Dipsychus Continued - (a Fragment.) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CDDEFGHIJKLIMNOP Q RSTUQVWX Y PZA2B2C2D2DSE2F2F2G2 H2I2J2K2L2M2BN2 O2 P2 P2N2 P2 N2N2 K2MP2 P2B Q2Q2BP2P2DDBBBR2R2S2 T2U2N2 MV2V2 P2K2P2R2W2O L2R2TP2BP2X2P2P2Y2 XZ2BA3Z2B3X L2P2P2 P2P2OP2P2C3BB L2 D3E3 P2 P2 F3P2 G3 G3M2G3P2V2X2 P2M2X2P2H3G3A3 P2G3K2 P2 I3K2 J3N2K3 B2P2Z2 L3 X2P2P2M3 P2A3A3N3O3G3K2Q2 M2 K3M2Z2P2P3 LK3M2L3 L3Q3 P2 N2M2 P2RM2 M2 P2G3P2G3G3J2L2W2P2R3 P2 M2L2G3P2 P2W2S3T3 U3RM2V3AL2AAAn interval of thirty years | A |
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SCENE I In London Dipsychus in his Study | B |
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Dipsychus O God O God and must I still go on | C |
Doing this work I know not hell's or thine | D |
And these rewards receiving sure not thine | D |
The adulation of a foolish crowd | E |
Half foolish and half greedy upright judge | F |
Lawyer acute the Mansfield and the Hale | G |
In one united to bless modern Courts | H |
O God O God According to the law | I |
With solemn face to solemn sentence fit | J |
Doing the justice that is but half just | K |
Punishing wrong that is not truly wrong | L |
Administering alas God not Thy law | I |
Knock at the door | M |
What Is the hour already for the Court | N |
Come in Now Lord Chief justice to thy work | O |
Enter a Servant | P |
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Serv My lord a woman begging to be seen | Q |
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Di A woman begging to be seen What's this | R |
'Tis not the duty of your post my friend | S |
To give admittance on the busy days | T |
Of a hard labourer in this great world | U |
To all poor creatures begging to be seen | Q |
Something unusual in it Bid her wait | V |
In the room below I'll see her as I pass | W |
Is the horse there | X |
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Serv He's coming round my lord | Y |
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Di Say I will see her as I pass Exit Servant | P |
I have but one way left but that one way | Z |
On which once entered there is no return | A2 |
And as there's no return no looking back | B2 |
Amidst the smoky tumult of this field | C2 |
Whereon enlisted once in arms we stand | D2 |
Nor know nor e'en remotely can divine | D |
The sense or purport or the probable end | S |
One only guide to our blind work we keep | E2 |
To obey orders and to fight it out | F2 |
Some hapless sad petitioner no doubt | F2 |
With the true plaintiveness of real distress | G2 |
Twisting her misery to a marketable lie | H2 |
To waste my close shorn interval of rest | I2 |
She came upon me in my weaker thoughts | J2 |
Those weaker thoughts that still indeed recur | K2 |
But come my servants at a word to go | L2 |
Enter Woman | M2 |
What is it what have you to say to me | B |
Who are you | N2 |
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Wom Once you knew me well enough | O2 |
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Di Oh you I had been told that you were dead | P2 |
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Wom So your creatures said | P2 |
But I shall live I think till you die too | N2 |
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Di What do you want Money subsistence bread | P2 |
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Wom I wanted bread money all things 'Tis true | N2 |
But wanted above all things to see you | N2 |
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Di This cannot be What has been done is o'er | K2 |
You have no claim or right against me more | M |
I have dealt justly with you to the uttermost | P2 |
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Wom I did not come to say you were unjust | P2 |
I came to see you only | B |
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Di Hear me now | Q2 |
Remember it was not the marriage vow | Q2 |
Nor promise e'er of chaste fidelity | B |
That joined us thirty years ago in a tie | P2 |
Which I I think scarce sought It was not I | P2 |
That took your innocence you spoiled me of mine | D |
And yet as though the vow had been divine | D |
Was I not faithful Were you so to me | B |
Had you been white in spotless purity | B |
Could I have clung to you more faithfully | B |
I left you after wrongs I blush with shame | R2 |
E'en now through all my fifty years to name | R2 |
I left you yet I stinted still my ease | S2 |
Curtailed my pleasures toil still extra toil | T2 |
To repay you for what you never gave | U2 |
Is it not true | N2 |
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Wom Go on say all and more | M |
Upon this body as the basis lies | V2 |
The ladder that has raised you to the skies | V2 |
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Di Is that so much am I indeed so high | P2 |
Am I not rather | K2 |
The slave and servant of the wretched world | P2 |
Liveried and finely dressed yet all the same | R2 |
A menial and lacquey seeking place | W2 |
For hire and for his hire's sake doing work | O |
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Wom I do not know you have wife and child I know | L2 |
Domestic comfort and a noble name | R2 |
And people speak in my ears too your praise | T |
O man O man do you not know in your heart | P2 |
It was for this you came to me | B |
It was for this I took you to my breast | P2 |
O man man man | X2 |
You come to us with your dalliance in the street | P2 |
You pay us with your miserable gold | P2 |
You do not know how in the | Y2 |
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Di looks at his watch You must go now Justice calls me elsewhere | X |
Justice might keep you here | Z2 |
You may return again stay let me see | B |
Six weeks to morrow you shall see me again | A3 |
Now you must go Do you need money here | Z2 |
It is your due take it that you may live | B3 |
And see me six weeks from to morrow elsewhere | X |
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Wom I will not go | L2 |
You must stay here and hear me or I shall die | P2 |
It were ill for you that I should | P2 |
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Di What shall the nation wait | P2 |
