An Essay On Man In Four Epistles: Epistle 1 Poem Rhyme Scheme

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To Henry St John Lord Bolingbroke	A
Awake my St John leave all meaner things	B
To low ambition and the pride of kings	B
Let us since life can little more supply	C
Than just to look about us and to die	C
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man	D
A mighty maze but not without a plan	D
A wild where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot	E
Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit	E
Together let us beat this ample field	F
Try what the open what the covert yield	F
The latent tracts the giddy heights explore	G
Of all who blindly creep or sightless soar	G
Eye Nature's walks shoot folly as it flies	H
And catch the manners living as they rise	H
Laugh where we must be candid where we can	D
But vindicate the ways of God to man I	C
	-
Say first of God above or man below	I
What can we reason but from what we know	I
Of man what see we but his station here	J
From which to reason or to which refer	K
Through worlds unnumber'd though the God be known	L
'Tis ours to trace him only in our own	L
He who through vast immensity can pierce	M
See worlds on worlds compose one universe	N
Observe how system into system runs	O
What other planets circle other suns	O
What varied being peoples ev'ry star	P
May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are	P
But of this frame the bearings and the ties	H
The strong connections nice dependencies	Q
Gradations just has thy pervading soul	R
Look'd through or can a part contain the whole	R
	-
Is the great chain that draws all to agree	S
And drawn supports upheld by God or thee II	C
	-
Presumptuous man the reason wouldst thou find	T
Why form'd so weak so little and so blind	T
First if thou canst the harder reason guess	U
Why form'd no weaker blinder and no less	U
Ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made	V
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade	V
Or ask of yonder argent fields above	W
Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove	W
	-
Of systems possible if 'tis confest	V
That Wisdom infinite must form the best	V
Where all must full or not coherent be	S
And all that rises rise in due degree	S
Then in the scale of reas'ning life 'tis plain	X
There must be somewhere such a rank as man	D
And all the question wrangle e'er so long	A
Is only this if God has plac'd him wrong	A
	-
Respecting man whatever wrong we call	Y
May must be right as relative to all	Y
In human works though labour'd on with pain	X
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain	X
In God's one single can its end produce	Z
Yet serves to second too some other use	Z
So man who here seems principal alone	L
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown	L
Touches some wheel or verges to some goal	R
'Tis but a part we see and not a whole	R
	-
When the proud steed shall know why man restrains	A2
His fiery course or drives him o'er the plains	A2
When the dull ox why now he breaks the clod	V
Is now a victim and now Egypt's God	V
Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend	V
His actions' passions' being's use and end	V
Why doing suff'ring check'd impell'd and why	C
This hour a slave the next a deity	V
	-
Then say not man's imperfect Heav'n in fault	V
Say rather man's as perfect as he ought	V
His knowledge measur'd to his state and place	B2
His time a moment and a point his space	B2
If to be perfect in a certain sphere	C2
What matter soon or late or here or there	D2
The blest today is as completely so	I
As who began a thousand years ago III	C
	-
Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate	V
All but the page prescrib'd their present state	V
From brutes what men from men what spirits know	I
Or who could suffer being here below	I
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today	V
Had he thy reason would he skip and play	V
Pleas'd to the last he crops the flow'ry food	V
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood	V
Oh blindness to the future kindly giv'n	I
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n	I
Who sees with equal eye as God of all	Y
A hero perish or a sparrow fall	Y
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd	V
And now a bubble burst and now a world	V
	-
Hope humbly then with trembling pinions soar	G
Wait the great teacher Death and God adore	G
What future bliss he gives not thee to know	I
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now	I
Hope springs eternal in the human breast	V
Man never is but always to be blest	V
The soul uneasy and confin'd from home	E2
Rests and expatiates in a life to come	F2
	-
Lo the poor Indian whose untutor'd mind	V
Sees God in clouds or hears him in the wind	V
His soul proud science never taught to stray	V
Far as the solar walk or milky way	V
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n	I
Behind the cloud topp'd hill an humbler heav'n	I
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd	V
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste	V
Where slaves once more their native land behold	V
No fiends torment no Christians thirst for gold	V
To be contents his natural desire	K
He asks no angel's wing no seraph's fire	K
But thinks admitted to that equal sky	C
His faithful dog shall bear him company IV	W
	-
	-
Go wiser thou and in thy scale of sense	G2
Weigh thy opinion against Providence	H2
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such	I2
Say here he gives too little there too much	I2
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust	V
Yet cry if man's unhappy God's unjust	V
If man alone engross not Heav'n's high care	D2
Alone made perfect here immortal there	D2
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod	V
Rejudge his justice be the God of God	V
In pride in reas'ning pride our error lies	H
All quit their sphere and rush into the skies	H
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes	H
Men would be angels angels would be gods	H
Aspiring to be gods if angels fell	J2
Aspiring to be angels men rebel	K2
And who but wishes to invert the laws	H
Of order sins against th' Eternal Cause V	W
	-
	-
Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine	I
Earth for whose use Pride answers 'Tis for mine	I
For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r	P
Suckles each herb and spreads out ev'ry flow'r	P
Annual for me the grape the rose renew	I
The juice nectareous and the balmy dew	I
For me the mine a thousand treasures brings	H
For me health gushes from a thousand springs	H
Seas roll to waft me suns to light me rise	H
My foot stool earth my canopy the skies	H
	-
	-
But errs not Nature from this gracious end	V
From burning suns when livid deaths descend	V
When earthquakes swallow or when tempests sweep	L2
Towns to one grave whole nations to the deep	L2
No 'tis replied the first Almighty Cause	H
Acts not by partial but by gen'ral laws	H
Th' exceptions few some change since all began	I
And what created perfect Why then man	I
If the great end be human happiness	H
Then Nature deviates and can man do less	H
As much that end a constant course requires	H
Of show'rs and sunshine as of man's desires	H
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies	H
As men for ever temp'rate calm and wise	H
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design	I
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline	I
Who knows but he whose hand the lightning forms	H
Who heaves old ocean and who wings the storms	H
Pours fierce ambition in a C aelig sar's mind	V
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind	V
From pride from pride our very reas'ning springs	H
Account for moral as for nat'ral things	H
Why charge we Heav'n in those in these acquit	V
In both to reason right is to submit	V
	-
	-
Better for us perhaps it might appear	C2
Were there all harmony all virtue here	J
That never air or ocean felt the wind	V
That never pass	H

Alexander Pope

An Essay On Man In Four Epistles: Epistle 1 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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