A Frog's Fate
Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)
Contemptuous of his home beyond
The village and the village-pond,
A large-souled Frog who spurned each byway
Hopped along the imperial highway.
Nor grunting pig nor barking dog
Could disconcert so great a Frog.
The morning dew was lingering yet,
His sides to cool, his tongue to wet:
The night-dew, when the night should come,
A travelled Frog would send him home.
Not so, alas! The wayside grass
Sees him no more: not so, alas!
A broad-wheeled waggon unawares
Ran him down, his joys, his cares.
From dying choke one feeble croak
The Frog's perpetual silence broke: -
‘Ye buoyant Frogs, ye great and small,
Even I am mortal after all!
My road to fame turns out a wry way;
I perish on the hideous highway;
Oh for my old familiar byway!’
The choking Frog sobbed and was gone;
The Waggoner strode whistling on.
Unconscious of the carnage done,
Whistling that Waggoner strode on -
Whistling (it may have happened so)
‘A froggy would a-wooing go.’
A hypothetic frog trolled he,
Obtuse to a reality.
O rich and poor, O great and small,
Such oversights beset us all.
The mangled Frog abides incog,
The uninteresting actual frog:
The hypothetic frog alone
Is the one frog we dwell upon.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 123 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABB CDEEXX FFGGHHIIBBB XJXJKKLL IICDXJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,194 |
Words | 212 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 6, 11, 8, 6 |
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"A Frog's Fate" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/5703/a-frog's-fate>.
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