The Chronicle Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABAAB CDEAAE FGHIIH JJAKKA IILDML LLAAAA NNEAAE OOPAAP AALAAL GJNLDN AAQRRS TTUUUU AANVVN LLFOOFA BALLAD | A |
MARGARITA first possest | A |
If I remember well my brest | A |
Margarita first of all | B |
But when awhile the wanton maid | A |
With my restless heart had play'd | A |
Martha took the flying ball | B |
- | |
Martha soon did it resign | C |
To the beauteous Catharine | D |
Beauteous Catharine gave place | E |
Though loth and angry she to part | A |
With the possession of my heart | A |
To Eliza's conquering face | E |
- | |
Eliza till this hour might reign | F |
Had she not evil counsels ta'en | G |
Fundamental laws she broke | H |
And still new favorites she chose | I |
Till up in arms my passions rose | I |
And cast away her yoke | H |
- | |
Mary then and gentle Anne | J |
Both to reign at once began | J |
Alternately they sway'd | A |
And sometimes Mary was the fair | K |
And sometimes Anne the Crown did wear | K |
And sometimes both I obey'd | A |
- | |
Another Mary then arose | I |
And did rigorous laws impose | I |
A mighty tyrant she | L |
Long alas should I have been | D |
Under that iron scepter'd queen | M |
Had not Rebecca set me free | L |
- | |
When fair Rebecca set me free | L |
'Twas then a golden time with me | L |
But soon those pleasures fled | A |
For the gracious princess dy'd | A |
In her youth and beauty's pride | A |
And Judith reigned in her stead | A |
- | |
One month three days and half an hour | N |
Judith held the soveraign power | N |
Wondrous beautiful her face | E |
But so weak and small her wit | A |
That she to govern was unfit | A |
And so Susanna took her place | E |
- | |
But when Isabella came | O |
Arm'd with a resistless flame | O |
And th' artillery of her eye | P |
Whilst she proudly march'd about | A |
Greater conquests to find out | A |
She beat out Susan by the bye | P |
- | |
But in her place I then obey'd | A |
Black ey'd Bess her viceroy maid | A |
To whom ensu'd a vacancy | L |
Thousand worse passions than possest | A |
The interregnum of my breast | A |
Bless me from such an anarchy | L |
- | |
Gentle Henriette then | G |
And a third Mary next began | J |
Then Joan and Jane and Audria | N |
And then a pretty Thomasine | L |
And then another Katharine | D |
And then a long et c tera | N |
- | |
But should I now to you relate | A |
The strength and riches of their state | A |
The powder patches and the pins | Q |
The ribbons jewels and the rings | R |
The lace the paint and warlike things | R |
That make up all their magazines | S |
- | |
If I should tell the politic arts | T |
To take and keep men's hearts | T |
The letters embassies and spies | U |
The frowns and smiles and flatteries | U |
The quarrels tears and perjuries | U |
Numberless nameless mysteries | U |
- | |
And all the little lime twigs laid | A |
By Machiavel the waiting maid | A |
I more voluminous should grow | N |
Chiefly if I like them should tell | V |
All change of weathers that befell | V |
Than Holinshed or Stow | N |
- | |
But I will briefer with them be | L |
Since few of them were long with me | L |
An higher and a nobler strain | F |
My present Emperess does claim | O |
Heleonora first o' th' name | O |
Whom God grant long to reign | F |
Abraham Cowley
(1)
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