Night.[1] An Epistle To Robert Lloyd Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLL MNOOPPQQRROOSSTTUUVV WWXXYYZZA2B2C2C2RRD2 D2E2E2GGF2F2G2G2H2H2 I2I2J2J2E2E2K2K2C2C2 JJL2L2SSKKM2M2H2H2N2 N2O2O2PPP2P2Q2Q2ZZEM 2R2R2L2L2S2S2IIC2C2J JT2T2C2C2U2U2IIV2V2M 2M2SSW2W2C2C2JJL2L2E EIIH2H2X2X2IIH2H2Y2Y 2BBP2P2I2I2H2H2Q2Q2Z 2Z2A3A3B3B3C3C3D3D3E 3E3Q2Q2EEV2V2F3F3G3G 3H2H2H3H3I3I3J3J3G3G 3L2L2R2R2VVI3I3K3K3K KL3L3HHE2E2M3M3YYN3N 3YYYYI3I3GGO3O3YYXXY YYYE3E3YYYYH2H2YYY2Y 2I2I2MMJJP3P3E3E3OOY YI2I2L2L2O3O3YYYYYYG GQ3Q3R3R3YYN2N2G3G3I IS3S3XXYYF3F3T3T3XXO OU3U3YYN2N2V3V3L2L2N 2N2W3W3EEX3X3Q2Q2GGY 3Y3Z3Z3A4A4B3B3I3I3Y YYYQ2Q2HHI3I3E3E3YYA 3A3N3N3KKMB4YYC2C4YY J2J2R2R2YYD4D4N3N3YY YYE3E3E4E4N3N3XX

Contrarius evehor orbi OVID Met lib ii	A
	-
When foes insult and prudent friends dispense	B
In pity's strains the worst of insolence	C
Oft with thee Lloyd I steal an hour from grief	D
And in thy social converse find relief	D
The mind of solitude impatient grown	E
Loves any sorrows rather than her own	E
Let slaves to business bodies without soul	F
Important blanks in Nature's mighty roll	F
Solemnise nonsense in the day's broad glare	G
We Night prefer which heals or hides our care	G
Rogues justified and by success made bold	H
Dull fools and coxcombs sanctified by gold	H
Freely may bask in fortune's partial ray	I
And spread their feathers opening to the day	I
But threadbare Merit dares not show the head	J
Till vain Prosperity retires to bed	J
Misfortunes like the owl avoid the light	K
The sons of Care are always sons of Night	K
The wretch bred up in Method's drowsy school	L
Whose only merit is to err by rule	L
Who ne'er through heat of blood was tripping caught	M
Nor guilty deem'd of one eccentric thought	N
Whose soul directed to no use is seen	O
Unless to move the body's dull machine	O
Which clock work like with the same equal pace	P
Still travels on through life's insipid space	P
Turns up his eyes to think that there should be	Q
Among God's creatures two such things as we	Q
Then for his nightcap calls and thanks the powers	R
Which kindly gave him grace to keep good hours	R
Good hours fine words but was it ever seen	O
That all men could agree in what they mean	O
Florio who many years a course hath run	S
In downright opposition to the sun	S
Expatiates on good hours their cause defends	T
With as much vigour as our prudent friends	T
The uncertain term no settled notion brings	U
But still in different mouths means different things	U
Each takes the phrase in his own private view	V
With Prudence it is ten with Florio two	V
Go on ye fools who talk for talking sake	W
Without distinguishing distinctions make	W
Shine forth in native folly native pride	X
Make yourselves rules to all the world beside	X
Reason collected in herself disdains	Y
The slavish yoke of arbitrary chains	Y
Steady and true each circumstance she weighs	Z
Nor to bare words inglorious tribute pays	Z
Men of sense live exempt from vulgar awe	A2
And Reason to herself alone is law	B2
That freedom she enjoys with liberal mind	C2
Which she as freely grants to all mankind	C2
No idol titled name her reverence stirs	R
No hour she blindly to the rest prefers	R
All are alike if they're alike employ'd	D2
And all are good if virtuously enjoy'd	D2
Let the sage Doctor think him one we know	E2
With scraps of ancient learning overflow	E2
In all the dignity of wig declare	G
The fatal consequence of midnight air	G
How damps and vapours as it were by stealth	F2
Undermine life and sap the walls of health	F2
For me let Galen moulder on the shelf	G2
I'll live and be physician to myself	G2
Whilst soul is join'd to body whether fate	H2
Allot a longer or a shorter date	H2
I'll make them live as brother should with brother	I2
And keep them in good humour with each other	I2
The surest road to health say what they will	J2
Is never to suppose we shall be ill	J2
Most of those evils we poor mortals know	E2
From doctors and imagination flow	E2
