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 U3RM2V3AL2AA

An interval of thirty yearsA
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SCENE I In London Dipsychus in his StudyB
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Dipsychus O God O God and must I still go onC
Doing this work I know not hell's or thineD
And these rewards receiving sure not thineD
The adulation of a foolish crowdE
Half foolish and half greedy upright judgeF
Lawyer acute the Mansfield and the HaleG
In one united to bless modern CourtsH
O God O God According to the lawI
With solemn face to solemn sentence fitJ
Doing the justice that is but half justK
Punishing wrong that is not truly wrongL
Administering alas God not Thy lawI
Knock at the doorM
What Is the hour already for the CourtN
Come in Now Lord Chief justice to thy workO
Enter a ServantP
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Serv My lord a woman begging to be seenQ
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Di A woman begging to be seen What's thisR
'Tis not the duty of your post my friendS
To give admittance on the busy daysT
Of a hard labourer in this great worldU
To all poor creatures begging to be seenQ
Something unusual in it Bid her waitV
In the room below I'll see her as I passW
Is the horse thereX
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Serv He's coming round my lordY
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Di Say I will see her as I pass Exit ServantP
I have but one way left but that one wayZ
On which once entered there is no returnA2
And as there's no return no looking backB2
Amidst the smoky tumult of this fieldC2
Whereon enlisted once in arms we standD2
Nor know nor e'en remotely can divineD
The sense or purport or the probable endS
One only guide to our blind work we keepE2
To obey orders and to fight it outF2
Some hapless sad petitioner no doubtF2
With the true plaintiveness of real distressG2
Twisting her misery to a marketable lieH2
To waste my close shorn interval of restI2
She came upon me in my weaker thoughtsJ2
Those weaker thoughts that still indeed recurK2
But come my servants at a word to goL2
Enter WomanM2
What is it what have you to say to meB
Who are youN2
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Wom Once you knew me well enoughO2
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Di Oh you I had been told that you were deadP2
-
Wom So your creatures saidP2
But I shall live I think till you die tooN2
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Di What do you want Money subsistence breadP2
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Wom I wanted bread money all things 'Tis trueN2
But wanted above all things to see youN2
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Di This cannot be What has been done is o'erK2
You have no claim or right against me moreM
I have dealt justly with you to the uttermostP2
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Wom I did not come to say you were unjustP2
I came to see you onlyB
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Di Hear me nowQ2
Remember it was not the marriage vowQ2
Nor promise e'er of chaste fidelityB
That joined us thirty years ago in a tieP2
Which I I think scarce sought It was not IP2
That took your innocence you spoiled me of mineD
And yet as though the vow had been divineD
Was I not faithful Were you so to meB
Had you been white in spotless purityB
Could I have clung to you more faithfullyB
I left you after wrongs I blush with shameR2
E'en now through all my fifty years to nameR2
I left you yet I stinted still my easeS2
Curtailed my pleasures toil still extra toilT2
To repay you for what you never gaveU2
Is it not trueN2
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Wom Go on say all and moreM
Upon this body as the basis liesV2
The ladder that has raised you to the skiesV2
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Di Is that so much am I indeed so highP2
Am I not ratherK2
The slave and servant of the wretched worldP2
Liveried and finely dressed yet all the sameR2
A menial and lacquey seeking placeW2
For hire and for his hire's sake doing workO
-
Wom I do not know you have wife and child I knowL2
Domestic comfort and a noble nameR2
And people speak in my ears too your praiseT
O man O man do you not know in your heartP2
It was for this you came to meB
It was for this I took you to my breastP2
O man man manX2
You come to us with your dalliance in the streetP2
You pay us with your miserable goldP2
You do not know how in theY2
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Di looks at his watch You must go now Justice calls me elsewhereX
Justice might keep you hereZ2
You may return again stay let me seeB
Six weeks to morrow you shall see me againA3
Now you must go Do you need money hereZ2
It is your due take it that you may liveB3
And see me six weeks from to morrow elsewhereX
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Wom I will not goL2
You must stay here and hear me or I shall dieP2
It were ill for you that I shouldP2
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Di What shall the nation waitP2
Woman if I have wronged you it was for goodP2
Good has come of it Lo I have done some workO
Over the blasted and the blackened spotP2
Of our unhappy and unhallowed deedP2
I have raised a mausoleum of such actsC3
