The Satires Of Dr John Donne, Dean Of St Paul's, Versified. Satire Iv Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCCC DDCCEECCFFGHIIIJJKKL LMMNNOOPQ RRCCSSII TTUVTTCCLQWWCCXW FFYYJJX Z W CCA2A2PB2 C2C2WWHHD2D2E2 CCCCD2D2F2P CCC XYG2G2H2H2WWE2E2X WWI2I2LLCC WWCCJ2K2CCCCK2L2M2M2 LLN2O2P2Q2R2R2S2S2WW T2T2WW LLU2U2V2W2X2X2Y2Z2D2 D2A3A3CCCCYYCC WWB3MF2C3YYWW CCCCD3D3A3A3E3E3YYS2 S2X2X2YYWWA3A3CCCCCC LLY2Z2F3F3CCCCCCG3G3 WWCCH3H3 G3G3E2E2G3G3CCCCWWG3 G3PPCCH3H3G3G3TC B2B2I3I3A2A2LLWYCCJ3 C CCWWCCWW E2E2P2P2CCG3G3

Well if it be my time to quit the stage	A
Adieu to all the follies of the age	A
I die in charity with fool and knave	B
Secure of peace at least beyond the grave	B
I've had my purgatory here betimes	C
And paid for all my satires all my rhymes	C
The poet's hell its tortures fiends and flames	C
To this were trifles toys and empty names	C
	-
With foolish pride my heart was never fired	D
Nor the vain itch t' admire or be admired	D
I hoped for no commission from his Grace	C
I bought no benefice I begg'd no place	C
Had no new verses nor new suit to show	E
Yet went to court the devil would have it so	E
But as the fool that in reforming days	C
Would go to mass in jest as story says	C
Could not but think to pay his fine was odd	F
Since 'twas no form'd design of serving God	F
So was I punish'd as if full as proud	G
As prone to ill as negligent of good	H
As deep in debt without a thought to pay	I
As vain as idle and as false as they	I
Who live at court for going once that way	I
Scarce was I enter'd when behold there came	J
A thing which Adam had been posed to name	J
Noah had refused it lodging in his ark	K
Where all the race of reptiles might embark	K
A verier monster than on Afric's shore	L
The sun e'er got or slimy Nilus bore	L
Or Sloane or Woodward's wondrous shelves contain	M
Nay all that lying travellers can feign	M
The watch would hardly let him pass at noon	N
At night would swear him dropp'd out of the moon	N
One whom the mob when next we find or make	O
A Popish plot shall for a Jesuit take	O
And the wise justice starting from his chair	P
Cry By your priesthood tell me what you are	Q
	-
Such was the wight the apparel on his back	R
Though coarse was reverend and though bare was black	R
The suit if by the fashion one might guess	C
Was velvet in the youth of good Queen Bess	C
But mere tuff taffety what now remain'd	S
So time that changes all things had ordain'd	S
Our sons shall see it leisurely decay	I
First turn plain rash then vanish quite away	I
	-
This thing has travell'd speaks each language too	T
And knows what's fit for every State to do	T
Of whose best phrase and courtly accent join'd	U
He forms one tongue exotic and refined	V
Talkers I've learn'd to bear Motteux I knew	T
Henley himself I've heard and Budgell too	T
The Doctor's wormwood style the hash of tongues	C
A pedant makes the storm of Gonson's lungs	C
The whole artillery of the terms of war	L
And all those plagues in one the bawling Bar	Q
These I could bear but not a rogue so civil	W
Whose tongue will compliment you to the devil	W
A tongue that can cheat widows cancel scores	C
Make Scots speak treason cozen subtlest whores	C
With royal favourites in flattery vie	X
And Oldmixon and Burnet both outlie	W
	-
He spies me out I whisper Gracious God	F
What sin of mine could merit such a rod	F
That all the shot of dulness now must be	Y
From this thy blunderbuss discharged on me	Y
Permit he cries no stranger to your fame	J
To crave your sentiment if 's your name	J
What speech esteem you most 'The King's ' said I	X
But the best words 'Oh sir the Dictionary '	-
You miss my aim I mean the most acute	Z
And perfect speaker 'Onslow past dispute '	-
But sir of writers 'Swift for closer style	W
But Hoadley for a period of a mile '	-
Why yes 'tis granted these indeed may pass	C
Good common linguists and so Panurge was	C
Nay troth the Apostles though perhaps too rough	A2
Had once a pretty gift of tongues enough	A2
Yet these were all poor gentlemen I dare	P
Affirm 'twas travel made them what they were	B2
	-
Thus others' talents having nicely shown	C2
He came by sure transition to his own	C2
Till I cried out You prove yourself so able	W
Pity you was not druggerman at Babel	W
For had they found a linguist half so good	H
I make no question but the tower had stood	H
'Obliging sir for courts you sure were made	D2
Why then for ever buried in the shade	D2
Spirits like you should see and should be seen	E2
The king would smile on you at least the queen '	-
Ah gentle sir you courtiers so cajole us	C
But Tully has it Nunquam minus solus	C
