The Appeal Of The Chorus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBBCCDD EEFF CCGGHHIJIK CLALMENEOEPE QQRSTUVWX VYZ VA2VSVB2B2 C2KVVD2CA2A2 E2E2VF2C2G2H2V IILLI2I2J2 VVK2K2L2L2L2L2A2VA2A 2A2RL

If A veteran author had wished to engageA
Our assistance to day for a speech from the stageA
We scarce should have granted so bold a requestB
But this author of ours as the bravest and bestB
Deserves an indulgence denied to the restB
For the courage and vigor the scorn and the hateC
With which he encounters the pests of the StateC
A thoroughbred seaman intrepid and warmD
Steering outright in the face of the stormD
-
But now for the gentle reproaches he boreE
On the part of his friends for refraining beforeE
To embrace the profession embarking for lifeF
In theatrical storms and poetical strifeF
-
He begs us to state that for reasons of weightC
He has lingered so long and determined so lateC
For he deemed the achievements of comedy hardG
The boldest attempt of a desperate bardG
The Muse he perceived was capricious and coyH
Though many were courting her few could enjoyH
And he saw without reason from season to seasonI
Your humor would shift and turn poets adriftJ
Requiting old friends with unkindness and treasonI
Discarded in scorn as exhausted and wornK
-
Seeing Magnes's fate who was reckoned of lateC
For the conduct of comedy captain and headL
That so oft on the stage in the flower of his ageA
Had defeated the Chorus his rivals had ledL
With his sounds of all sort that were uttered in sportM
With whims and vagaries unheard of beforeE
With feathers and wings and a thousand gay thingsN
That in frolicsome fancies his Choruses woreE
When his humor was spent did your temper relentO
To requite the delight that he gave you beforeE
We beheld him displaced and expelled and disgracedP
When his hair and his wit were grown aged and hoarE
-
Then he saw for a sample the dismal exampleQ
Of noble Cratinus so splendid and ampleQ
Full of spirit and blood and enlarged like a floodR
Whose copious current tore down with its torrentS
Oaks ashes and yew with the ground where they grewT
And his rivals to boot wrenched up by the rootU
And his personal foes who presumed to opposeV
All drowned and abolished dispersed and demolishedW
And drifted headlong with a deluge of songX
-
And his airs and his tunes and his songs and lampoonsV
Were recited and sung by the old and the youngY
At our feasts and carousals what poet but heZ
And 'The fair Amphibribe' and 'The Sycophant Tree '-
'Masters and masons and builders of verse '-
Those were the tunes that all tongues could rehearseV
But since in decay you have cast him awayA2
Stript of his stops and his musical stringsV
Battered and shattered a broken old instrumentS
Shoved out of sight among rubbishy thingsV
His garlands are faded and what he deems worstB2
His tongue and his palate are parching with thirstB2
-
And now you may meet him alone in the streetC2
Wearied and worn tattered and tornK
All decayed and forlorn in his person and dressV
Whom his former success should exempt from distressV
With subsistence at large at the general chargeD2
And a seat with the great at the table of StateC
There to feast every day and preside at the playA2
In splendid apparel triumphant and gayA2
-
Seeing Crates the next always teased and perplexedE2
With your tyrannous temper tormented and vexedE2
That with taste and good sense without waste or expenseV
From his snug little hoard provided your boardF2
With a delicate treat economic and neatC2
Thus hitting or missing with crowns or with hissingG2
Year after year he pursued his careerH2
For better or worse till he finished his courseV
-
These precedents held him in long hesitationI
He replied to his friends with a just observationI
'That a seaman in regular order is bredL
To the oar to the helm and to look out aheadL
With diligent practice has fixed in his mindI2
The signs of the weather and changes of windI2
And when every point of the service is knownJ2
Undertakes the command of a ship of his own '-
-
For reasons like theseV
If your judgment agreesV
That he did not embarkK2
Like an ignorant sparkK2
Or a troublesome loutL2
To puzzle and bother and blunder aboutL2
Give him a shoutL2
At his first setting outL2
And all pull awayA2
With a hearty huzzaV
For success to the playA2
Send him awayA2
Smiling and gayA2
Shining and floridR
With his bald foreheadL

Aristophanes



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