Essay On Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFGGHHDDIIJK LLMNOOPPHQRRSS TTUUVVWWVVSSXDYYZZXX A2A2LLRRB2B2VVVVCVVV C2C2D2E2II VVIIVVVVIIZZVVGGIIVV F2G2VVVVIIVVVVKKCI H2I2J2J2VVE2E2VVHHHH K2AHH IIPPIIHHHHVVL2L2HHII HHHHHHIIWThe First Epistle | A |
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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 | D |
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 |
Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known | L |
'Tis ours to trace him only in our own | L |
He who thro' 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 vary'd 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 thro' 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 | S |
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II 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 rank as Man | D |
And all the question wrangle e'er so long | Y |
Is only this if God has plac'd him wrong | Y |
Respecting Man whatever wrong we call | Z |
Nay must be right as relative to all | Z |
In human works tho' labour'd on with pain | X |
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain | X |
In God's one single can its end produce | A2 |
Yet serves to second too some other use | A2 |
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 | B2 |
His fiery course or drives him o'er the plains | B2 |
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 dullness 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 | C2 |
His time a moment and a point his space | C2 |
If to be perfect in a certain sphere | D2 |
What matter soon or late or here or there | E2 |
The blest today is as completely so | I |
As who began a thousand years ago | I |
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III 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 to day | 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 | Z |
A hero perish or a sparrow fall | Z |
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 | F2 |
Rests and expatiates in a life to come | G2 |
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 topt hill an humbler heav'n | I |
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd | V |
Some happier island in the watry 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 | I |
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IV Go wiser thou and in thy scale of sense | H2 |
Weigh thy Opinion against Providence | I2 |
Call Imperfection what thou fancy'st such | J2 |
Say here he gives too little there too much | J2 |
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust | V |
Yet cry If Man's unhappy God's unjust | V |
If Man alone ingross not Heav'n's high care | E2 |
Alone made perfect here immortal there | E2 |
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod | V |
Re judge 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 | K2 |
Aspiring to be Angels Men rebel | A |
And who but wishes to invert the laws | H |
Of ORDER sins against th' Eternal Cause | H |
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V 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 reply'd 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 sun shine 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 light'ning fo | W |
Alexander Pope
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