| But your slumbering teems with such horrible dreams that you'd very | B |
| much better be waking | H |
| For you dream you are crossing the Channel and tossing about in a | L |
| steamer from Harwich | M |
| Which is something between a large bathing machine and a very small | N |
| second class carriage | O |
| And you're giving a treat penny ice and cold meat to a party of | P |
| friends and relations | Q |
| They're a ravenous horde and they all came on board at Sloane | R |
| Square and South Kensington Stations | Q |
| And bound on that journey you find your attorney who started that | S |
| morning from Devon | T |
| He's a bit undersized and you don't feel surprised when he tells | U |
| you he's only eleven | T |
| Well you're driving like mad with this singular lad by the bye | V |
| the ship's now a four wheeler | W |
| And you're playing round games and he calls you bad names when you | E |
| tell him that ties pay the dealer | W |
| But this you can't stand so you throw up your hand and you find | X |
| you're as cold as an icicle | D |
| In your shirt and your socks the black silk with gold clocks | Y |
| crossing Salisbury Plain on a bicycle | D |
| And he and the crew are on bicycles too which they've somehow or | Z |
| other invested in | C |
| And he's telling the tars all the particuLARS of a company he's | A2 |
| interested in | C |
| It's a scheme of devices to get at low prices all goods from | B2 |
| cough mixtures to cables | C2 |
| Which tickled the sailors by treating retailers as though they | D2 |
| were all vegeTAbles | C2 |
| You get a good spadesman to plant a small tradesman first take off | E2 |
| his boots with a boot tree | B |
| And his legs will take root and his fingers will shoot and | F2 |
| they'll blossom and bud like a fruit tree | B |
| From the greengrocer tree you get grapes and green pea | B |
| cauliflower pineapple and cranberries | A2 |
| While the pastry cook plant cherry brandy will grant apple puffs | G2 |
| and three corners and banberries | G2 |
| The shares are a penny and ever so many are taken by ROTHSCHILD | H2 |
| and BARING | H |
| And just as a few are allotted to you you awake with a shudder | W |
| despairing | H |
| You're a regular wreck with a crick in your neck and no wonder | W |
| you snore for your head's on the floor and you've needles and | F2 |
| pins from your soles to your shins and your flesh is a creep for | Z |
| your left leg's asleep and you've cramp in your toes and a fly on | I2 |
| your nose and some fluff in your lung and a feverish tongue and | F2 |
| a thirst that's intense and a general sense that you haven't been | C |
| sleeping in clover | W |
| But the darkness has passed and it's daylight at last and the | L |
| night has been long ditto ditto my song and thank goodness | G2 |
| they're both of them over | W |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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