General John Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD DEDE FGFG DHDH FIFI DHDH HEHE HFHF JDJD DKDK ILIL DHDH| The bravest names for fire and flames | A |
| And all that mortal durst | B |
| Were GENERAL JOHN and PRIVATE JAMES | A |
| Of the Sixty seventy first | B |
| - | |
| GENERAL JOHN was a soldier tried | C |
| A chief of warlike dons | D |
| A haughty stride and a withering pride | C |
| Were MAJOR GENERAL JOHN'S | D |
| - | |
| A sneer would play on his martial phiz | D |
| Superior birth to show | E |
| Pish was a favourite word of his | D |
| And he often said Ho ho | E |
| - | |
| FULL PRIVATE JAMES described might be | F |
| As a man of a mournful mind | G |
| No characteristic trait had he | F |
| Of any distinctive kind | G |
| - | |
| From the ranks one day cried PRIVATE JAMES | D |
| Oh MAJOR GENERAL JOHN | H |
| I've doubts of our respective names | D |
| My mournful mind upon | H |
| - | |
| A glimmering thought occurs to me | F |
| Its source I can't unearth | I |
| But I've a kind of a notion we | F |
| Were cruelly changed at birth | I |
| - | |
| I've a strange idea that each other's names | D |
| We've each of us here got on | H |
| Such things have been said PRIVATE JAMES | D |
| They have sneered GENERAL JOHN | H |
| - | |
| My GENERAL JOHN I swear upon | H |
| My oath I think 'tis so | E |
| Pish proudly sneered his GENERAL JOHN | H |
| And he also said Ho ho | E |
| - | |
| My GENERAL JOHN my GENERAL JOHN | H |
| My GENERAL JOHN quoth he | F |
| This aristocratical sneer upon | H |
| Your face I blush to see | F |
| - | |
| No truly great or generous cove | J |
| Deserving of them names | D |
| Would sneer at a fixed idea that's drove | J |
| In the mind of a PRIVATE JAMES | D |
| - | |
| Said GENERAL JOHN Upon your claims | D |
| No need your breath to waste | K |
| If this is a joke FULL PRIVATE JAMES | D |
| It's a joke of doubtful taste | K |
| - | |
| But being a man of doubtless worth | I |
| If you feel certain quite | L |
| That we were probably changed at birth | I |
| I'll venture to say you're right | L |
| - | |
| So GENERAL JOHN as PRIVATE JAMES | D |
| Fell in parade upon | H |
| And PRIVATE JAMES by change of names | D |
| Was MAJOR GENERAL JOHN | H |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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