The Dunciad:[234] Book The First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B C DDEEFFGG HHIIJJKK LLMCNNKKOPKK QRKKSTUVRRKKWXYY QQZZA2A2B2B2C2C2 GGKKSSKKD2D2E2E2F2F2 YYKKPPG2G2H2H2 G2G2I2I2J2J2 JJI2I2CK2KKGGI2I2I2I 2L2L2NNM2M2N2N2 KKI2I2I2I2KKKKKKNNKK KKKKO2O2P2P2MKK2K2Q2 Q2KKQQKKR2CS2Q2 QL2KKT2T2I2I2 I2I2I2I2I2I2CR2 KKKKI2I2O2O2U2U2KKKK I2I2KKSSH2H2R2CI2I2V 2V2KKW2W2KKKKKKKKKKI 2I2KKX2X2I2I2M2M2CK2 Y2Y2T2T2I2I2RR KKSTI2I2KKI2I2CCKKKK Z2A3 I2I2KKI2I2I2I2I2I2I2 I2I2I2 KKCR2 I2I2I2I2S2S2I2I2X2X2 I2I2 I2I2KKKKX2X2GGI2I2X2 X2 KKX2X2B3Y2I2I2KKCR2K KC3C3M2D3I2I2T2T2E3E 3QQF3F3KKM2 KKI2I2KKX2X2 SG3H3I3 I2 I2 I2I2R2CKX2 I2 KK TI2 I2 NNI2I2ST I2 X2X2 I2K I2 J I2 KN2N2KKKT I2 X2X2KKQQT I2 X2 L2 R2 L2 KKI2I2I2I2JJJ3J3I2I2 KKW2W2T L2 KKKKT L2 M2M2 L2 R2CI2I2L2L2KT L2 I2R2CI2T I2 KK L2 I2I2KKI2I2QQK2K2T

TO DR JONATHAN SWIFT	A
	-
	-
ARGUMENT	B
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The proposition the invocation and the inscription Then the original of the great empire of Dulness and cause of the continuance thereof The college of the goddess in the city with her private academy for poets in particular the governors of it and the four cardinal virtues Then the poem hastes into the midst of things presenting her on the evening of a Lord Mayor's day revolving the long succession of her sons and the glories past and to come She fixes her eye on Bayes to be the instrument of that great event which is the subject of the poem He is described pensive among his books giving up the cause and apprehending the period of her empire after debating whether to betake himself to the Church or to gaming or to party writing he raises an altar of proper books and making first his solemn prayer and declaration purposes thereon to sacrifice all his unsuccessful writings As the pile is kindled the goddess beholding the flame from her seat flies and puts it out by casting upon it the poem of Thul She forthwith reveals herself to him transports him to her temple unfolds her arts and initiates him into her mysteries then announcing the death of Eusden the poet laureate anoints him carries him to court and proclaims him successor	C
	-
	-
The mighty mother and her son who brings	D
The Smithfield Muses to the ear of kings	D
I sing Say you her instruments the great	E
Called to this work by Dulness Jove and Fate	E
You by whose care in vain decried and cursed	F
Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first	F
Say how the goddess bade Britannia sleep	G
And pour'd her spirit o'er the land and deep	G
	-
In eldest time ere mortals writ or read	H
Ere Pallas issued from the Thunderer's head	H
Dulness o'er all possess'd her ancient right	I
Daughter of Chaos and Eternal Night	I
Fate in their dotage this fair idiot gave	J
Gross as her sire and as her mother grave	J
Laborious heavy busy bold and blind	K
She ruled in native anarchy the mind	K
	-
Still her old empire to restore she tries	L
For born a goddess Dulness never dies	L
O thou whatever title please thine ear	M
Dean Drapier Bickerstaff or Gulliver	C
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air	N
Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' easy chair	N
Or praise the court or magnify mankind	K
Or thy grieved country's copper chains unbind	K
From thy Boeotia though her power retires	O
Mourn not my Swift at ought our realm acquires	P
Here pleased behold her mighty wings outspread	K
To hatch a new Saturnian age of lead	K
	-
Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne	Q
And laughs to think Monro would take her down	R
Where o'er the gates by his famed father's hand	K
Great Cibber's brazen brainless brothers stand	K
One cell there is conceal'd from vulgar eye	S
The cave of Poverty and Poetry	T
Keen hollow winds howl through the bleak recess	U
Emblem of music caused by emptiness	V
Hence bards like Proteus long in vain tied down	R
Escape in monsters and amaze the town	R
Hence Miscellanies spring the weekly boast	K
Of Curll's chaste press and Lintot's rubric post	K
Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines	W
Hence Journals Medleys Merc'ries Magazines	X
Sepulchral lies our holy walls to grace	Y
And new year odes and all the Grub Street race	Y
	-
In clouded majesty here Dulness shone	Q
Four guardian Virtues round support her throne	Q
Fierce champion Fortitude that knows no fears	Z
Of hisses blows or want or loss of ears	Z
Calm Temperance whose blessings those partake	A2