As in this world do honour unto meB
But in the next to theeB
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Wom Hear me I cannot goL2
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Di It cannot be the court the nation waitsD3
Is not the work too yoursE3
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Wom I go to die this nightP2
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Di I cannot help it Duty lies here DepartP2
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Wom Listen before I die one word In old timesF3
You called me Pleasure my name now is GuiltP2
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SCENE II In Westminster HallG3
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st Barrister They say the Lord Chief justice is unwellG3
Did you observe how after that decisionM2
Which all the world admired so suddenlyG3
He became pale and looked in the air and staggeredP2
As if some phantom floated on his eyesV2
He is a strange manX2
-
Bar He is unwell there is no doubt of thatP2
But why or how is quite another questionM2
It is odd to find so stern and strong a manX2
Give way before he's sixty Many a mindP2
Apparently less vigorous than hisH3
Has kept its full judicial facultyG3
And sat the woolsack past threescore and tenA3
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Bar No business to be done to day Have you heardP2
The Chief justice is lying dangerously illG3
Apoplexy paralysis Heaven knows what some seizureK2
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Bar Heavens that will be a loss indeedP2
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Bar A lossI3
Which will be some one's gain howeverK2
-
Bar Not the nation'sJ3
If this sage Chancellor give it toN2
But is he really sure to die do you thinkK3
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Bar A very sudden and very alarming attackB2
And now you know to the full as much as IP2
Or as I fancy any lawyer hereZ2
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Bar Do you know anything of his early lifeL3
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Bar My father knew him at college a reading manX2
The quietest of the quiet shy and timidP2
And college honours pastP2
No one believed he ever would do anythingM3
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Bar He was a moral sort of prig I've heardP2
Till he was twenty five and even thenA3
He never entered into life as most menA3
That is the reason why he fails so soonN3
It takes high feeding and a well taught conscienceO3
To breed your mighty hero of the lawG3
So much the worse for him so much the betterK2
For all expectants nowQ2
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Bar For for oneM2
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Bar Well there'll be several changes as I thinkK3
Not that I think the shock of new promotionM2
Will vibrate quite perceptibly down hereZ2
There was a story that I once was toldP2
Some woman that they used to tease him withP3
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Bar He grew too stern for teasing before longL
A man with greater power of what I thinkK3
They call in some new sense of the word RepulsionM2
I think I never saw in all my lifeL3
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Bar A most forbidding man in private lifeL3
I've always heard What's this new newsQ3
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Bar The Lord Chief justice has resignedP2
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Bar Is it trueN2
Really Quite certainM2
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Bar Publicly announcedP2
You're quite behind Most probably ere thisR
The Times has got it in a new editionM2
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-
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SCENE III Dippsychus in his own house aloneM2
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Di She will come yet I think although she saidP2
She would go hence and die I cannot tellG3
Should I have made the nation's business waitP2
That I might listen to an old sad taleG3
Uselessly iterated Ah ah meG3
I am grown weak indeed those old black thoughtsJ2
No more as servants at my bidding goL2
But as stern tyrants look me in the faceW2
And mock my reason's inefficient handP2
That sways to wave them henceR3
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Serv You rung my lordP2
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Di Come here my friend The womanM2
A beggar woman whom six weeks agoL2
As you remember you admitted to meG3
You may admit again if she returns Exit ServantP2
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Will she return or did she die I searchedP2
Newspaper columns through to find a traceW2
Of some poor corpse discovered in the ThamesS3
Weltering in filth or stranded on the shoalsT3
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'You called me Pleasure once I now am Guilt '-
Is that her voiceU3
'Once Pleasure and now Guilt and after thisR
Guilt evermore ' I hear her voice againM2
Once Guilt but now' I know not what it saysV3
Some word in some strange language that my earsA
Have never heard yet seem to long to knowL2
'Once Pleasure and now Guilt and after this'A
What does she sayA

Arthur Hugh Clough



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