Ferdinando And Elvira; Or, The Gentle Pieman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BB CC DE CC FF CC GG EE CC HH HH BB DD FF A BB BB FF HH IJ KK GG HH HH HH B FF FF HH LL CC MN| PART I | A |
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| At a pleasant evening party I had taken down to supper | B |
| One whom I will call ELVIRA and we talked of love and TUPPER | B |
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| MR TUPPER and the Poets very lightly with them dealing | C |
| For I've always been distinguished for a strong poetic feeling | C |
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| Then we let off paper crackers each of which contained a motto | D |
| And she listened while I read them till her mother told her not to | E |
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| Then she whispered To the ball room we had better dear be walking | C |
| If we stop down here much longer really people will be talking | C |
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| There were noblemen in coronets and military cousins | F |
| There were captains by the hundred there were baronets by dozens | F |
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| Yet she heeded not their offers but dismissed them with a blessing | C |
| Then she let down all her back hair which had taken long in dressing | C |
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| Then she had convulsive sobbings in her agitated throttle | G |
| Then she wiped her pretty eyes and smelt her pretty smelling bottle | G |
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| So I whispered Dear ELVIRA say what can the matter be with you | E |
| Does anything you've eaten darling POPSY disagree with you | E |
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| But spite of all I said her sobs grew more and more distressing | C |
| And she tore her pretty back hair which had taken long in dressing | C |
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| Then she gazed upon the carpet at the ceiling then above me | H |
| And she whispered FERDINANDO do you really REALLY love me | H |
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| Love you said I then I sighed and then I gazed upon her sweetly | H |
| For I think I do this sort of thing particularly neatly | H |
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| Send me to the Arctic regions or illimitable azure | B |
| On a scientific goose chase with my COXWELL or my GLAISHER | B |
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| Tell me whither I may hie me tell me dear one that I may know | D |
| Is it up the highest Andes down a horrible volcano | D |
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| But she said It isn't polar bears or hot volcanic grottoes | F |
| Only find out who it is that writes those lovely cracker mottoes | F |
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| PART II | A |
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| Tell me HENRY WADSWORTH ALFRED POET CLOSE or MISTER TUPPER | B |
| Do you write the bon bon mottoes my ELVIRA pulls at supper | B |
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| But HENRY WADSWORTH smiled and said he had not had that honour | B |
| And ALFRED too disclaimed the words that told so much upon her | B |
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| MISTER MARTIN TUPPER POET CLOSE I beg of you inform us | F |
| But my question seemed to throw them both into a rage enormous | F |
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| MISTER CLOSE expressed a wish that he could only get anigh to me | H |
| And MISTER MARTIN TUPPER sent the following reply to me | H |
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| A fool is bent upon a twig but wise men dread a bandit | I |
| Which I know was very clever but I didn't understand it | J |
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| Seven weary years I wandered Patagonia China Norway | K |
| Till at last I sank exhausted at a pastrycook his doorway | K |
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| There were fuchsias and geraniums and daffodils and myrtle | G |
| So I entered and I ordered half a basin of mock turtle | G |
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| He was plump and he was chubby he was smooth and he was rosy | H |
| And his little wife was pretty and particularly cosy | H |
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| And he chirped and sang and skipped about and laughed with laughter hearty | H |
| He was wonderfully active for so very stout a party | H |
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| And I said O gentle pieman why so very very merry | H |
| Is it purity of conscience or your one and seven sherry | H |
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| But he answered I'm so happy no profession could be dearer | B |
| If I am not humming 'Tra la la ' I'm singing 'Tirer lirer ' | - |
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| First I go and make the patties and the puddings and the jellies | F |
| Then I make a sugar bird cage which upon a table swell is | F |
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| Then I polish all the silver which a supper table lacquers | F |
| Then I write the pretty mottoes which you find inside the crackers | F |
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| Found at last I madly shouted Gentle pieman you astound me | H |
| Then I waved the turtle soup enthusiastically round me | H |
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| And I shouted and I danced until he'd quite a crowd around him | L |
| And I rushed away exclaiming I have found him I have found him | L |
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| And I heard the gentle pieman in the road behind me trilling | C |
| 'Tira lira ' stop him stop him 'Tra la la ' the soup's a shilling | C |
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| But until I reached ELVIRA'S home I never never waited | M |
| And ELVIRA to her FERDINAND'S irrevocably mated | N |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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