An Ode To Himself Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDB EFEEFF CGCCHH AIAIII AJAAKJ LMLLMM| Where dost thou careless lie | A |
| Buried in ease and sloth | B |
| Knowledge that sleeps doth die | A |
| And this security | C |
| It is the common moth | D |
| That eats on wits and arts and oft destroys them both | B |
| - | |
| Are all th' Aonian springs | E |
| Dried up lies Thespia waste | F |
| Doth Clarius' harp want strings | E |
| That not a nymph now sings | E |
| Or droop they as disgrac'd | F |
| To see their seats and bowers by chatt'ring pies defac'd | F |
| - | |
| If hence thy silence be | C |
| As 'tis too just a cause | G |
| Let this thought quicken thee | C |
| Minds that are great and free | C |
| Should not on fortune pause | H |
| 'Tis crown enough to virtue still her own applause | H |
| - | |
| What though the greedy fry | A |
| Be taken with false baits | I |
| Of worded balladry | A |
| And think it poesy | I |
| They die with their conceits | I |
| And only piteous scorn upon their folly waits | I |
| - | |
| Then take in hand thy lyre | A |
| Strike in thy proper strain | J |
| With Japhet's line aspire | A |
| Sol's chariot for new fire | A |
| To give the world again | K |
| Who aided him will thee the issue of Jove's brain | J |
| - | |
| And since our dainty age | L |
| Cannot endure reproof | M |
| Make not thyself a page | L |
| To that strumpet the stage | L |
| But sing high and aloof | M |
| Safe from the wolf's black jaw and the dull ass's hoof | M |
Ben Jonson
(1)
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