To The Royal Society (excerpts) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDDDEEFFFFGGDDD FFHIHIDJDKJKLDLDFFMM NO FFFFFFFFFFPFPFFFFDDQ QDDDDDFF FRFRRSSTUUVVWWJDXXFF SFSFFFFFFFYRDDZA2B2C 2FF FFDDRFFRFRRDDGGFFFFD 2D2 BBDDFFDDDFFSSFE2E2FF FPhilosophy the great and only heir | A |
Of all that human knowledge which has bin | B |
Unforfeited by man's rebellious sin | B |
Though full of years he do appear | C |
Philosophy I say and call it he | D |
For whatso'ere the painter's fancy be | D |
It a male virtue seems to me | D |
Has still been kept in nonage till of late | E |
Nor manag'd or enjoy'd his vast estate | E |
Three or four thousand years one would have thought | F |
To ripeness and perfection might have brought | F |
A science so well bred and nurst | F |
And of such hopeful parts too at the first | F |
But oh the guardians and the tutors then | G |
Some negligent and some ambitious men | G |
Would ne'er consent to set him free | D |
Or his own natural powers to let him see | D |
Lest that should put an end to their authority | D |
- | |
That his own business he might quite forget | F |
They' amus'd him with the sports of wanton wit | F |
With the desserts of poetry they fed him | H |
Instead of solid meats t' encrease his force | I |
Instead of vigorous exercise they led him | H |
Into the pleasant labyrinths of ever fresh discourse | I |
Instead of carrying him to see | D |
The riches which do hoarded for him lie | J |
In Nature's endless treasury | D |
They chose his eye to entertain | K |
His curious but not covetous eye | J |
With painted scenes and pageants of the brain | K |
Some few exalted spirits this latter age has shown | L |
That labour'd to assert the liberty | D |
From guardians who were now usurpers grown | L |
Of this old minor still captiv'd Philosophy | D |
But 'twas rebellion call'd to fight | F |
For such a long oppressed right | F |
Bacon at last a mighty man arose | M |
Whom a wise King and Nature chose | M |
Lord Chancellor of both their laws | N |
And boldly undertook the injur'd pupil's cause | O |
- | |
Authority which did a body boast | F |
Though 'twas but air condens'd and stalk'd about | F |
Like some old giant's more gigantic ghost | F |
To terrify the learned rout | F |
With the plain magic of true reason's light | F |
He chas'd out of our sight | F |
Nor suffer'd living men to be misled | F |
By the vain shadows of the dead | F |
To graves from whence it rose the conquer'd phantom fled | F |
He broke that monstrous god which stood | F |
In midst of th' orchard and the whole did claim | P |
Which with a useless scythe of wood | F |
And something else not worth a name | P |
Both vast for show yet neither fit | F |
Or to defend or to beget | F |
Ridiculous and senseless terrors made | F |
Children and superstitious men afraid | F |
The orchard's open now and free | D |
Bacon has broke that scarecrow deity | D |
Come enter all that will | Q |
Behold the ripen'd fruit come gather now your fill | Q |
Yet still methinks we fain would be | D |
Catching at the forbidden tree | D |
We would be like the Deity | D |
When truth and falshood good and evil we | D |
Without the senses aid within our selves would see | D |
For 'tis God only who can find | F |
All Nature in his mind | F |
- | |
From words which are but pictures of the thought | F |
Though we our thoughts from them perversely drew | R |
To things the mind's right object he it brought | F |
Like foolish birds to painted grapes we flew | R |
He sought and gather'd for our use the true | R |
And when on heaps the chosen bunches lay | S |
He press'd them wisely the mechanic way | S |
Till all their juice did in one vessel join | T |
Ferment into a nourishment divine | U |
The thirsty soul's refreshing wine | U |
Who to the life an exact piece would make | V |
Must not from other's work a copy take | V |
No not from Rubens or Vandyke | W |
Much less content himself to make it like | W |
Th' ideas and the images which lie | J |
In his own fancy or his memory | D |
No he before his sight must place | X |
The natural and living face | X |
The real object must command | F |
Each judgment of his eye and motion of his hand | F |
From these and all long errors of the way | S |
In which our wand'ring predecessors went | F |
And like th' old Hebrews many years did stray | S |
In deserts but of small extent | F |
Bacon like Moses led us forth at last | F |
The barren wilderness he past | F |
Did on the very border stand | F |
Of the blest promis'd land | F |
And from the mountain's top of his exalted wit | F |
Saw it himself and shew'd us it | F |
But life did never to one man allow | Y |
Time to discover worlds and conquer too | R |
Nor can so short a line sufficient be | D |
To fathom the vast depths of Nature's sea | D |
The work he did we ought t' admire | Z |
And were unjust if we should more require | A2 |
From his few years divided 'twixt th' excess | B2 |
Of low affliction and high happiness | C2 |
For who on things remote can fix his sight | F |
That's always in a triumph or a fight | F |
- | |
From you great champions we expect to get | F |
These spacious countries but discover'd yet | F |
Countries where yet in stead of Nature we | D |
Her images and idols worshipp'd see | D |
These large and wealthy regions to subdue | R |
Though learning has whole armies at command | F |
Quarter'd about in every land | F |
A better troop she ne're together drew | R |
Methinks like Gideon's little band | F |
God with design has pick'd out you | R |
To do these noble wonders by a few | R |
When the whole host he saw they are said he | D |
Too many to o'ercome for me | D |
And now he chooses out his men | G |
Much in the way that he did then | G |
Not those many whom he found | F |
Idly extended on the ground | F |
To drink with their dejected head | F |
The stream just so as by their mouths it fled | F |
No but those few who took the waters up | D2 |
And made of their laborious hands the cup | D2 |
- | |
- | |
With courage and success you the bold work begin | B |
Your cradle has not idle bin | B |
None e're but Hercules and you could be | D |
At five years age worthy a history | D |
And ne're did fortune better yet | F |
Th' historian to the story fit | F |
As you from all old errors free | D |
And purge the body of philosophy | D |
So from all modern follies he | D |
Has vindicated eloquence and wit | F |
His candid style like a clean stream does slide | F |
And his bright fancy all the way | S |
Does like the sun shine in it play | S |
It does like Thames the best of rivers glide | F |
Where the god does not rudely overturn | E2 |
But gently pour the crystal urn | E2 |
And with judicious hand does the whole current guide | F |
'T has all the beauties Nature can impart | F |
And all the comely dress without the paint of art | F |
Abraham Cowley
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about To The Royal Society (excerpts) poem by Abraham Cowley
Best Poems of Abraham Cowley