Who hunger and who thirst for scribbling sake	A2
Prudence whose glass presents the approaching jail	B2
Poetic Justice with her lifted scale	B2
Where in nice balance truth with gold she weighs	C2
And solid pudding against empty praise	C2
	-
Here she beholds the chaos dark and deep	G
Where nameless somethings in their causes sleep	G
'Till genial Jacob or a warm third day	K
Call forth each mass a poem or a play	K
How hints like spawn scarce quick in embryo lie	S
How new born nonsense first is taught to cry	S
Maggots half form'd in rhyme exactly meet	K
And learn to crawl upon poetic feet	K
Here one poor word an hundred clenches makes	D2
And ductile Dulness new meanders takes	D2
There motley images her fancy strike	E2
Figures ill pair'd and similes unlike	E2
She sees a mob of metaphors advance	F2
Pleased with the madness of the mazy dance	F2
How Tragedy and Comedy embrace	Y
How Farce and Epic get a jumbled race	Y
How Time himself stands still at her command	K
Realms shift their place and ocean turns to land	K
Here gay Description Egypt glads with showers	P
Or gives to Zembla fruits to Barca flowers	P
Glittering with ice here hoary hills are seen	G2
There painted valleys of eternal green	G2
In cold December fragrant chaplets blow	H2
And heavy harvests nod beneath the snow	H2
	-
All these and more the cloud compelling queen	G2
Beholds through fogs that magnify the scene	G2
She tinsell'd o'er in robes of varying hues	I2
With self applause her wild creation views	I2
Sees momentary monsters rise and fall	J2
And with her own fools colours gilds them all	J2
	-
'Twas on the day when Thorold rich and grave	J
Like Cimon triumphed both on land and wave	J
Pomps without guilt of bloodless swords and maces	I2
Glad chains warm furs broad banners and broad faces	I2
Now night descending the proud scene was o'er	C
But lived in Settle's numbers one day more	K2
Now mayors and shrieves all hushed and satiate lay	K
Yet eat in dreams the custard of the day	K
While pensive poets painful vigils keep	G
Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep	G
Much to the mindful queen the feast recalls	I2
What city swans once sung within the walls	I2
Much she revolves their arts their ancient praise	I2
And sure succession down from Heywood's days	I2
She saw with joy the line immortal run	L2
Each sire impress'd and glaring in his son	L2
So watchful Bruin forms with plastic care	N
Each growing lump and brings it to a bear	N
She saw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine	M2
And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line	M2
She saw slow Philips creep like Tate's poor page	N2
And all the mighty mad in Dennis rage	N2
	-
In each she marks her image full express'd	K
But chief in Bayes's monster breeding breast	K
Bayes formed by nature stage and town to bless	I2
And act and be a coxcomb with success	I2
Dulness with transport eyes the lively dunce	I2
Remembering she herself was pertness once	I2
Now shame to Fortune an ill run at play	K
Blank'd his bold visage and a thin third day	K
Swearing and supperless the hero sate	K
Blasphemed his gods the dice and damn'd his fate	K
Then gnaw'd his pen then dash'd it on the ground	K
Sinking from thought to thought a vast profound	K
Plunged for his sense but found no bottom there	N
Yet wrote and floundered on in mere despair	N
Round him much embryo much abortion lay	K
Much future ode and abdicated play	K
Nonsense precipitate like running lead	K
That slipp'd through cracks and zig zags of the head	K
All that on Folly Frenzy could beget	K
Fruits of dull heat and sooterkins of wit	K
Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll	O2
In pleasing memory of all he stole	O2
How here he sipp'd how there he plunder'd snug	P2
And suck'd all o'er like an industrious bug	P2
Here lay poor Fletcher's half eat scenes and here	M
The frippery of crucified Moli re	K
There hapless Shakspeare yet of Tibbald sore	K2
Wish'd he had blotted for himself before	K2
The rest on outside merit but presume	Q2
Or serve like other fools to fill a room	Q2
Such with their shelves as due proportion hold	K
Or their fond parents dress'd in red and gold	K
Or where the pictures for the page atone	Q
And Quarles is saved by beauties not his own	Q
Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the great	K
There stamp'd with arms Newcastle shines complete	K
Here all his suffering brotherhood retire	R2
And 'scape the martyrdom of Jakes and fire	C