Woman if I have wronged you it was for good | P2 |
Good has come of it Lo I have done some work | O |
Over the blasted and the blackened spot | P2 |
Of our unhappy and unhallowed deed | P2 |
I have raised a mausoleum of such acts | C3 |
As in this world do honour unto me | B |
But in the next to thee | B |
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Wom Hear me I cannot go | L2 |
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Di It cannot be the court the nation waits | D3 |
Is not the work too yours | E3 |
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Wom I go to die this night | P2 |
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Di I cannot help it Duty lies here Depart | P2 |
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Wom Listen before I die one word In old times | F3 |
You called me Pleasure my name now is Guilt | P2 |
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SCENE II In Westminster Hall | G3 |
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st Barrister They say the Lord Chief justice is unwell | G3 |
Did you observe how after that decision | M2 |
Which all the world admired so suddenly | G3 |
He became pale and looked in the air and staggered | P2 |
As if some phantom floated on his eyes | V2 |
He is a strange man | X2 |
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Bar He is unwell there is no doubt of that | P2 |
But why or how is quite another question | M2 |
It is odd to find so stern and strong a man | X2 |
Give way before he's sixty Many a mind | P2 |
Apparently less vigorous than his | H3 |
Has kept its full judicial faculty | G3 |
And sat the woolsack past threescore and ten | A3 |
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Bar No business to be done to day Have you heard | P2 |
The Chief justice is lying dangerously ill | G3 |
Apoplexy paralysis Heaven knows what some seizure | K2 |
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Bar Heavens that will be a loss indeed | P2 |
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Bar A loss | I3 |
Which will be some one's gain however | K2 |
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Bar Not the nation's | J3 |
If this sage Chancellor give it to | N2 |
But is he really sure to die do you think | K3 |
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Bar A very sudden and very alarming attack | B2 |
And now you know to the full as much as I | P2 |
Or as I fancy any lawyer here | Z2 |
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Bar Do you know anything of his early life | L3 |
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Bar My father knew him at college a reading man | X2 |
The quietest of the quiet shy and timid | P2 |
And college honours past | P2 |
No one believed he ever would do anything | M3 |
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Bar He was a moral sort of prig I've heard | P2 |
Till he was twenty five and even then | A3 |
He never entered into life as most men | A3 |
That is the reason why he fails so soon | N3 |
It takes high feeding and a well taught conscience | O3 |
To breed your mighty hero of the law | G3 |
So much the worse for him so much the better | K2 |
For all expectants now | Q2 |
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Bar For for one | M2 |
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Bar Well there'll be several changes as I think | K3 |
Not that I think the shock of new promotion | M2 |
Will vibrate quite perceptibly down here | Z2 |
There was a story that I once was told | P2 |
Some woman that they used to tease him with | P3 |
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Bar He grew too stern for teasing before long | L |
A man with greater power of what I think | K3 |
They call in some new sense of the word Repulsion | M2 |
I think I never saw in all my life | L3 |
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Bar A most forbidding man in private life | L3 |
I've always heard What's this new news | Q3 |
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Bar The Lord Chief justice has resigned | P2 |
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Bar Is it true | N2 |
Really Quite certain | M2 |
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Bar Publicly announced | P2 |
You're quite behind Most probably ere this | R |
The Times has got it in a new edition | M2 |
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SCENE III Dippsychus in his own house alone | M2 |
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Di She will come yet I think although she said | P2 |
She would go hence and die I cannot tell | G3 |
Should I have made the nation's business wait | P2 |
That I might listen to an old sad tale | G3 |
Uselessly iterated Ah ah me | G3 |
I am grown weak indeed those old black thoughts | J2 |
No more as servants at my bidding go | L2 |
But as stern tyrants look me in the face | W2 |
And mock my reason's inefficient hand | P2 |
That sways to wave them hence | R3 |
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Serv You rung my lord | P2 |
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Di Come here my friend The woman | M2 |
A beggar woman whom six weeks ago | L2 |
As you remember you admitted to me | G3 |
You may admit again if she returns Exit Servant | P2 |
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Will she return or did she die I searched | P2 |
Newspaper columns through to find a trace | W2 |
Of some poor corpse discovered in the Thames | S3 |
Weltering in filth or stranded on the shoals | T3 |
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'You called me Pleasure once I now am Guilt ' | - |
Is that her voice | U3 |
'Once Pleasure and now Guilt and after this | R |
Guilt evermore ' I hear her voice again | M2 |
Once Guilt but now' I know not what it says | V3 |
Some word in some strange language that my ears | A |
Have never heard yet seem to long to know | L2 |
'Once Pleasure and now Guilt and after this' | A |
What does she say | A |
Arthur Hugh Clough
(1)
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