peasant's tale

Final Paper ENG 231 [REDACTED] The Peasant’s Tale
There also was with us a peasant
Whose company proved rather pleasant.
 A young fellow, aged twenty-two
With dirty clothes and a missing shoe.
His hair was black and his eyes were blue
He was thin, ate not much food
But always seemed in a good mood
Smiling all the time, and with such cheer
His grin stretched out from ear to ear.
But sadly now I must confess
His hair was really quite a mess!
Another thing that I must tell
He did possess an awful smell...
And despite a few guffaws
His tale did not get much applause
Our contest he probably will not win
Yet here the peasant’s tale shall begin:
“Friends, I believe it is now my turn
To tell the tale that makes ears burn
I warn you, it is very full
Of tragedies so pitiful
That for some of you it may cause
Wailing for hours without a pause –”
“Bring us to tears? Oh dear!” said the Prioress.
“We’ll see, but first I’ll tell the rest.
In my life I’ve had some trouble
And often others may burst my bubble
But through all things I will prevail
In stormy seas I’ll still set sail,
And even when the night grows black
I’ll yet hold on, I’ll not turn back
From pressing on, though it may be
Difficult, well that’s just me.
My tale begins on my family farm
Where by my back and the strength of my arm
We made a living rather easily
And spent our days quite breezily
Of course, such tranquility lasts not
It’s now that our life began to rot
My birthday, a day to celebrate?
Not so, my father choked as he ate.
Yet still I follow above any other
This advice given me by my mother:
“Whenever the world might get you down,
It could be worse, you’re not a clown.”
Those words seemed true, when first I heard
Until the dreadful news I heard
That on that day all our cows drowned
In the dank, murky river, we frowned
I tell the truth, it was such a pity
We packed our things; moved to the city.
At this point it only gets worse
And it’s hard to convey this part in verse
But the night we came, it was just our luck
That from us our things thieves would pluck.
And now that us the thieves had robbed,
It became time for me to take a job.
Another proverb my mother spread like lice
I know not its meaning but it sounds quite nice
“Devious deeds do divide despite
Deeds divine dispersing daily delight”
These strange sayings are not her fault
Though I take them with a grain of salt.
She said they were passed down from her folks,
But for all we know they were mere jokes.
Speaking of jokes, my new job I will tell
I became a clown, and it paid quite well.
Despite my mother’s nonsense quotes
We managed to buy a couple goats
And to our old life we returned
Once again an honest wage we earned.
Until yet another tragedy did occur
(I feared God’s wrath I did incur!)
When one terrible, fateful day I –”
“Enough! Such tragedy, I’ve begun to cry!”
Said the Host at once, as annoyed as sad.
“I had hoped to hear a tale of gladness, lad!
This growing string of misfortunes around you
Grows longer with each word that escapes you!
It’s clear by now, you’re not our winner;
We certainly will not be buying you dinner.”
Thus the full peasant’s tale we never heard
Thank heaven, I couldn’t bear another word.