Tom May's Death Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFFGGHHIIJKLLMM NNOPQRSMIIKTIIUUII VVOOIINNIIWWBBFFIIGG XXBBIBYDZZA2A2IIB2B2 IIIIIIFFQC2D2D2IIE2E 2F2F2G2G2H2 III2I2| As one put drunk into the packet boat | A |
| Tom May was hurried hence and did not know't | B |
| But was amazed on the Elysian side | C |
| And with an eye uncertain gazing wide | C |
| Could not determine in what place he was | D |
| For whence in Stephen's Alley trees or grass | E |
| Nor there The Pope's Head nor The Mitre lay | F |
| Signs by which still he found and lost his way | F |
| At last while doubtfully he all compares | G |
| He saw near hand as he imagined Ayres | G |
| Such did he seem for coruplence and port | H |
| But 'twas a man much of another sort | H |
| 'Twas Ben that in the dusky laurel shade | I |
| Amongst the chorus of old poets layed | I |
| Sounding of ancient heroes such as were | J |
| The subjects' safety and the rebels' fear | K |
| And how a double headed vulture eats | L |
| Brutus and Cassius the people's cheats | L |
| But seeing May he varied straight his song | M |
| Gently to signify that he was wrong | M |
| 'Cups more than civil of Emathian wine | N |
| I sing' said he 'and the Pharsalian Sign | N |
| Where the historian of the commonsealth | O |
| In his own bowels sheathed the conquering health ' | P |
| By this May to himself and them was come | Q |
| He found he was translated and by whom | R |
| Yet then with foot as strumbling as his tongue | S |
| Pressed for his place among the learned throng | M |
| But Ben who knew not neither foe nor friend | I |
| Sworn enemy to all that do pretend | I |
| Rose more than ever he was seen severe | K |
| Shook his gray locks and his own bays did tear | T |
| At this intrusion Then with laurel wand | I |
| The awful sign of his supreme command | I |
| At whose dread whisk Virgil himself does quake | U |
| And Horace patiently its stroke does take | U |
| As he crowds in he whipped him o'er the pate | I |
| Like Pembroke at the masque and then did rate | I |
| - | |
| 'Far from these blessed shades tread back again | V |
| Most servile wit and mercenary pen | V |
| Polydore Lucan Alan Vandal Goth | O |
| Malignant poet and historian both | O |
| Go seek the novice statesmen and obtrude | I |
| On them some Roman cast similitude | I |
| Tell them of liberty the stories fine | N |
| Until you all grow consuls in your wine | N |
| Or thou Dictator of the glass bestow | I |
| On him the Cato this the Cicero | I |
| Transferring old Rome hither in your talk | W |
| As Bethlem's House did to Loreto walk | W |
| Foul architect that hadst not eye to see | B |
| How ill the measures of these states agree | B |
| And who by Rome's example England lay | F |
| Those but to Lucan to continue May | F |
| But thee nor ignorance nor seeming good | I |
| Misled bu malice fixed and understood | I |
| Because some one than thee more worthy wears | G |
| The sacred laurel hence are all these tears | G |
| Must therefore all the world be set on flame | X |
| Because a g aacute zette writer missed his aim | X |
| And for a tankard bearing muse must we | B |
| As for the basket Guelphs and Ghib'llines be | B |
| When the sword glitters o'er the judge's head | I |
| And fear has coward churchmen silenc egrave d | B |
| Then is the poet's time 'tis then he draws | Y |
| And single fights forsaken virtue's cause | D |
| He when the wheel of empire whirleth back | Z |
| And though the world's disjointed axle crack | Z |
| Sings still of ancient rights and better times | A2 |
| Seeks wretched good and arraigns successful crimes | A2 |
| But thou base man first prostituted hast | I |
| Our spotless knowledge and the studies chaste | I |
| Apostatizing from our arts and us | B2 |
| To turn the chronicler to Spartacus | B2 |
| Yet wast thou taken hence with equal fate | I |
| Before thou couldst great Charles his death relate | I |
| But what will deeper wound thy little mind | I |
| Hast left surviving D'Avenant still behind | I |
| Who laughs to see in this thy death renewed | I |
| Right Roman poverty and gratitude | I |
| Poor poet thou and grateful senate they | F |
| Who thy last reckoning did so largely pay | F |
| And with the public gravity would come | Q |
| When thou hadst drunk thy last to lead thee home | C2 |
| If that can be thy home where Spenser lies | D2 |
| And reverend Chaucer but their dust does rise | D2 |
| Against thee and expels thee from their side | I |
| As th' eagle's plumes from other birds divide | I |
| Nor here thy shade must dwell Return return | E2 |
| Where sulphury Phlegethon does ever burn | E2 |
| Thee Cerberus with all his jaws shall gnash | F2 |
| Megaera thee with all her serpents lash | F2 |
| Thou riveted into Ixion's wheel | G2 |
| Shalt break and the perpetual vulture feel | G2 |
| 'Tis just what torments poets e'er did feign | H2 |
| Thou first historically shouldst sustain ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus by irrevocable sentence cast | I |
| May only Master of these Revels passed | I |
| And straight he vanished in the cloud of pitch | I2 |
| Such as unto the Sabbath bears the witch | I2 |
Andrew Marvell
(1)
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