Lost Mr. Blake Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCADEB FGHAG HEIHI HJKKHHKLMH HHHHHHH NLOAGPHQA CLRSHLHT EAQHPAUH GCIVBJIOEB ELHLLAAEHHWA LHHHLAHJHDHXEYEXHY ZA2AHCA2KH B2HHHC2KHA2HMr Blake was a regular out and out hardened sinner | A |
Who was quite out of the pale of Christianity so to speak | B |
He was in the habit of smoking a long pipe and drinking a glass of | C |
grog on a Sunday after dinner | A |
And seldom thought of going to church more than twice or if Good | D |
Friday or Christmas Day happened to come in it three times a | E |
week | B |
- | |
He was quite indifferent as to the particular kinds of dresses | F |
That the clergyman wore at church where he used to go to pray | G |
And whatever he did in the way of relieving a chap's distresses | H |
He always did in a nasty sneaking underhanded hole and corner | A |
sort of way | G |
- | |
I have known him indulge in profane ungentlemanly emphatics | H |
When the Protestant Church has been divided on the subject of the | E |
proper width of a chasuble's hem | I |
I have even known him to sneer at albs and as for dalmatics | H |
Words can't convey an idea of the contempt he expressed for THEM | I |
- | |
He didn't believe in persons who not being well off themselves | H |
are obliged to confine their charitable exertions to collecting | J |
money from wealthier people | K |
And looked upon individuals of the former class as ecclesiastical | K |
hawks | H |
He used to say that he would no more think of interfering with his | H |
priest's robes than with his church or his steeple | K |
And that he did not consider his soul imperilled because somebody | L |
over whom he had no influence whatever chose to dress himself up | M |
like an exaggerated GUY FAWKES | H |
- | |
This shocking old vagabond was so unutterably shameless | H |
That he actually went a courting a very respectable and pious | H |
middle aged sister by the name of BIGGS | H |
She was a rather attractive widow whose life as such had always | H |
been particularly blameless | H |
Her first husband had left her a secure but moderate competence | H |
owing to some fortunate speculations in the matter of figs | H |
- | |
She was an excellent person in every way and won the respect even | N |
of MRS GRUNDY | L |
She was a good housewife too and wouldn't have wasted a penny if | O |
she had owned the Koh i noor | A |
She was just as strict as he was lax in her observance of Sunday | G |
And being a good economist and charitable besides she took all | P |
the bones and cold potatoes and broken pie crusts and candle ends | H |
when she had quite done with them and made them into an | Q |
excellent soup for the deserving poor | A |
- | |
I am sorry to say that she rather took to BLAKE that outcast of | C |
society | L |
And when respectable brothers who were fond of her began to look | R |
dubious and to cough | S |
She would say Oh my friends it's because I hope to bring this | H |
poor benighted soul back to virtue and propriety | L |
And besides the poor benighted soul with all his faults was | H |
uncommonly well off | T |
- | |
And when MR BLAKE'S dissipated friends called his attention to the | E |
frown or the pout of her | A |
Whenever he did anything which appeared to her to savour of an | Q |
unmentionable place | H |
He would say that she would be a very decent old girl when all | P |
that nonsense was knocked out of her | A |
And his method of knocking it out of her is one that covered him | U |
with disgrace | H |
- | |
She was fond of going to church services four times every Sunday | G |
and four or five times in the week and never seemed to pall of | C |
them | I |
So he hunted out all the churches within a convenient distance that | V |
had services at different hours so to speak | B |
And when he had married her he positively insisted upon their going | J |
to all of them | I |
So they contrived to do about twelve churches every Sunday and if | O |
they had luck from twenty two to twenty three in the course of the | E |
week | B |
- | |
She was fond of dropping his sovereigns ostentatiously into the | E |
plate and she liked to see them stand out rather conspicuously | L |
against the commonplace half crowns and shillings | H |
So he took her to all the charity sermons and if by any | L |
extraordinary chance there wasn't a charity sermon anywhere he | L |
would drop a couple of sovereigns one for him and one for her | A |
into the poor box at the door | A |
And as he always deducted the sums thus given in charity from the | E |
housekeeping money and the money he allowed her for her bonnets | H |
and frillings | H |
She soon began to find that even charity if you allow it to | W |
interfere with your personal luxuries becomes an intolerable bore | A |
- | |
On Sundays she was always melancholy and anything but good society | L |
For that day in her household was a day of sighings and sobbings | H |
and wringing of hands and shaking of heads | H |
She wouldn't hear of a button being sewn on a glove because it was | H |
a work neither of necessity nor of piety | L |
And strictly prohibited her servants from amusing themselves or | A |
indeed doing anything at all except dusting the drawing rooms | H |
cleaning the boots and shoes cooking the parlour dinner waiting | J |
generally on the family and making the beds | H |
But BLAKE even went further than that and said that people should | D |
do their own works of necessity and not delegate them to persons | H |
in a menial situation | X |
So he wouldn't allow his servants to do so much as even answer a | E |
bell | Y |
Here he is making his wife carry up the water for her bath to the | E |
second floor much against her inclination | X |
And why in the world the gentleman who illustrates these ballads | H |
has put him in a cocked hat is more than I can tell | Y |
- | |
After about three months of this sort of thing taking the smooth | Z |
with the rough of it | A2 |
Blacking her own boots and peeling her own potatoes was not her | A |
notion of connubial bliss | H |
MRS BLAKE began to find that she had pretty nearly had enough of | C |
it | A2 |
And came in course of time to think that BLAKE'S own original | K |
line of conduct wasn't so much amiss | H |
- | |
And now that wicked person that detestable sinner BELIAL BLAKE | B2 |
his friends and well wishers call him for his atrocities | H |
And his poor deluded victim whom all her Christian brothers | H |
dislike and pity so | H |
Go to the parish church only on Sunday morning and afternoon and | C2 |
occasionally on a week day and spend their evenings in connubial | K |
fondlings and affectionate reciprocities | H |
And I should like to know where in the world or rather out of it | A2 |
they expect to go | H |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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