Moral Essays. Epistle V. To Mr Addison Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEFGGHHIIJJKK LLMMNOPPNNQQ JJRRMMPPPPSSTT NNKKHHUU JJQQPPPPVWNNCCXXYYZ| OCCASIONED BY HIS DIALOGUES ON MEDALS | A |
| - | |
| See the wild waste of all devouring years | B |
| How Rome her own sad sepulchre appears | B |
| With nodding arches broken temples spread | C |
| The very tombs now vanish'd like their dead | C |
| Imperial wonders raised on nations spoil'd | D |
| Where mix'd with slaves the groaning martyr toil'd | D |
| Huge theatres that now unpeopled woods | E |
| Now drain'd a distant country of her floods | F |
| Fanes which admiring gods with pride survey | G |
| Statues of men scarce less alive than they | G |
| Some felt the silent stroke of mouldering age | H |
| Some hostile fury some religious rage | H |
| Barbarian blindness Christian zeal conspire | I |
| And Papal piety and Gothic fire | I |
| Perhaps by its own ruins saved from flame | J |
| Some buried marble half preserves a name | J |
| That name the learn'd with fierce disputes pursue | K |
| And give to Titus old Vespasian's due | K |
| - | |
| Ambition sigh'd she found it vain to trust | L |
| The faithless column and the crumbling bust | L |
| Huge moles whose shadow stretch'd from shore to shore | M |
| Their ruins perish'd and their place no more | M |
| Convinced she now contracts her vast design | N |
| And all her triumphs shrink into a coin | O |
| A narrow orb each crowded conquest keeps | P |
| Beneath her palm here sad Jud a weeps | P |
| Now scantier limits the proud arch confine | N |
| And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine | N |
| A small Euphrates through the piece is roll'd | Q |
| And little eagles wave their wings in gold | Q |
| - | |
| The medal faithful to its charge of fame | J |
| Through climes and ages bears each form and name | J |
| In one short view subjected to our eye | R |
| Gods emperors heroes sages beauties lie | R |
| With sharpen'd sight pale antiquaries pore | M |
| The inscription value but the rust adore | M |
| This the blue varnish that the green endears | P |
| The sacred rust of twice ten hundred years | P |
| To gain Pescennius one employs his schemes | P |
| One grasps a Cecrops in ecstatic dreams | P |
| Poor Vadius long with learned spleen devour'd | S |
| Can taste no pleasure since his shield was scour'd | S |
| And Curio restless by the fair one's side | T |
| Sighs for an Otho and neglects his bride | T |
| - | |
| Theirs is the vanity the learning thine | N |
| Touch'd by thy hand again Rome's glories shine | N |
| Her gods and god like heroes rise to view | K |
| And all her faded garlands bloom anew | K |
| Nor blush these studies thy regard engage | H |
| These pleased the fathers of poetic rage | H |
| The verse and sculpture bore an equal part | U |
| And Art reflected images to Art | U |
| - | |
| Oh when shall Britain conscious of her claim | J |
| Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame | J |
| In living medals see her wars enroll'd | Q |
| And vanquish'd realms supply recording gold | Q |
| Here rising bold the patriot's honest face | P |
| There warriors frowning in historic brass | P |
| Then future ages with delight shall see | P |
| How Plato's Bacon's Newton's looks agree | P |
| Or in fair series laurell'd bards be shown | V |
| A Virgil there and here an Addison | W |
| Then shall thy Craggs and let me call him mine | N |
| On the cast ore another Pollio shine | N |
| With aspect open shall erect his head | C |
| And round the orb in lasting notes be read | C |
| 'Statesman yet friend to truth of soul sincere | X |
| In action faithful and in honour clear | X |
| Who broke no promise served no private end | Y |
| Who gain'd no title and who lost no friend | Y |
| Ennobled by himself by all approved | Z |
| And praised unenvied by the Muse he loved ' | - |
Alexander Pope
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