My Dream Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCC DDEE FFGG CCHH IIJJ KLFF MMNN OOFF PPII QQRR CCST MMUU NNVV WWXX YYZZ A2A2B2B2 C2C2PP D2D2E2E2 IIF2F2 G2G2A2A2 G2G2H2I2 J2J2II KLK2K2

The other night from cares exemptA
I slept and what d'you think I dreamtB
I dreamt that somehow I had comeC
To dwell in Topsy TurveydomC
-
Where vice is virtue virtue viceD
Where nice is nasty nasty niceD
Where right is wrong and wrong is rightE
Where white is black and black is whiteE
-
Where babies much to their surpriseF
Are born astonishingly wiseF
With every Science on their lipsG
And Art at all their finger tipsG
-
For as their nurses dandle themC
They crow binomial theoremC
With views it seems absurd to usH
On differential calculusH
-
But though a babe as I have saidI
Is born with learning in his headI
He must forget it if he canJ
Before he calls himself a manJ
-
For that which we call folly hereK
Is wisdom in that favoured sphereL
The wisdom we so highly prizeF
Is blatant folly in their eyesF
-
A boy if he would push his wayM
Must learn some nonsense every dayM
And cut to carry out this viewN
His wisdom teeth and wisdom tooN
-
Historians burn their midnight oilsO
Intent on giant killers' toilsO
And sages close their aged eyesF
To other sages' lullabiesF
-
Our magistrates in duty boundP
Commit all robbers who are foundP
But there the Beaks so people saidI
Commit all robberies insteadI
-
Our Judges pure and wise in toneQ
Know crime from theory aloneQ
And glean the motives of a thiefR
From books and popular beliefR
-
But there a Judge who wants to primeC
His mind with true ideas of crimeC
Derives them from the common senseS
Of practical experienceT
-
Policemen march all folks awayM
Who practise virtue every dayM
Of course I mean to say you knowU
What we call virtue here belowU
-
For only scoundrels dare to doN
What we consider just and trueN
And only good men do in factV
What we should think a dirty actV
-
But strangest of these social twirlsW
The girls are boys the boys are girlsW
The men are women too but thenX
Per contra women all are menX
-
To one who to tradition clingsY
This seems an awkward state of thingsY
But if to think it out you tryZ
It doesn't really signifyZ
-
With them as surely as can beA2
A sailor should be sick at seaA2
And not a passenger may sailB2
Who cannot smoke right through a galeB2
-
A soldier save by rarest luckC2
Is always shot for showing pluckC2
That is if others can be foundP
With pluck enough to fire a roundP
-
How strange I said to one I sawD2
You quite upset our every lawD2
However can you get alongE2
So systematically wrongE2
-
Dear me my mad informant saidI
Have you no eyes within your headI
You sneer when you your hat should doffF2
Why we begin where you leave offF2
-
Your wisest men are very farG2
Less learned than our babies areG2
I mused awhile and then oh meA2
I framed this brilliant reparteeA2
-
Although your babes are wiser farG2
Than our most valued sages areG2
Your sages with their toys and cotsH2
Are duller than our idiotsI2
-
But this remark I grieve to stateJ2
Came just a little bit too lateJ2
For as I framed it in my headI
I woke and found myself in bedI
-
Still I could wish that 'stead of hereK
My lot were in that favoured sphereL
Where greatest fools bear off the bellK2
I ought to do extremely wellK2

William Schwenck Gilbert



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