Lines from a
Plutocratic Poetaster to a Ditch-digger
By Franklin Pierce Adams
Sullen,
grimy, labouring person,
As
I passed you in my car,
I
could sense your muffled curse on
It
and me and my cigar;
And
though mute your malediction,
I
could feel it on my head,
As
in countless works of fiction
I
have read.
Envy
of mine obvious leisure
Seemed
to green your glittering eye;
Hate
for mine apparent pleasure
Filled
you as I motored by.
You
who had to dig for three, four
Hours
in that unpleasant ditch,
Loathed,
despised, and hated me for
Being
rich.
And
you cursed me into Hades
As
you envied me that ride
With
the loveliest of ladies
Sitting
at my dexter side;
And
your wish, or your idea,
Was
to hurl us off some cliff.
I
could see that you thought me a
Lucky
stiff.
If
you came to the decision,
As
my car you mutely cussed,
That
allottment and division
Are
indecently unjust—
Labouring
man, however came you
Thus
to think the world awry,
I
should be the last to blame you …
So
do I.
The
rhyme scheme of this poem is ababcdcd (and so forth throughout the poem).
Essentially
every other line rhymes, until we reach the end of the poem when the rhymes
get
a little more questionable ("you" and "you," followed by
"awry" and "I"). The beginning
section
contains standard end rhyme that almost reminds me of the sing-song ways
children
make fun of each other in movies. The author is using the first three
stanzas
to brag about his wealth and contrast his situation with that of the
ditch-digger,
acting
as any stereotypical wealthy man might, and the rhyme scheme aids him in making
the
words sound childish and smug. The last four lines of the fourth stanza stand
out
because
the rhyme scheme falters here, as mentioned earlier, and the narrator loses the
previous
tone of haughtiness and the sing-song attitude. The rhyming stops just in time
for
the
narrator to announce that he completely agrees with all the thoughts of the
ditch
digger
and also doesn't understand the odd distribution of wealth. The end of the
rhyme in
the
poem emphasizes this change in tone. The last lines of each stanza are also
shorter in
length
than all the other lines, which serves to emphasize them as well, because they
break
up the natural rhythm/flow of the poetry.
Adams, Franklin
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