Hence to old women with your boasted rules	K2
Stale traps and only sacred now to fools	K2
As well may sons of physic hope to find	C2
One medicine as one hour for all mankind	C2
If Rupert after ten is out of bed	J
The fool next morning can't hold up his head	J
What reason this which me to bed must call	L2
Whose head thank Heaven never aches at all	L2
In different courses different tempers run	S
He hates the moon I sicken at the sun	S
Wound up at twelve at noon his clock goes right	K
Mine better goes wound up at twelve at night	K
Then in oblivion's grateful cup I drown	M2
The galling sneer the supercilious frown	M2
The strange reserve the proud affected state	H2
Of upstart knaves grown rich and fools grown great	H2
No more that abject wretch disturbs my rest	N2
Who meanly overlooks a friend distress'd	N2
Purblind to poverty the worldling goes	O2
And scarce sees rags an inch beyond his nose	O2
But from a crowd can single out his Grace	P
And cringe and creep to fools who strut in lace	P
Whether those classic regions are survey'd	P2
Where we in earliest youth together stray'd	P2
Where hand in hand we trod the flowery shore	Q2
Though now thy happier genius runs before	Q2
When we conspired a thankless wretch to raise	Z
And taught a stump to shoot with pilfer'd praise	Z
Who once for reverend merit famous grown	E
Gratefully strove to kick his maker down	M2
Or if more general arguments engage	R2
The court or camp the pulpit bar or stage	R2
If half bred surgeons whom men doctors call	L2
And lawyers who were never bred at all	L2
Those mighty letter'd monsters of the earth	S2
Our pity move or exercise our mirth	S2
Or if in tittle tattle toothpick way	I
Our rambling thoughts with easy freedom stray	I
A gainer still thy friend himself must find	C2
His grief suspended and improved his mind	C2
Whilst peaceful slumbers bless the homely bed	J
Where virtue self approved reclines her head	J
Whilst vice beneath imagined horrors mourns	T2
And conscience plants the villain's couch with thorns	T2
Impatient of restraint the active mind	C2
No more by servile prejudice confined	C2
Leaps from her seat as waken'd from a trance	U2
And darts through Nature at a single glance	U2
Then we our friends our foes ourselves survey	I
And see by Night what fools we are by day	I
Stripp'd of her gaudy plumes and vain disguise	V2
See where ambition mean and loathsome lies	V2
Reflection with relentless hand pulls down	M2
The tyrant's bloody wreath and ravish'd crown	M2
In vain he tells of battles bravely won	S
Of nations conquer'd and of worlds undone	S
Triumphs like these but ill with manhood suit	W2
And sink the conqueror beneath the brute	W2
But if in searching round the world we find	C2
Some generous youth the friend of all mankind	C2
Whose anger like the bolt of Jove is sped	J
In terrors only at the guilty head	J
Whose mercies like heaven's dew refreshing fall	L2
In general love and charity to all	L2
Pleased we behold such worth on any throne	E
And doubly pleased we find it on our own	E
Through a false medium things are shown by day	I
Pomp wealth and titles judgment lead astray	I
How many from appearance borrow state	H2
Whom Night disdains to number with the great	H2
Must not we laugh to see yon lordling proud	X2
Snuff up vile incense from a fawning crowd	X2
Whilst in his beam surrounding clients play	I
Like insects in the sun's enlivening ray	I
Whilst Jehu like he drives at furious rate	H2
And seems the only charioteer of state	H2
Talking himself into a little god	Y2
And ruling empires with a single nod	Y2
Who would not think to hear him law dispense	B
That he had interest and that they had sense	B
Injurious thought beneath Night's honest shade	P2
When pomp is buried and false colours fade	P2
Plainly we see at that impartial hour	I2
Them dupes to pride and him the tool of power	I2
God help the man condemn'd by cruel fate	H2
To court the seeming or the real great	H2
Much sorrow shall he feel and suffer more	Q2
