The First Epistle Of The First Book Of Horace Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFG HHIIJ KKLLMB NNAAOOPPLLQQ RRSSTTRRUUVW XXYYUUZZ A2B2TTQQAAC2H D2D2OONE2TTF2F2G2H2 I2 J2 LLHK2 L2L2M2N2O2P2 A Q2Q2R2R2 AAS2S2OOS2 AAPPPC2C2AAM2M2T2 M2M2 U2U2PPI2I2V2V2S2S2W2 W2X2X2 Y2Y2K2K2J2 S2S2S2Q2Z2Z2A3 Y2Y2K2K2B3B3B3S2S2SS C3C3 D3D3E2E2E3E3F3F3G3G3 S2S2NNE2E2F2F2SY2H3H 3K2K2AAI3I3TO LORD BOLINGBROKE | A |
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St John whose love indulged my labours past | B |
Matures my present and shall bound my last | B |
Why will you break the Sabbath of my days | C |
Now sick alike of envy and of praise | C |
Public too long ah let me hide my age | D |
See modest Cibber now has left the stage | D |
Our generals now retired to their estates | E |
Hang their old trophies o'er the garden gates | E |
In life's cool evening satiate of applause | F |
Nor fond of bleeding even in Brunswick's cause | G |
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A voice there is that whispers in my ear | H |
'Tis reason's voice which sometimes one can hear | H |
'Friend Pope be prudent let your Muse take breath | I |
And never gallop Pegasus to death | I |
Lest still and stately void of fire or force | J |
You limp like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse ' | - |
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Farewell then verse and love and every toy | K |
The rhymes and rattles of the man or boy | K |
What right what true what fit we justly call | L |
Let this be all my care for this is all | L |
To lay this harvest up and hoard with haste | M |
What every day will want and most the last | B |
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But ask not to what doctors I apply | N |
Sworn to no master of no sect am I | N |
As drives the storm at any door I knock | A |
And house with Montaigne now or now with Locke | A |
Sometimes a patriot active in debate | O |
Mix with the world and battle for the state | O |
Free as young Lyttelton her cause pursue | P |
Still true to virtue and as warm as true | P |
Sometimes with Aristippus or St Paul | L |
Indulge my candour and grow all to all | L |
Back to my native moderation slide | Q |
And win my way by yielding to the tide | Q |
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Long as to him who works for debt the day | R |
Long as the night to her whose love's away | R |
Long as the year's dull circle seems to run | S |
When the brisk minor pants for twenty one | S |
So slow the unprofitable moments roll | T |
That lock up all the functions of my soul | T |
That keep me from myself and still delay | R |
Life's instant business to a future day | R |
That task which as we follow or despise | U |
The eldest is a fool the youngest wise | U |
Which done the poorest can no wants endure | V |
And which not done the richest must be poor | W |
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Late as it is I put myself to school | X |
And feel some comfort not to be a fool | X |
Weak though I am of limb and short of sight | Y |
Far from a lynx and not a giant quite | Y |
I'll do what Mead and Cheselden advise | U |
To keep these limbs and to preserve these eyes | U |
Not to go back is somewhat to advance | Z |
And men must walk at least before they dance | Z |
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Say does thy blood rebel thy bosom move | A2 |
With wretched avarice or as wretched love | B2 |
Know there are words and spells which can control | T |
Between the fits this fever of the soul | T |
Know there are rhymes which fresh and fresh applied | Q |
Will cure the arrant'st puppy of his pride | Q |
Be furious envious slothful mad or drunk | A |
Slave to a wife or vassal to a punk | A |
A Switz a High Dutch or a Low Dutch bear | C2 |
All that we ask is but a patient ear | H |
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'Tis the first virtue vices to abhor | D2 |
And the first wisdom to be fool no more | D2 |
But to the world no bugbear is so great | O |
As want of figure and a small estate | O |
To either India see the merchant fly | N |
Scared at the spectre of pale poverty | E2 |
See him with pains of body pangs of soul | T |
Burn through the tropic freeze beneath the pole | T |
Wilt thou do nothing for a nobler end | F2 |
Nothing to make philosophy thy friend | F2 |
To stop thy foolish views thy long desires | G2 |
And ease thy heart of all that it admires | H2 |
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Here Wisdom calls 'Seek Virtue first be bold | I2 |
As gold to silver Virtue is to gold ' | - |
There London's voice 'Get money money still | J2 |
And then let virtue follow if she will ' | - |
This this the saving doctrine preach'd to all | L |
From low St James's up to high St Paul | L |
From him whose quill stands quiver'd at his ear | H |
To him who notches sticks at Westminster | K2 |
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Barnard in spirit sense and truth abounds | L2 |
'Pray then what wants he ' Fourscore thousand pounds | L2 |
A pension or such harness for a slave | M2 |
As Bug now has and Dorimant would have | N2 |
Barnard thou art a cit with all thy worth | O2 |
