A

1

4004

A for Adam, the first to live,

3875

And Abel, the first to die,

2348

A for the Ark of the patriarch,

2347

And the Arc we see in the sky!

B

2

2247

B for Babel and Builders forlorn.

1996

B for Baby, as Abram was born;

This Abram the same, who was Abraham later,

Than whom there was none in the Testament greater!

C

3

1921

C for Canaan!  Covenant!  Call!

C for Command that would Courage appall;

1872

But that the great faith of this Abram withstood,

Who bound little Isaac who’d carried the wood!

1836

C for the Children of Abraham’s child;

The shepherd so gentle!  The Hunter so wild!           

The parents were partial, the brothers estranged

And birthright and pottage unwisely exchanged.

A

B. C.

D

4

1760

D the Defrauding Designed by their Mother,

When Jacob the younger, Defrauded his brother.

D for that Mother’s and brother’d Deceit!

D for the Deer for the father to eat!

D for that Mother’s and Brother’s Despair,

When Jacob’s Departure Discomforts the pair,

D for his Dream where the angels Descend,

And Jacob, himself, to his God, doth commend!

E

5

1739

E is for Edom where Esau resides,

Since Jacob, returning, in Canaan abides,

Though Esau with Jacob in anger had parted,

He,Canaan, resigned him!  To Edom departed!

A

B. C.

F

6

1728  *

F for Father old and sad,

When they sell his little lad!

When they stain his pretty coat,

With the little slaughtered goat.

1715

F for Fullsome Favor shown,

By a King, upon the throne,

Unto Joseph, who explains

Pharaoh’s dreams, and honor gains!

1708

F the Famine in the land,

1706

F the Feast that Joseph planned,

When “the ten” “the one” surround,

As the cup with Ben is Found!           

* It has not been attempted to place the whole of this Alphabetical Poem in the same metre.  Each of the subdivisions is intended to stand out as a distinct poem, the connection being kept up wholly through the Alphabet, and this distinction is the most adroitly managed through a change of metre as here appears.

A

B. C.

G

7

1706

G fo rGoshen, where they go,

Ere a Pharaoh proved a foe!

Ere their dying infants shiver,

In the great Egyptian River!

H

 8

1571

H for Hebrew Happily Hidden

When those infants were forbidden;

When an open Ark discloses,

Pretty little Hebrew Moses!