Set Text

A sonnet using the following set rhymes:

Pig, bat, cat, wig, jig, hat, rat, fig, lie, red, sob, die, bed, sob.

‘This heinous crime I deem preposterous, pig!

To sell your worthless ring and not to bat

An eyelid having fleeced this owl and cat...’

Here paused the judge to readjust his wig

Whereon the guilty pig began to jig

About, now fearful of the beak’s black hat!

The judge resumed, ‘You’re just a thieving rat

And, ringless, look like Adam minus fig-

Leaf – starkers, naked as a barefaced lie!

Small wonder that your chubby cheeks glow red,

It cuts no ice with me to see you sob,

The sentence of the court is that you die

And with these words I put the case to bed:

To charge this pair a shilling was to rob!’