Ferdinando And Elvira Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BB CC DEF GCC HH ICJC KCK LFF CJC GG BGG BB D D HH A BB BB HH GG MN OO KK GG LGG GG B IHH HIH GG PQP CIC RS| PART I | A |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| MR TUPPER and the Poets very lightly with them dealing | C |
| For I've always been distinguished for a strong poetic feeling | C |
| - | |
| 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 | E |
| to | F |
| - | |
| Then she whispered To the ball room we had better dear be | G |
| walking | C |
| If we stop down here much longer really people will be talking | C |
| - | |
| There were noblemen in coronets and military cousins | H |
| There were captains by the hundred there were baronets by dozens | H |
| - | |
| Yet she heeded not their offers but dismissed them with a | I |
| blessing | C |
| Then she let down all her back hair which had taken long in | J |
| dressing | C |
| - | |
| Then she had convulsive sobbings in her agitated throttle | K |
| Then she wiped her pretty eyes and smelt her pretty smelling | C |
| bottle | K |
| - | |
| So I whispered Dear ELVIRA say what can the matter be with | L |
| you | F |
| Does anything you've eaten darling POPSY disagree with you | F |
| - | |
| 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 | J |
| dressing | C |
| - | |
| Then she gazed upon the carpet at the ceiling then above me | G |
| And she whispered FERDINANDO do you really REALLY love me | G |
| - | |
| Love you said I then I sighed and then I gazed upon her | B |
| sweetly | G |
| For I think I do this sort of thing particularly neatly | G |
| - | |
| Send me to the Arctic regions or illimitable azure | B |
| On a scientific goose chase with my COXWELL or my GLAISHER | B |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| But she said It isn't polar bears or hot volcanic grottoes | H |
| Only find out who it is that writes those lovely cracker mottoes | H |
| - | |
| - | |
| PART II | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| Tell me HENRY WADSWORTH ALFRED POET CLOSE or MISTER TUPPER | B |
| Do you write the bon bon mottoes my ELVIRA pulls at supper | B |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| MISTER MARTIN TUPPER POET CLOSE I beg of you inform us | H |
| But my question seemed to throw them both into a rage enormous | H |
| - | |
| MISTER CLOSE expressed a wish that he could only get anigh to me | G |
| And MISTER MARTIN TUPPER sent the following reply to me | G |
| - | |
| A fool is bent upon a twig but wise men dread a bandit | M |
| Which I know was very clever but I didn't understand it | N |
| - | |
| Seven weary years I wandered Patagonia China Norway | O |
| Till at last I sank exhausted at a pastrycook his doorway | O |
| - | |
| There were fuchsias and geraniums and daffodils and myrtle | K |
| So I entered and I ordered half a basin of mock turtle | K |
| - | |
| He was plump and he was chubby he was smooth and he was rosy | G |
| And his little wife was pretty and particularly cosy | G |
| - | |
| And he chirped and sang and skipped about and laughed with | L |
| laughter hearty | G |
| He was wonderfully active for so very stout a party | G |
| - | |
| And I said O gentle pieman why so very very merry | G |
| Is it purity of conscience or your one and seven sherry | G |
| - | |
| 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 ' | - |
| - | |
| First I go and make the patties and the puddings and the | I |
| jellies | H |
| Then I make a sugar bird cage which upon a table swell is | H |
| - | |
| Then I polish all the silver which a supper table lacquers | H |
| Then I write the pretty mottoes which you find inside the | I |
| crackers | H |
| - | |
| Found at last I madly shouted Gentle pieman you astound me | G |
| Then I waved the turtle soup enthusiastically round me | G |
| - | |
| And I shouted and I danced until he'd quite a crowd around him | P |
| And I rushed away exclaiming I have found him I have found | Q |
| him | P |
| - | |
| 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 | I |
| shilling | C |
| - | |
| But until I reached ELVIRA'S home I never never waited | R |
| And ELVIRA to her FERDINAND'S irrevocably mated | S |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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