A Gothic library of Greece and Rome	S2
Well purged and worthy Settle Banks and Broome	Q2
	-
But high above more solid learning shone	Q
The classics of an age that heard of none	L2
There Caxton slept with Wynkyn at his side	K
One clasp'd in wood and one in strong cow hide	K
There saved by spice like mummies many a year	T2
Dry bodies of divinity appear	T2
De Lyra there a dreadful front extends	I2
And here the groaning shelves Philemon bends	I2
	-
Of these twelve volumes twelve of amplest size	I2
Redeem'd from tapers and defrauded pies	I2
Inspired he seizes these an altar raise	I2
An hecatomb of pure unsullied lays	I2
That altar crowns a folio common place	I2
Founds the whole pile of all his works the base	I2
Quartos octavos shape the lessening pyre	C
A twisted birth day ode completes the spire	R2
	-
Then he Great tamer of all human art	K
First in my care and ever at my heart	K
Dulness whose good old cause I yet defend	K
With whom my Muse began with whom shall end	K
E'er since Sir Fopling's periwig was praise	I2
To the last honours of the butt and bays	I2
O thou of business the directing soul	O2
To this our head like bias to the bowl	O2
Which as more ponderous made its aim more true	U2
Obliquely waddling to the mark in view	U2
Oh ever gracious to perplexed mankind	K
Still spread a healing mist before the mind	K
And lest we err by wit's wild dancing light	K
Secure us kindly in our native night	K
Or if to wit a coxcomb make pretence	I2
Guard the sure barrier between that and sense	I2
Or quite unravel all the reasoning thread	K
And hang some curious cobweb in its stead	K
As forced from wind guns lead itself can fly	S
And ponderous slugs cut swiftly through the sky	S
As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe	H2
The wheels above urged by the load below	H2
Me Emptiness and Dulness could inspire	R2
And were my elasticity and fire	C
Some demon stole my pen forgive the offence	I2
And once betrayed me into common sense	I2
Else all my prose and verse were much the same	V2
This prose on stilts that poetry fallen lame	V2
Did on the stage my fops appear confined	K
My life gave ampler lessons to mankind	K
Did the dead letter unsuccessful prove	W2
The brisk example never fail'd to move	W2
Yet sure had Heaven decreed to save the state	K
Heaven had decreed these works a longer date	K
Could Troy be saved by any single hand	K
This gray goose weapon must have made her stand	K
What can I now my Fletcher cast aside	K
Take up the Bible once my better guide	K
Or tread the path by venturous heroes trod	K
This box my thunder this right hand my god	K
Or chair'd at White's amidst the doctors sit	K
Teach oaths to gamesters and to nobles wit	K
Or bidst thou rather party to embrace	I2
A friend to party thou and all her race	I2
'Tis the same rope at different ends they twist	K
To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist	K
Shall I like Curtins desperate in my zeal	X2
O'er head and ears plunge for the common weal	X2
Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories	I2
And cackling save the monarchy of Tories	I2
Hold to the minister I more incline	M2
To serve his cause O queen is serving thine	M2
And see thy very gazetteers give o'er	C
Ev'n Ralph repents and Henley writes no more	K2
What then remains Ourself Still still remain	Y2
Cibberian forehead and Cibberian brain	Y2
This brazen brightness to the squire so dear	T2
This polish'd hardness that reflects the peer	T2
This arch absurd that wit and fool delights	I2
This mess tossed up of Hockley hole and White's	I2
Where dukes and butchers join to wreathe my crown	R
At once the bear and fiddle of the town	R
	-
O born in sin and forth in folly brought	K
Works damn'd or to be damn'd your father's fault	K
Go purified by flames ascend the sky	S
My better and more Christian progeny	T
Unstain'd untouch'd and yet in maiden sheets	I2
While all your smutty sisters walk the streets	I2
Ye shall not beg like gratis given Bland	K
Sent with a pass and vagrant through the land	K
Nor sail with Ward to ape and monkey climes	I2
Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes	I2
Not sulphur tipp'd emblaze an ale house fire	C
Not wrap up oranges to pelt your sire	C
Oh pass more innocent in infant state	K
To the mild limbo of our father Tate	K
Or peaceably forgot at once be blest	K
In Shadwell's bosom with eternal rest	K
Soon to that mass of nonsense to return	Z2