And as for courts forgive me if I say	C
No lessons now are taught the Spartan way	C
Though in his pictures lust be full display'd	D2
Few are the converts Aretine has made	D2
And though the court show vice exceeding clear	F2
None should by my advice learn virtue there	P
	-
At this entranced he lifts his hands and eyes	C
Squeaks like a high stretch'd lutestring and replies	C
'Oh 'tis the sweetest of all earthly things	C
To gaze on princes and to talk of kings '	-
Then happy man who shows the tombs said I	X
He dwells amidst the royal family	Y
He every day from king to king can walk	G2
Of all our Harries all our Edwards talk	G2
And get by speaking truth of monarchs dead	H2
What few can of the living ease and bread	H2
'Lord sir a mere mechanic strangely low	W
And coarse of phrase your English all are so	W
How elegant your Frenchmen ' Mine d'ye mean	E2
I have but one I hope the fellow's clean	E2
'Oh sir politely so nay let me die	X
Your only wearing is your paduasoy '	-
Not sir my only I have better still	W
And this you see is but my dishabille	W
Wild to get loose his patience I provoke	I2
Mistake confound object at all he spoke	I2
But as coarse iron sharpen'd mangles more	L
And itch most hurts when anger'd to a sore	L
So when you plague a fool 'tis still the curse	C
You only make the matter worse and worse	C
	-
He pass'd it o'er affects an easy smile	W
At all my peevishness and turns his style	W
He asks 'What news ' I tell him of new plays	C
New eunuchs harlequins and operas	C
He hears and as a still with simples in it	J2
Between each drop it gives stays half a minute	K2
Loth to enrich me with too quick replies	C
By little and by little drops his lies	C
Mere household trash of birthnights balls and shows	C
More than ten Hollinsheds or Halls or Stowes	C
When the queen frown'd or smiled he knows and what	K2
A subtle minister may make of that	L2
Who sins with whom who got his pension rug	M2
Or quicken'd a reversion by a drug	M2
Whose place is quarter'd out three parts in four	L
And whether to a bishop or a whore	L
Who having lost his credit pawn'd his rent	N2
Is therefore fit to have a government	O2
Who in the secret deals in stocks secure	P2
And cheats the unknowing widow and the poor	Q2
Who makes a trust or charity a job	R2
And gets an act of parliament to rob	R2
Why turnpikes rise and now no cit nor clown	S2
Can gratis see the country or the town	S2
Shortly no lad shall chuck or lady vole	W
But some excising courtier will have toll	W
He tells what strumpet places sells for life	T2
What 'squire his lands what citizen his wife	T2
And last which proves him wiser still than all	W
What lady's face is not a whited wall	W
	-
As one of Woodward's patients sick and sore	L
I puke I nauseate yet he thrusts in more	L
Trim's Europe's balance tops the statesman's part	U2
And talks Gazettes and Postboys o'er by heart	U2
Like a big wife at sight of loathsome meat	V2
Ready to cast I yawn I sigh and sweat	W2
Then as a licensed spy whom nothing can	X2
Silence or hurt he libels the great man	X2
Swears every place entail'd for years to come	Y2
In sure succession to the day of doom	Z2
He names the price for every office paid	D2
And says our wars thrive ill because delay'd	D2
Nay hints 'tis by connivance of the court	A3
That Spain robs on and Dunkirk's still a port	A3
Not more amazement seized on Circe's guests	C
To see themselves fall endlong into beasts	C
Than mine to find a subject staid and wise	C
Already half turn'd traitor by surprise	C
I felt the infection slide from him to me	Y
As in the pox some give it to get free	Y
And quick to swallow me methought I saw	C
One of our giant statues ope its jaw	C
	-
In that nice moment as another lie	W
Stood just a tilt the minister came by	W
To him he flies and bows and bows again	B3
Then close as Umbra joins the dirty train	M
Not Fannius' self more impudently near	F2
When half his nose is in his prince's ear	C3
I quaked at heart and still afraid to see	Y
All the court fill'd with stranger things than he	Y
Ran out as fast as one that pays his bail	W
And dreads more actions hurries from a jail	W
	-
Bear me some god oh quickly bear me hence	C
To wholesome solitude the nurse of sense	C
Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings	C
And the free soul looks down to pity kings	C
There sober thought pursued the amusing theme	D3
Till fancy colour'd it and form'd a dream	D3
A vision hermits can to Hell transport	A3
And forced ev'n me to see the damn'd at court	A3
Not Dante dreaming all the infernal state	E3
