Hamelins Town’s in Brunswick,
By famous Hanover city;
The river Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on the southern side;
A pleasanter spot you never spied;
But, when begins my ditty,
Almost five hundred years ago,
To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin, was a pity.
~
Moral of the story (in my own words)
Pay the man or you’ll lose more than just the town rats.
Looking through the book of Browning’s poems they are amazingly clever. They are all written in rhyming couplets.