But Bug and D l their Honours and so forth | P2 |
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Yet every child another song will sing | A |
'Virtue brave boys 'tis virtue makes a king ' | - |
True conscious honour is to feel no sin | Q2 |
He's arm'd without that's innocent within | Q2 |
Be this thy screen and this thy wall of brass | R2 |
Compared to this a minister's an ass | R2 |
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And say to which shall our applause belong | A |
This new court jargon or the good old song | A |
The modern language of corrupted peers | S2 |
Or what was spoke at Cressy and Poictiers | S2 |
Who counsels best who whispers 'Be but great | O |
With praise or infamy leave that to fate | O |
Get place and wealth if possible with grace | S2 |
If not by any means get wealth and place ' | - |
For what to have a box where eunuchs sing | A |
And foremost in the circle eye a king | A |
Or he who bids thee face with steady view | P |
Proud fortune and look shallow greatness through | P |
And while he bids thee sets th' example too | P |
If such a doctrine in St James's air | C2 |
Should chance to make the well dress'd rabble stare | C2 |
If honest S z take scandal at a spark | A |
That less admires the palace than the park | A |
Faith I shall give the answer Reynard gave | M2 |
'I cannot like dread sir your royal cave | M2 |
Because I see by all the tracks about | T2 |
Full many a beast goes in but none comes out ' | - |
Adieu to virtue if you're once a slave | M2 |
Send her to court you send her to her grave | M2 |
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Well if a king's a lion at the least | U2 |
The people are a many headed beast | U2 |
Can they direct what measures to pursue | P |
Who know themselves so little what to do | P |
Alike in nothing but one lust of gold | I2 |
Just half the land would buy and half be sold | I2 |
Their country's wealth our mightier misers drain | V2 |
Or cross to plunder provinces the main | V2 |
The rest some farm the poor box some the pews | S2 |
Some keep assemblies and would keep the stews | S2 |
Some with fat bucks on childless dotards fawn | W2 |
Some win rich widows by their chine and brawn | W2 |
While with the silent growth of ten per cent | X2 |
In dirt and darkness hundreds stink content | X2 |
- | |
Of all these ways if each pursues his own | Y2 |
Satire be kind and let the wretch alone | Y2 |
But show me one who has it in his power | K2 |
To act consistent with himself an hour | K2 |
Sir Job sail'd forth the evening bright and still | J2 |
'No place on earth' he cried 'like Greenwich hill ' | - |
Up starts a palace lo the obedient base | S2 |
Slopes at its foot the woods its sides embrace | S2 |
The silver Thames reflects its marble face | S2 |
Now let some whimsy or that devil within | Q2 |
Which guides all those who know not what they mean | Z2 |
But give the knight or give his lady spleen | Z2 |
'Away away take all your scaffolds down | A3 |
For snug's the word my dear we'll live in town ' | - |
- | |
At amorous Flavio is the stocking thrown | Y2 |
That very night he longs to lie alone | Y2 |
The fool whose wife elopes some thrice a quarter | K2 |
For matrimonial solace dies a martyr | K2 |
Did ever Proteus Merlin any witch | B3 |
Transform themselves so strangely as the rich | B3 |
Well but the poor the poor have the same itch | B3 |
They change their weekly barber weekly news | S2 |
Prefer a new japanner to their shoes | S2 |
Discharge their garrets move their beds and run | S |
They know not whither in a chaise and one | S |
They hire their sculler and when once aboard | C3 |
Grow sick and damn the climate like a lord | C3 |
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You laugh half beau half sloven if I stand | D3 |
My wig all powder and all snuff my band | D3 |
You laugh if coat and breeches strangely vary | E2 |
White gloves and linen worthy Lady Mary | E2 |
But when no prelate's lawn with hair shirt lined | E3 |
Is half so incoherent as my mind | E3 |
When each opinion with the next at strife | F3 |
One ebb and flow of follies all my life | F3 |
I plant root up I build and then confound | G3 |
Turn round to square and square again to round | G3 |
You never change one muscle of your face | S2 |
You think this madness but a common case | S2 |
Nor once to Chancery nor to Hale apply | N |
Yet hang your lip to see a seam awry | N |
Careless how ill I with myself agree | E2 |
Kind to my dress my figure not to me | E2 |
Is this my guide philosopher and friend | F2 |
This he who loves me and who ought to mend | F2 |
Who ought to make me what he can or none | S |
That man divine whom Wisdom calls her own | Y2 |
Great without title without fortune bless'd | H3 |
Rich even when plunder'd honour'd while oppress'd | H3 |
Loved without youth and follow'd without power | K2 |
At home though exiled free though in the Tower | K2 |
In short that reasoning high immortal thing | A |
Just less than Jove and much above a king | A |
Nay half in heaven except what's mighty odd | I3 |
A fit of vapours clouds this demi god | I3 |
Alexander Pope
(1)
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