SONNET TO A CLAM by John Godfrey Saxe

Inglorious friend! Most confident I am
Thy life is one of very little ease;
Albeit men mock thee with their similes
And prate of being "happy as a clam!"
What though thy shell protects thy fragile head
From the sharp bailiffs of a briny sea?
Thy valves are, sure, no safety-valves to thee,
While rakes are free to desecrate thy bed,
And bear thee off - as foemen take their spoil-
Far from thy friends and family to roam;
Forced, like a Hessian from thy native home,
To meet destruction in a foreign broil!
Though thou art tender yet thy humble bard
Declares, O Clam! Thy case is shocking hard!

Double meaning is implied in the last line about the hardness of the clam’s shell and the difficulty of making a case against the consumption of delicious clams. Double meaning can also be taken
in his reference to no safety valve rescuing a clam from its fate in the boiling pot. Rhyme scheme abbacddceffghh. Rhythm the traditional iambic pentameter, short long, short long etc. as in prate of be ing hap py as a clam or ... life...one...ver...lit.. ease. The fact that Saxe uses a formal poetic form like the sonnet to consider the life and fate of clams ( tender and hard) adds interest and lightness to the poem.

As an aside, Plato rated wisdom, temperance and courage - in that order as goals of good men.
Aristotle rated temperance, courage, practical wisdom and justice - in that order as the goals of good (educated) men. Plato and Aristotle are dead. Who are our living white, male thinkers?