The Character Of Holland Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEE FFGHIIJJ KKLLMM NNOOPPQQRPSSTT UUVVWWXXYYZZA2A2B2C2 ME HHD2E2F2F2G2G2FFH2H2 I2I2LLJ2J2K2K2L2L2 K2K2C2M2 OON2N2 O2O2L2L2P2P2Q2F2 R2R2S2S2T2T2R2R2 U2V2QQR2R2PPR2R2ZZ EEW2W2X2X2 R2R2OOR2R2Y2Y2Z2Z2QQ N2N2R2R2 N2N2R2R2A3A3OOR2R2 N2N2E2E2TTN2N2| Holland that scarce deserves the name of land | A |
| As but the off scouring of the British sand | A |
| And so much earth as was contributed | B |
| By English pilots when they heaved the lead | C |
| Or what by th' ocean's slow alluvion fell | D |
| Of shipwrecked cockle and the mussel shell | D |
| This indigested vomit of the sea | E |
| Fell to the Dutch by just propriety | E |
| - | |
| Glad then as miners that have found the ore | F |
| They with mad labour fished the land to shore | F |
| And dived as desperately for each piece | G |
| Of earth as if't had been of ambergris | H |
| Collecting anxiously small loads of clay | I |
| Less than what building swallows bear away | I |
| Or than those pills which sordid beetles roll | J |
| Transfusing into them their dunghill soul | J |
| - | |
| How did they rivet with gigantic piles | K |
| Thorough the centre of their new catch egrave d miles | K |
| And to the stake a struggling country bound | L |
| Where barking waves still bait the forc egrave d ground | L |
| Building their watery Babel far more high | M |
| To reach the sea than those to scale the sky | M |
| - | |
| Yet still his claim the injured ocean laid | N |
| And oft at leap frog o'er their steeples played | N |
| As if on purpose it on land had come | O |
| To show them what's their Mare Liberum | O |
| A daily deluge over them does boil | P |
| The earth and water play at level coil | P |
| The fish ofttimes the burger dispossessed | Q |
| And sat not as a meat but as a guest | Q |
| And oft the tritons and the sea nymphs saw | R |
| Whole shoals of Dutch served up for cabillau | P |
| Or as they over the new level ranged | S |
| For pickled herring pickled Heeren changed | S |
| Nature it seemed ashamed of her mistake | T |
| Would throw their land away at duck and drake | T |
| - | |
| Therefore necessity that first made kings | U |
| Something like government among them brings | U |
| For as with pygmies who best kills the crane | V |
| Among the hungry he that treasures grain | V |
| Among the blind the one eyed blinkard reigns | W |
| So rules among the drown egrave d he that drains | W |
| Not who first sees the rising sun commands | X |
| But who could first discern the rising lands | X |
| Who best could know to pump an earth so leak | Y |
| Him they their Lord and country's Father speak | Y |
| To make a bank was a great plot of state | Z |
| Invent a shovel and be magistrate | Z |
| Hence some small dyke grave unperceived invades | A2 |
| The power and grows as 'twere a King of Spades | A2 |
| But for less envy some joint states endures | B2 |
| Who look like a Commission of the Sewers | C2 |
| For these Half anders half wet half dry | M |
| Nor bear strict service nor pure liberty | E |
| - | |
| 'Tis probable religion after this | H |
| Came next in order which they could not miss | H |
| How could the Dutch but be converted when | D2 |
| The Apostles were so many fishermen | E2 |
| Besides the waters of themselves did rise | F2 |
| And as their land so them did re baptize | F2 |
| Though herring for their god few voices missed | G2 |
| And Poor John to have been the Evangelist | G2 |
| Faith that could never twins conveive before | F |
| Never so fertile spawned upon this shore | F |
| More pregnant than their Margaret that laid down | H2 |
| For Hans in Kelder of a whole Hans town | H2 |
| - | |
| Sure when religion did itself embark | I2 |
| And from the East would Westward steer its ark | I2 |
| It struck and splitting on this unknown ground | L |
| Each one thence pillaged the first piece he found | L |
| Hence Amsterdam Turk Christian Pagan Jew | J2 |
| Staple of sects and mint of schism grew | J2 |
| That bank of conscience where not one so strange | K2 |
| Opinion but finds credit and exchange | K2 |
