The Modern Major-general Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAAAABBBBAA BBBBBBCCDDAA EEFFCCCCCCAA| I am the very pattern of a modern Major Gineral | A |
| I've information vegetable animal and mineral | A |
| I know the kings of England and I quote the fights historical | A |
| From Marathon to Waterloo in order categorical | A |
| I'm very well acquainted too with matters mathematical | A |
| I understand equations both the simple and quadratical | A |
| About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news | B |
| With interesting facts about the square of the hypotenuse | B |
| I'm very good at integral and differential calculus | B |
| I know the scientific names of beings animalculous | B |
| In short in matters vegetable animal and mineral | A |
| I am the very model of a modern Major Gineral | A |
| - | |
| I know our mythic history KING ARTHUR'S and SIR CARADOC'S | B |
| I answer hard acrostics I've a pretty taste for paradox | B |
| I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of HELIOGABALUS | B |
| In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous | B |
| I tell undoubted RAPHAELS from GERARD DOWS and ZOFFANIES | B |
| I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of ARISTOPHANES | B |
| Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore | C |
| And whistle all the airs from that confounded nonsense Pinafore | C |
| Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform | D |
| And tell you every detail of CARACTACUS'S uniform | D |
| In short in matters vegetable animal and mineral | A |
| I am the very model of a modern Major Gineral | A |
| - | |
| In fact when I know what is meant by mamelon and ravelin | E |
| When I can tell at sight a Chassepot rifle from a javelin | E |
| When such affairs as SORTIES and surprises I'm more wary at | F |
| And when I know precisely what is meant by Commissariat | F |
| When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery | C |
| When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery | C |
| In short when I've a smattering of elementary strategy | C |
| You'll say a better Major GenerAL has never SAT a gee | C |
| For my military knowledge though I'm plucky and adventury | C |
| Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century | C |
| But still in learning vegetable animal and mineral | A |
| I am the very model of a modern Major Gineral | A |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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