The Bishop Of Rum-ti-foo Again Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABCCCB DDEFGGGF HHHIBBBI JKKLMMML AAANOOON PPPQRSRQ BBBTOOOU UUUVWWWV VVVAOOO UVUSXXXS AAAYAAAYI often wonder whether you | A |
Think sometimes of that Bishop who | A |
From black but balmy Rum ti Foo | A |
Last summer twelvemonth came | B |
Unto your mind I p'r'aps may bring | C |
Remembrance of the man I sing | C |
To day by simply mentioning | C |
That PETER was his name | B |
- | |
Remember how that holy man | D |
Came with the great Colonial clan | D |
To Synod called Pan Anglican | E |
And kindly recollect | F |
How having crossed the ocean wide | G |
To please his flock all means he tried | G |
Consistent with a proper pride | G |
And manly self respect | F |
- | |
He only of the reverend pack | H |
Who minister to Christians black | H |
Brought any useful knowledge back | H |
To his Colonial fold | I |
In consequence a place I claim | B |
For PETER on the scroll of Fame | B |
For PETER was that Bishop's name | B |
As I've already told | I |
- | |
He carried Art he often said | J |
To places where that timid maid | K |
Save by Colonial Bishops' aid | K |
Could never hope to roam | L |
The Payne cum Lauri feat he taught | M |
As he had learnt it for he thought | M |
The choicest fruits of Progress ought | M |
To bless the Negro's home | L |
- | |
And he had other work to do | A |
For while he tossed upon the Blue | A |
The islanders of Rum ti Foo | A |
Forgot their kindly friend | N |
Their decent clothes they learnt to tear | O |
They learnt to say I do not care | O |
Though they of course were well aware | O |
How folks who say so end | N |
- | |
Some sailors whom he did not know | P |
Had landed there not long ago | P |
And taught them Bother also Blow | P |
Of wickedness the germs | Q |
No need to use a casuist's pen | R |
To prove that they were merchantmen | S |
No sailor of the Royal N | R |
Would use such awful terms | Q |
- | |
And so when BISHOP PETER came | B |
That was the kindly Bishop's name | B |
He heard these dreadful oaths with shame | B |
And chid their want of dress | T |
Except a shell a bangle rare | O |
A feather here a feather there | O |
The South Pacific Negroes wear | O |
Their native nothingness | U |
- | |
He taught them that a Bishop loathes | U |
To listen to disgraceful oaths | U |
He gave them all his left off clothes | U |
They bent them to his will | V |
The Bishop's gift spreads quickly round | W |
In PETER'S left off clothes they bound | W |
His three and twenty suits they found | W |
In fair condition still | V |
- | |
The Bishop's eyes with water fill | V |
Quite overjoyed to find them still | V |
Obedient to his sovereign will | V |
And said Good Rum ti Foo | A |
Half way I'll meet you I declare | O |
I'll dress myself in cowries rare | O |
And fasten feathers in my hair | O |
And dance the 'Cutch chi boo ' | - |
- | |
And to conciliate his See | U |
He married PICCADILLILLEE | V |
The youngest of his twenty three | U |
Tall neither fat nor thin | S |
And though the dress he made her don | X |
Looks awkwardly a girl upon | X |
It was a great improvement on | X |
The one he found her in | S |
- | |
The Bishop in his gay canoe | A |
His wife of course went with him too | A |
To some adjacent island flew | A |
To spend his honeymoon | Y |
Some day in sunny Rum ti Foo | A |
A little PETER'll be on view | A |
And that if people tell me true | A |
Is like to happen soon | Y |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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