Where things destroyed are swept to things unborn	A3
	-
With that a tear portentous sign of grace	I2
Stole from the master of the sevenfold face	I2
And thrice he lifted high the birth day brand	K
And thrice he dropp'd it from his quivering hand	K
Then lights the structure with averted eyes	I2
The rolling smoke involves the sacrifice	I2
The opening clouds disclose each work by turns	I2
Now flames the Cid and now Perolla burns	I2
Great Caesar roars and hisses in the fires	I2
King John in silence modestly expires	I2
No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims	I2
Moliere's old stubble in a moment flames	I2
Tears gush'd again as from pale Priam's eyes	I2
When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies	I2
	-
Roused by the light old Dulness heaved the head	K
Then snatch'd a sheet of Thul from her bed	K
Sudden she flies and whelms it o'er the pyre	C
Down sink the flames and with a hiss expire	R2
	-
Her ample presence fills up all the place	I2
A veil of fogs dilates her awful face	I2
Great in her charms as when on shrieves and mayors	I2
She looks and breathes herself into their airs	I2
She bids him wait her to her sacred dome	S2
Well pleased he enter'd and confessed his home	S2
So spirits ending their terrestrial race	I2
Ascend and recognise their native place	I2
This the great mother dearer held than all	X2
The clubs of quidnuncs or her own Guildhall	X2
Here stood her opium here she nursed her owls	I2
And here she plann'd the imperial seat of fools	I2
	-
Here to her chosen all her works she shows	I2
Prose swell'd to verse verse loitering into prose	I2
How random thoughts now meaning chance to find	K
Now leave all memory of sense behind	K
How prologues into prefaces decay	K
And these to notes are fritter'd quite away	K
How index learning turns no student pale	X2
Yet holds the eel of science by the tail	X2
How with less reading than makes felons 'scape	G
Less human genius than God gives an ape	G
Small thanks to France and none to Rome or Greece	I2
A past vamp'd future old revived new piece	I2
'Twixt Plautus Fletcher Shakspeare and Corneille	X2
Can make a Cibber Tibbald or Ozell	X2
	-
The goddess then o'er his anointed head	K
With mystic words the sacred opium shed	K
And lo her bird a monster of a fowl	X2
Something betwixt a Heidegger and owl	X2
Perch'd on his crown 'All hail and hail again	B3
My son the promised land expects thy reign	Y2
Know Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise	I2
He sleeps among the dull of ancient days	I2
Safe where no critics damn no duns molest	K
Where wretched Withers Ward and Gildon rest	K
And high born Howard more majestic sire	C
With fool of quality completes the quire	R2
Thou Cibber thou his laurel shalt support	K
Folly my son has still a friend at Court	K
Lift up your gates ye princes see him come	C3
Sound sound ye viols be the cat call dumb	C3
Bring bring the madding bay the drunken vine	M2
The creeping dirty courtly ivy join	D3
And thou his aide de camp lead on my sons	I2
Light arm'd with points antitheses and puns	I2
Let Bawdry Billingsgate my daughters dear	T2
Support his front and Oaths bring up the rear	T2
And under his and under Archer's wing	E3
Gaming and Grub Street skulk behind the king	E3
Oh when shall rise a monarch all our own	Q
And I a nursing mother rock the throne	Q
'Twixt prince and people close the curtain draw	F3
Shade him from light and cover him from law	F3
Fatten the courtier starve the learn d band	K
And suckle armies and dry nurse the land	K
Till senates nod to lullabies divine	M2
And all be sleep as at an ode of thine '	-
	-
She ceased Then swells the chapel royal throat	K
God save King Cibber mounts in every note	K
Familiar White's God save King Colley cries	I2
God save King Colley Drury lane replies	I2
To Needham's quick the voice triumphal rode	K
But pious Needham dropp'd the name of God	K
Back to the Devil the last echoes roll	X2
And Coll each butcher roars at Hockley hole	X2
	-
So when Jove's block descended from on high	S
As sings thy great forefather Ogilby	G3
Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog	H3
And the hoarse nation croak'd God save King Log	I3
	-
	-
VARIATIONS	I2
	-
VER The mighty mother c In the first edition it was thus	I2
	-
Books and the man I sing the first who brings	I2
The Smithfield muses to the ear of kings	I2
Say great patricians since yourselves inspire	R2
These wondrous works so Jove and Fate require	C
Say for what cause in vain decried and cursed	K
