Prologue To Mr Addison's Tragedy Of Cato Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEFGGHIJJIHKK LLIHMMNOLLPPQQPP PPPPRRCCSS| To wake the soul by tender strokes of art | A |
| To raise the genius and to mend the heart | A |
| To make mankind in conscious virtue bold | B |
| Live o'er each scene and be what they behold | B |
| For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage | C |
| Commanding tears to stream through every age | C |
| Tyrants no more their savage nature kept | D |
| And foes to virtue wonder'd how they wept | D |
| Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move | E |
| The hero's glory or the virgin's love | F |
| In pitying love we but our weakness show | G |
| And wild ambition well deserves its woe | G |
| Here tears shall flow from a more generous cause | H |
| Such tears as patriots shed for dying laws | I |
| He bids your breasts with ancient ardour rise | J |
| And calls forth Roman drops from British eyes | J |
| Virtue confess'd in human shape he draws | I |
| What Plato thought and godlike Cato was | H |
| No common object to your sight displays | K |
| But what with pleasure Heaven itself surveys | K |
| A brave man struggling in the storms of fate | L |
| And greatly falling with a falling state | L |
| While Cato gives his little senate laws | I |
| What bosom beats not in his country's cause | H |
| Who sees him act but envies every deed | M |
| Who hears him groan and does not wish to bleed | M |
| Even when proud Caesar 'midst triumphal cars | N |
| The spoils of nations and the pomp of wars | O |
| Ignobly vain and impotently great | L |
| Show'd Rome her Cato's figure drawn in state | L |
| As her dead father's reverend image pass'd | P |
| The pomp was darken'd and the day o'ercast | P |
| The triumph ceased tears gush'd from every eye | Q |
| The world's great victor pass'd unheeded by | Q |
| Her last good man dejected Rome adored | P |
| And honour'd Caesar's less than Cato's sword | P |
| - | |
| Britons attend be worth like this approved | P |
| And show you have the virtue to be moved | P |
| With honest scorn the first famed Cato view'd | P |
| Rome learning arts from Greece whom she subdued | P |
| Your scene precariously subsists too long | R |
| On French translation and Italian song | R |
| Dare to have sense yourselves assert the stage | C |
| Be justly warm'd with your own native rage | C |
| Such plays alone should win a British ear | S |
| As Cato's self had not disdain'd to hear | S |
Alexander Pope
(1)
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About Prologue To Mr Addison's Tragedy Of Cato
Prologue To Mr Addison's Tragedy Of Cato is a poem by Alexander Pope. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.