| In vain for Catholics ourselves we bear | L2 |
| The Universal Church is only there | L2 |
| - | |
| Nor can civility there want for tillage | K2 |
| Where wisely for their court they chose a village | K2 |
| How fit a title clothes their governors | C2 |
| Themselves the Hogs as all their subject Bores | M2 |
| - | |
| Let it suffice to give their country fame | O |
| That it had one Civilis called by name | O |
| Some fifteen hundred and more years ago | N2 |
| But surely never any that was so | N2 |
| - | |
| See but their mermaids with their tails of fish | O2 |
| Reeking at church over the chafing dish | O2 |
| A vestal turf enshrined in earthen ware | L2 |
| Fumes through the loopholes of a wooden square | L2 |
| Each to the temple with these altars tend | P2 |
| But still does place it at her western end | P2 |
| While the fat stream of female sacrifice | Q2 |
| Fills the priest's nostrils and puts out his eyes | F2 |
| - | |
| Or what a spectacle the skipper gross | R2 |
| A water Hercules butter coloss | R2 |
| Tunned up with all their several towns of Beer | S2 |
| When staggering upon some land snick and sneer | S2 |
| They try like statuaries if they can | T2 |
| Cut out each other's Athos to a man | T2 |
| And carve in their large bodies where they please | R2 |
| The arms of the United Provinces | R2 |
| - | |
| But when such amity at home is showed | U2 |
| What then are their confederacies abroad | V2 |
| Let this one court'sy witness all the rest | Q |
| When their whole navy they together pressed | Q |
| Not Christian captives to redeem from bands | R2 |
| Or intercept the Western golden sands | R2 |
| No but all ancient rights and leagues must vail | P |
| Rather than to the English strike their sail | P |
| To whom their weather beaten province owes | R2 |
| Itself when as some greater vessel tows | R2 |
| A cockboat tossed with the same wind and fate | Z |
| We buoyed so often up their sinking state | Z |
| - | |
| Was this Jus Belli et Pacis Could this be | E |
| Cause why their burgomaster of the sea | E |
| Rammed with gun powder flaming with brand wine | W2 |
| Should raging hold his linstock to the mine | W2 |
| While with feigned treaties they invade by stealth | X2 |
| Our sore new circumcis egrave d Commonwealth | X2 |
| - | |
| Yet of his vain attempt no more he sees | R2 |
| Than of case butter shot and bullet cheese | R2 |
| And the torn navy staggered with him home | O |
| While the sea laughed itself into a foam | O |
| 'Tis true since that as fortune kindly sports | R2 |
| A wholesome danger drove us to our ports | R2 |
| While half their banished keels the tempest tossed | Y2 |
| Half bound at home in prison to the frost | Y2 |
| That ours meantime at leisure might careen | Z2 |
| In a calm winter under skies serene | Z2 |
| As the obsequious air and waters rest | Q |
| Till the dear halcyon hatch out all its nest | Q |
| The Commonwealth doth by its losses grow | N2 |
| And like its own seas only ebbs to flow | N2 |
| Besides that very agitation laves | R2 |
| And purges out the corruptible waves | R2 |
| - | |
| And now again our arm egrave d Bucentore | N2 |
| Doth yearly their sea nuptials restore | N2 |
| And now their hydra of seven provinces | R2 |
| Is strangled by our infant Hercules | R2 |
| Their tortoise wants its vainly stretch egrave d neck | A3 |
| Their navy all our conquest or our wreck | A3 |
| Or what is left their Carthage overcome | O |
| Would render fain unto our better Rome | O |
| Unless our Senate lest their youth disuse | R2 |
| The war but who would peace if begged refuse | R2 |
| - | |
| For now of nothing may our state despair | N2 |
| Darling of heaven and of men the care | N2 |
| Provided that they be what they have been | E2 |
| Watchful abroad and honest still within | E2 |
| For while our Neptune doth a trident shake | T |
| Steeled with those piercing heads Deane Monck and Blake | T |
| And while Jove governs in the highest sphere | N2 |
| Vainly in Hell let Pluto domineer | N2 |
Andrew Marvell
(1)
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