Beheld such scenes of envy sin and hate	E3
Base fear becomes the guilty not the free	Y
Suits tyrants plunderers but suits not me	Y
Shall I the terror of this sinful town	S2
Care if a liveried lord or smile or frown	S2
Who cannot flatter and detest who can	X2
Tremble before a noble serving man	X2
O my fair mistress Truth shall I quit thee	Y
For huffing braggart puff'd nobility	Y
Thou who since yesterday hast roll'd o'er all	W
The busy idle blockheads of the ball	W
Hast thou O Sun beheld an emptier sort	A3
Than such as swell this bladder of a court	A3
Now pox on those who show a court in wax	C
It ought to bring all courtiers on their backs	C
Such painted puppets such a varnish'd race	C
Of hollow gewgaws only dress and face	C
Such waxen noses stately staring things	C
No wonder some folks bow and think them kings	C
	-
See where the British youth engaged no more	L
At Fig's at White's with felons or a whore	L
Pay their last duty to the court and come	Y2
All fresh and fragrant to the drawing room	Z2
In hues as gay and odours as divine	F3
As the fair fields they sold to look so fine	F3
'That's velvet for a king ' the flatterer swears	C
'Tis true for ten days hence 'twill be King Lear's	C
Our court may justly to our stage give rules	C
That helps it both to fools' coats and to fools	C
And why not players strut in courtiers' clothes	C
For these are actors too as well as those	C
Wants reach all states they beg but better dress'd	G3
And all is splendid poverty at best	G3
	-
Painted for sight and essenced for the smell	W
Like frigates fraught with spice and cochineal	W
Sail in the ladies how each pirate eyes	C
So weak a vessel and so rich a prize	C
Top gallant he and she in all her trim	H3
He boarding her she striking sail to him	H3
'Dear Countess you have charms all hearts to hit '	-
And 'Sweet Sir Fopling you have so much wit '	-
Such wits and beauties are not praised for nought	G3
For both the beauty and the wit are bought	G3
'Twould burst ev'n Heraclitus with the spleen	E2
To see those antics Fopling and Courtin	E2
The Presence seems with things so richly odd	G3
The mosque of Mahound or some queer pagod	G3
See them survey their limbs by Durer's rules	C
Of all beau kind the best proportion'd fools	C
Adjust their clothes and to confession draw	C
Those venial sins an atom or a straw	C
But oh what terrors must distract the soul	W
Convicted of that mortal crime a hole	W
Or should one pound of powder less bespread	G3
Those monkey tails that wag behind their head	G3
Thus finish'd and corrected to a hair	P
They march to prate their hour before the fair	P
So first to preach a white gloved chaplain goes	C
With band of lily and with cheek of rose	C
Sweeter than Sharon in immaculate trim	H3
Neatness itself impertinent in him	H3
Let but the ladies smile and they are blest	G3
Prodigious how the things protest protest	G3
Peace fools or Gonson will for Papists seize you	T
If once he catch you at your Jesu Jesu	C
	-
Nature made every fop to plague his brother	B2
Just as one beauty mortifies another	B2
But here's the captain that will plague them both	I3
Whose air cries Arm whose very look's an oath	I3
The captain's honest sirs and that's enough	A2
Though his soul's bullet and his body buff	A2
He spits fore right his haughty chest before	L
Like battering rams beats open every door	L
And with a face as red and as awry	W
As Herod's hangdogs in old tapestry	Y
Scarecrow to boys the breeding woman's curse	C
Has yet a strange ambition to look worse	C
Confounds the civil keeps the rude in awe	J3
Jests like a licensed fool commands like law	C
	-
Frighted I quit the room but leave it so	C
As men from jails to execution go	C
For hung with deadly sins I see the wall	W
And lined with giants deadlier than 'em all	W
Each man an Ascapart of strength to toss	C
For quoits both Temple bar and Charing cross	C
Scared at the grisly forms I sweat I fly	W
And shake all o'er like a discover'd spy	W
	-
Courts are too much for wits so weak as mine	E2
Charge them with Heaven's artillery bold divine	E2
From such alone the great rebukes endure	P2
Whose satire's sacred and whose rage secure	P2
'Tis mine to wash a few light stains but theirs	C
To deluge sin and drown a court in tears	C
Howe'er what's now Apocrypha my wit	G3
In time to come may pass for holy writ	G3

Alexander Pope

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The Satires Of Dr John Donne, Dean Of St Paul's, Versified. Satire Iv is a poem by Alexander Pope. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.

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