Sweet Violets

"Sweet Violets" is a classic example of a "censored rhyme", where the expected-rhyme of each couplet is replaced with an unexpected word which segues into the next couplet or chorus. For example, the first couplets go: There once was a farmer who took a young missIn back of the barn where he gave her a...Lecture on horses and chickens and eggsAnd told her that she had such beautiful...Manners that suited a girl [etc.] The chorus is taken nearly verbatim from the song "Sweet Violets" by Joseph Emmet, from his 1882 play Fritz Among the Gypsies:

Sweet Violets

"Sweet Violets" is a classic example of a "censored rhyme", where the expected-rhyme of each couplet is replaced with an unexpected word which segues into the next couplet or chorus. For example, the first couplets go: There once was a farmer who took a young missIn back of the barn where he gave her a...Lecture on horses and chickens and eggsAnd told her that she had such beautiful...Manners that suited a girl [etc.] The chorus is taken nearly verbatim from the song "Sweet Violets" by Joseph Emmet, from his 1882 play Fritz Among the Gypsies: