The Dunciad: Book Ii. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFFF GGHH FFIIFFFFJK IILL MMNNFFOOFFDDPPLLHHDD QQFF RDDSSTTFFPPUUVVWWIII IDDDDF FFDDIIXXFF FFDDMMYYIIFFZZFF IIIIDDIIDDII LA2DDIIB2C2D2D2 E2E2IIFFIIA FFIIDDF2F2G2G2FFFFYY IIIIXXFFQ H2H2FFIIIIFFHigh on a gorgeous seat that far out shone | A |
Henley's gilt tub or Flecknoe's Irish throne | A |
Or that where on her Curlls the public pours | B |
All bounteous fragrant grains and golden showers | C |
Great Cibber sate the proud Parnassian sneer | D |
The conscious simper and the jealous leer | D |
Mix on his look all eyes direct their rays | E |
On him and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze | E |
His peers shine round him with reflected grace | F |
New edge their dulness and new bronze their face | F |
So from the sun's broad beam in shallow urns | F |
Heaven's twinkling sparks draw light and point their horns | F |
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Not with more glee by hands Pontific crown'd | G |
With scarlet hats wide waving circled round | G |
Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit | H |
Throned on seven hills the Antichrist of wit | H |
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And now the queen to glad her sons proclaims | F |
By herald hawkers high heroic games | F |
They summon all her race an endless band | I |
Pours forth and leaves unpeopled half the land | I |
A motley mixture in long wigs in bags | F |
In silks in crapes in garters and in rags | F |
From drawing rooms from colleges from garrets | F |
On horse on foot in hacks and gilded chariots | F |
All who true dunces in her cause appear'd | J |
And all who knew those dunces to reward | K |
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Amid that area wide they took their stand | I |
Where the tall maypole once o'er looked the Strand | I |
But now so Anne and piety ordain | L |
A church collects the saints of Drury Lane | L |
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With authors stationers obey'd the call | M |
The field of glory is a field for all | M |
Glory and gain the industrious tribe provoke | N |
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke | N |
A poet's form she placed before their eyes | F |
And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize | F |
No meagre muse rid mope adust and thin | O |
In a dun night gown of his own loose skin | O |
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise | F |
Twelve starveling bards of these degenerate days | F |
All as a partridge plump full fed and fair | D |
She form'd this image of well bodied air | D |
With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head | P |
A brain of feathers and a heart of lead | P |
And empty words she gave and sounding strain | L |
But senseless lifeless idol void and vain | L |
Never was dash'd out at one lucky hit | H |
A fool so just a copy of a wit | H |
So like that critics said and courtiers swore | D |
A wit it was and call'd the phantom More | D |
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All gaze with ardour some a poet's name | Q |
Others a sword knot and laced suit inflame | Q |
But lofty Lintot in the circle rose | F |
'This prize is mine who tempt it are my foes | F |
With me began this genius and shall end ' | - |
He spoke and who with Lintot shall contend | R |
Fear held them mute Alone untaught to fear | D |
Stood dauntless Curll 'Behold that rival here | D |
The race by vigour not by vaunts is won | S |
So take the hindmost Hell ' He said and run | S |
Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind | T |
He left huge Lintot and out stripp'd the wind | T |
As when a dab chick waddles through the copse | F |
On feet and wings and flies and wades and hops | F |
So labouring on with shoulders hands and head | P |
Wide as a wind mill all his figure spread | P |
With arms expanded Bernard rows his state | U |
And left legg'd Jacob seems to emulate | U |
Full in the middle way there stood a lake | V |
Which Curll's Corinna chanced that morn to make | V |
Such was her wont at early dawn to drop | W |
Her evening cates before his neighbour's shop | W |
Here fortuned Curll to slide loud shout the band | I |
And Bernard Bernard rings through all the Strand | I |
Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd | I |
Fallen in the plash his wickedness had laid | I |
Then first if poets aught of truth declare | D |
The caitiff vaticide conceived a prayer | D |
'Hear Jove whose name my bards and I adore | D |
As much at least as any god's or more | D |
And him and his if more devotion warms | F |
Down with the Bible up with the Pope's arms ' | - |
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A place there is betwixt earth air and seas | F |
Where from Ambrosia Jove retires for ease | F |
There in his seat two spacious vents appear | D |
On this he sits to that he leans his ear | D |
And hears the various vows of fond mankind | I |
Some beg an eastern some a western wind | I |
All vain petitions mounting to the sky | X |
With reams abundant this abode supply | X |
Amused he reads and then returns the bills | F |
Sign'd with that ichor which from gods distils | F |
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In office here fair Cloacina stands | F |
And ministers to Jove with purest hands | F |
Forth from the heap she pick'd her votary's prayer | D |
And placed it next him a distinction rare | D |
Oft had the goddess heard her servant's call | M |
From her black grottos near the Temple wall | M |
Listening delighted to the jest unclean | Y |
Of link boys vile and watermen obscene | Y |
Where as he fish'd her nether realms for wit | I |
She oft had favour'd him and favours yet | I |
Renew'd by ordure's sympathetic force | F |
As oil'd with magic juices for the course | F |
Vigorous he rises from the effluvia strong | Z |
Imbibes new life and scours and stinks along | Z |
Repasses Lintot vindicates the race | F |
Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face | F |
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And now the victor stretch'd his eager hand | I |
Where the tall Nothing stood or seem'd to stand | I |
A shapeless shade it melted from his sight | I |
Like forms in clouds or visions of the night | I |
To seize his papers Curll was next thy care | D |
His papers light fly diverse toss'd in air | D |
Songs sonnets epigrams the winds uplift | I |
And whisk them back to Evans Young and Swift | I |
The embroider'd suit at least he deem'd his prey | D |
That suit an unpaid tailor snatch'd away | D |
No rag no scrap of all the beau or wit | I |
That once so flutter'd and that once so writ | I |
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Heaven rings with laughter of the laughter vain | L |
Dulness good queen repeats the jest again | A2 |
Three wicked imps of her own Grub Street choir | D |
She deck'd like Congreve Addison and Prior | D |
Mears Warner Wilkins run delusive thought | I |
Breval Bond Bezaleel the varlets caught | I |
Curll stretches after Gay but Gay is gone | B2 |
He grasps an empty Joseph for a John | C2 |
So Proteus hunted in a nobler shape | D2 |
Became when seized a puppy or an ape | D2 |
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To him the goddess 'Son thy grief lay down | E2 |
And turn this whole illusion on the town | E2 |
As the sage dame experienced in her trade | I |
By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade | I |
Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris | F |
Of wrongs from duchesses and Lady Maries | F |
Be thine my stationer this magic gift | I |
Cook shall be Prior and Concanen Swift | I |
So shall each hostile name become our own | A |
And we too boast our Garth and Addison ' | - |
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With that she gave him piteous of his case | F |
Yet smiling at his rueful length of face | F |
A shaggy tapestry worthy to be spread | I |
On Codrus' old or Dunton's modern bed | I |
Instructive work whose wry mouth'd portraiture | D |
Display'd the fates her confessors endure | D |
Earless on high stood unabash'd Defoe | F2 |
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below | F2 |
There Ridpath Roper cudgell'd might ye view | G2 |
The very worsted still look'd black and blue | G2 |
Himself among the storied chiefs he spies | F |
As from the blanket high in air he flies | F |
And oh he cried what street what lane but knows | F |
Our purgings pumpings blanketings and blows | F |
In every loom our labours shall be seen | Y |
And the fresh vomit run for ever green | Y |
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See in the circle next Eliza placed | I |
Two babes of love close clinging to her waist | I |
Fair as before her works she stands confess'd | I |
In flowers and pearls by bounteous Kirkall dress'd | I |
The goddess then 'Who best can send on high | X |
The salient spout far streaming to the sky | X |
His be yon Juno of majestic size | F |
With cow like udders and with ox like eyes | F |
This China Jordan let the chief o'ercome | Q |
Replenish not ingloriously at home ' | - |
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Osborne and Curll accept the glorious strife | H2 |
Though this his son dissuades and that his wife | H2 |
One on his manly confidence relies | F |
One on his vigour and superior size | F |
First Osborne lean'd against his letter'd post | I |
It rose and labour'd to a curve at most | I |
So Jove's bright bow displays its watery round | I |
Sure sign that no spectator shall be drown'd | I |
A second effort brought but new disgrace | F |
The wild meander was | F |
Alexander Pope
(1)
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