Still	X2
	-
After VER in the MS	I2
	-
Or in the graver gown instruct mankind	K
Or silent let thy morals tell thy mind	K
	-
But this was to be understood as the poet says ironic like the d	T
verse	I2
	-
VER Close to those walls c In the former edition thus	I2
	-
Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag fair	N
A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air	N
Keen hollow winds howl through the bleak recess	I2
Emblem of music caused by emptiness	I2
Here in one bed two shivering sisters lie	S
The cave of Poverty and Poetry	T
	-
VER in the former lines	I2
	-
Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lay	X2
Hence the soft sing song on Cecilia's day	X2
	-
VER alludes to the annual songs composed to music on St Cecilia's	I2
Feast	K
	-
VER in the former editions	I2
	-
'Twas on the day when Thorald rich and grave	J
	-
VER But chief in Bayes's e In the former edition thus	I2
	-
But chief in Tibbald's monster breeding breast	K
Sees gods with demons in strange league engage	N2
And earth and heaven and hell her battles wage	N2
She eyed the bard where supperless he sate	K
And pined unconscious of his rising fate	K
Studious he sate with all his books around	K
Sinking from thought to thought c	T
	-
VER Round him much embryo c In the former editions thus	I2
	-
He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay	X2
Where yet unpawn'd much learned lumber lay	X2
Volumes whose size the space exactly fill'd	K
Or which fond authors were so good to gild	K
Or where by sculpture made for ever known	Q
The page admires new beauties not its own	Q
Here swells the shelf c	T
	-
VER In the first edition it was	I2
	-
Well purged and worthy W y W s and Bl	X2
	-
VER A twisted c In the former edition	L2
	-
And last a little Ajax tips the spire	R2
	-
VER Or if to wit c In the former edition	L2
	-
Ah still o'er Britain stretch that peaceful wand	K
Which lulls th' Helvetian and Batavian land	K
Where rebel to thy throne if science rise	I2
She does but show her coward face and dies	I2
There thy good scholiasts with unwearied pains	I2
Make Horace flat and humble Maro's strains	I2
Here studious I unlucky moderns save	J
Nor sleeps one error in its father's grave	J
Old puns restore lost blunders nicely seek	J3
And crucify poor Shakspeare once a week	J3
For thee supplying in the worst of days	I2
Notes to dull books and prologues to dull plays	I2
Not that my quill to critics was confined	K
My verse gave ampler lessons to mankind	K
So gravest precepts may successless prove	W2
But sad examples never fail to move	W2
As forced from wind guns c	T
	-
VER Yet sure had Heaven c In the former edition	L2
	-
Had Heaven decreed such works a longer date	K
Heaven had decreed to spare the Grub Street state	K
But see great Settle to the dust descend	K
And all thy cause and empire at an end	K
Could Troy be saved c	T
	-
VER Hold to the minister In the former edition	L2
	-
Yes to my country I my pen consign	M2
Yes from this moment mighty Mist am thine	M2
	-
VER O born in sin c In the former edition	L2
	-
Adieu my children better thus expire	R2
Unstall'd unsold thus glorious mount in fire	C
Fair without spot than greased by grocer's hands	I2
Or shipp'd with Ward to ape and monkey lands	I2
Or wafting ginger round the streets to run	L2
And visit ale house where ye first begun	L2
With that he lifted thrice the sparkling brand	K
And thrice he dropp'd it c	T
	-
VER Now flames the Cid c In the former edition	L2
	-
Now flames old Memnon now Rodrigo burns	I2
In one quick flash see Proserpine expire	R2
And last his own cold Aeschylus took fire	C
Then gushed the tears as from the Trojan's eyes	I2
When the last blaze c	T
	-
After VER in the former edition followed these two lines	I2
	-
Raptured he gazes round the dear retreat	K
And in sweet numbers celebrates the seat	K
	-
VER Know Eusden c In the former edition	L2
	-
Know Settle cloy'd with custard and with praise	I2
Is gather'd to the dull of ancient days	I2
Safe where no critics damn no duns molest	K
Where Gildon Banks and high born Howard rest	K
I see a king who leads my chosen sons	I2
To lands that flow with clenches and with puns	I2
Till each famed theatre my empire own	Q
Till Albion as Hibernia bless my throne	Q
I see I see Then rapt she spoke no more	K2
God save King Tibbald Grub Street alleys roar	K2
So when Jove's block c	T

Alexander Pope

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