The Modest Couple Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEAA FFGG HIIJJ KKLMM NNGG OOPP QQNN RRSS NNTT EEUU JJVV WWXX YYZZ A2A2XX AAZZ| When man and maiden meet I like to see a drooping eye | A |
| I always droop my own I am the shyest of the shy | A |
| I'm also fond of bashfulness and sitting down on thorns | B |
| For modesty's a quality that womankind adorns | B |
| - | |
| Whenever I am introduced to any pretty maid | C |
| My knees they knock together just as if I were afraid | C |
| I flutter and I stammer and I turn a pleasing red | D |
| For to laugh and flirt and ogle I consider most ill bred | D |
| - | |
| But still in all these matters as in other things below | E |
| There is a proper medium as I'm about to show | E |
| I do not recommend a newly married pair to try | A |
| To carry on as PETER carried on with SARAH BLIGH | A |
| - | |
| Betrothed they were when very young before they'd learnt to speak | F |
| For SARAH was but six days old and PETER was a week | F |
| Though little more than babies at those early ages yet | G |
| They bashfully would faint when they occasionally met | G |
| - | |
| They blushed and flushed and fainted till they reached the | H |
| age of nine | I |
| When PETER'S good papa he was a Baron of the Rhine | I |
| Determined to endeavour some sound argument to find | J |
| To bring these shy young people to a proper frame of mind | J |
| - | |
| He told them that as SARAH was to be his PETER'S bride | K |
| They might at least consent to sit at table side by side | K |
| He begged that they would now and then shake hands till he | L |
| was hoarse | M |
| Which SARAH thought indelicate and PETER very coarse | M |
| - | |
| And PETER in a tremble to the blushing maid would say | N |
| You must excuse papa MISS BLIGH it is his mountain way | N |
| Says SARAH His behaviour I'll endeavour to forget | G |
| But your papa's the coarsest person that I ever met | G |
| - | |
| He plighted us without our leave when we were very young | O |
| Before we had begun articulating with the tongue | O |
| His underbred suggestions fill your SARAH with alarm | P |
| Why gracious me he'll ask us next to walk out arm in arm | P |
| - | |
| At length when SARAH reached the legal age of twenty one | Q |
| The Baron he determined to unite her to his son | Q |
| And SARAH in a fainting fit for weeks unconscious lay | N |
| And PETER blushed so hard you might have heard him miles away | N |
| - | |
| And when the time arrived for taking SARAH to his heart | R |
| They were married in two churches half a dozen miles apart | R |
| Intending to escape all public ridicule and chaff | S |
| And the service was conducted by electric telegraph | S |
| - | |
| And when it was concluded and the priest had said his say | N |
| Until the time arrived when they were both to drive away | N |
| They never spoke or offered for to fondle or to fawn | T |
| For HE waited in the attic and SHE waited on the lawn | T |
| - | |
| At length when four o'clock arrived and it was time to go | E |
| The carriage was announced but decent SARAH answered No | E |
| Upon my word I'd rather sleep my everlasting nap | U |
| Than go and ride alone with MR PETER in a trap | U |
| - | |
| And PETER'S over sensitive and highly polished mind | J |
| Wouldn't suffer him to sanction a proceeding of the kind | J |
| And further he declared he suffered overwhelming shocks | V |
| At the bare idea of having any coachman on the box | V |
| - | |
| So PETER into one turn out incontinently rushed | W |
| While SARAH in a second trap sat modestly and blushed | W |
| And MR NEWMAN'S coachman on authority I've heard | X |
| Drove away in gallant style upon the coach box of a third | X |
| - | |
| Now though this modest couple in the matter of the car | Y |
| Were very likely carrying a principle too far | Y |
| I hold their shy behaviour was more laudable in them | Z |
| Than that of PETER'S brother with MISS SARAH'S sister EM | Z |
| - | |
| ALPHONSO who in cool assurance all creation licks | A2 |
| He up and said to EMMIE who had impudence for six | A2 |
| MISS EMILY I love you will you marry Say the word | X |
| And EMILY said Certainly ALPHONSO like a bird | X |
| - | |
| I do not recommend a newly married pair to try | A |
| To carry on as PETER carried on with SARAH BLIGH | A |
| But still their shy behaviour was more laudable in them | Z |
| Than that of PETER'S brother with MISS SARAH'S sister EM | Z |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Solatium Poem
Ah Me! Poem>>
About The Modest Couple
The Modest Couple is a poem by William Schwenck Gilbert. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Modest Couple poem by William Schwenck Gilbert
Best Poems of William Schwenck Gilbert