An Unfortunate Likeness Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB BBCB DEDF GHGH IJIJ BBBB BKLK MNMO BBBB PQPQ BRBS LBLB TUTB VBVB WNWN XBXB YBZB BA2BA2 N NZ KB2KB2 C2D2C2D2 E2F2E2F2 G2WH2 I2H2I2 BBBBI'VE painted SHAKESPEARE all my life | A |
quot An infant quot even then at quot play quot | B |
quot A boy quot with stage ambition rife | A |
Then quot Married to ANN HATHAWAY quot | B |
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quot The bard's first ticket night quot or quot ben quot | B |
His quot First appearance on the stage quot | B |
His quot Call before the curtain quot then | C |
quot Rejoicings when he came of age quot | B |
- | |
The bard play writing in his room | D |
The bard a humble lawyer's clerk | E |
The bard a lawyer parson groom | D |
The bard deer stealing after dark | F |
- | |
The bard a tradesman and a Jew | G |
The bard a botanist a beak | H |
The bard a skilled musician too | G |
A sheriff and a surgeon eke | H |
- | |
Yet critics say a friendly stock | I |
That though it's evident I try | J |
Yet even I can barely mock | I |
The glimmer of his wondrous eye | J |
- | |
One morning as a work I framed | B |
There passed a person walking hard | B |
quot My gracious goodness quot I exclaimed | B |
quot How very like my dear old bard | B |
- | |
quot Oh what a model he would make quot | B |
I rushed outside impulsive me | K |
quot Forgive the liberty I take | L |
But you're so very quot quot Stop quot said he | K |
- | |
quot You needn't waste your breath or time | M |
I know what you are going to say | N |
That you're an artist and that I'm | M |
Remarkably like SHAKESPEARE Eh | O |
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quot You wish that I would sit to you quot | B |
I clasped him madly round the waist | B |
And breathlessly replied quot I do quot | B |
quot All right quot said he quot but please make haste quot | B |
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I led him by his hallowed sleeve | P |
And worked away at him apace | Q |
I painted him till dewy eve | P |
There never was a nobler face | Q |
- | |
quot Oh sir quot I said quot a fortune grand | B |
Is yours by dint of merest chance | R |
To sport HIS brow at second hand | B |
To wear HIS cast off countenance | S |
- | |
quot To rub HIS eyes whene'er they ache | L |
To wear HIS baldness ere you're old | B |
To clean HIS teeth when you awake | L |
To blow HIS nose when you've a cold quot | B |
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His eyeballs glistened in his eyes | T |
I sat and watched and smoked my pipe | U |
quot Bravo quot I said quot I recognize | T |
The phrensy of your prototype quot | B |
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His scanty hair he wildly tore | V |
quot That's right quot said I quot it shows your breed quot | B |
He danced he stamped he wildly swore | V |
quot Bless me that's very fine indeed quot | B |
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quot Sir quot said the grand Shakesperian boy | W |
Continuing to blaze away | N |
quot You think my face a source of joy | W |
That shows you know not what you say | N |
- | |
quot Forgive these yells and cellar flaps | X |
I'm always thrown in some such state | B |
When on his face well meaning chaps | X |
This wretched man congratulate | B |
- | |
quot For oh this face this pointed chin | Y |
This nose this brow these eyeballs too | B |
Have always been the origin | Z |
Of all the woes I ever knew | B |
- | |
quot If to the play my way I find | B |
To see a grand Shakesperian piece | A2 |
I have no rest no ease of mind | B |
Until the author's puppets cease | A2 |
- | |
quot Men nudge each other thus and say | N |
'This certainly is SHAKESPEARE'S son ' | - |
And merry wags of course in play | N |
Cry 'Author ' when the piece is done | Z |
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quot In church the people stare at me | K |
Their soul the sermon never binds | B2 |
I catch them looking round to see | K |
And thoughts of SHAKESPEARE fill their minds | B2 |
- | |
quot And sculptors fraught with cunning wile | C2 |
Who find it difficult to crown | D2 |
A bust with BROWN'S insipid smile | C2 |
Or TOMKINS'S unmannered frown | D2 |
- | |
quot Yet boldly make my face their own | E2 |
When oh presumption they require | F2 |
To animate a paving stone | E2 |
With SHAKESPEARE'S intellectual fire | F2 |
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quot At parties where young ladies gaze | G2 |
And I attempt to speak my joy | W |
'Hush pray ' some lovely creature says | H2 |
'The fond illusion don't destroy ' | - |
- | |
quot Whene'er I speak my soul is wrung | I2 |
With these or some such whisperings | H2 |
''Tis pity that a SHAKESPEARE'S tongue | I2 |
Should say such un Shakesperian things ' | - |
- | |
quot I should not thus be criticised | B |
Had I a face of common wont | B |
Don't envy me now be advised quot | B |
And now I think of it I don't | B |
William Schwenck Gilbert
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