Than any slave who labours at the oar	Q2
By slavish methods must he learn to please	Z2
By smooth tongued flattery that cursed court disease	Z2
Supple to every wayward mood strike sail	A3
And shift with shifting humour's peevish gale	A3
To nature dead he must adopt vile art	B3
And wear a smile with anguish in his heart	B3
A sense of honour would destroy his schemes	C3
And conscience ne'er must speak unless in dreams	C3
When he hath tamely borne for many years	D3
Cold looks forbidding frowns contemptuous sneers	D3
When he at last expects good easy man	E3
To reap the profits of his labour'd plan	E3
Some cringing lackey or rapacious whore	Q2
To favours of the great the surest door	Q2
Some catamite or pimp in credit grown	E
Who tempts another's wife or sells his own	E
Steps 'cross his hopes the promised boon denies	V2
And for some minion's minion claims the prize	V2
Foe to restraint unpractised in deceit	F3
Too resolute from nature's active heat	F3
To brook affronts and tamely pass them by	G3
Too proud to flatter too sincere to lie	G3
Too plain to please too honest to be great	H2
Give me kind Heaven an humbler happier state	H2
Far from the place where men with pride deceive	H3
Where rascals promise and where fools believe	H3
Far from the walk of folly vice and strife	I3
Calm independent let me steal through life	I3
Nor one vain wish my steady thoughts beguile	J3
To fear his Lordship's frown or court his smile	J3
Unfit for greatness I her snares defy	G3
And look on riches with untainted eye	G3
To others let the glittering baubles fall	L2
Content shall place us far above them all	L2
Spectators only on this bustling stage	R2
We see what vain designs mankind engage	R2
Vice after vice with ardour they pursue	V
And one old folly brings forth twenty new	V
Perplex'd with trifles through the vale of life	I3
Man strives 'gainst man without a cause for strife	I3
Armies embattled meet and thousands bleed	K3
For some vile spot where fifty cannot feed	K3
Squirrels for nuts contend and wrong or right	K
For the world's empire kings ambitious fight	K
What odds to us 'tis all the self same thing	L3
A nut a world a squirrel and a king	L3
Britons like Roman spirits famed of old	H
Are cast by nature in a patriot mould	H
No private joy no private grief they know	E2
Their souls engross'd by public weal or woe	E2
Inglorious ease like ours they greatly scorn	M3
Let care with nobler wreaths their brows adorn	M3
Gladly they toil beneath the statesman's pains	Y
Give them but credit for a statesman's brains	Y
All would be deem'd e'en from the cradle fit	N3
To rule in politics as well as wit	N3
The grave the gay the fopling and the dunce	Y
Start up God bless us statesman all at once	Y
His mighty charge of souls the priest forgets	Y
The court bred lord his promises and debts	Y
Soldiers their fame misers forget their pelf	I3
The rake his mistress and the fop himself	I3
Whilst thoughts of higher moment claim their care	G
And their wise heads the weight of kingdoms bear	G
Females themselves the glorious ardour feel	O3
And boast an equal or a greater zeal	O3
From nymph to nymph the state infection flies	Y
Swells in her breast and sparkles in her eyes	Y
O'erwhelm'd by politics lie malice pride	X
Envy and twenty other faults beside	X
No more their little fluttering hearts confess	Y
A passion for applause or rage for dress	Y
No more they pant for public raree shows	Y
Or lose one thought on monkeys or on beaux	Y
Coquettes no more pursue the jilting plan	E3
And lustful prudes forget to rail at man	E3
The darling theme Cecilia's self will choose	Y
Nor thinks of scandal whilst she talks of news	Y
The cit a common councilman by place	Y
Ten thousand mighty nothings in his face	Y
By situation as by nature great	H2
With nice precision parcels out the state	H2
Proves and disproves affirms and then denies	Y
Objects himself and to himself replies	Y
Wielding aloft the politician rod	Y2
Makes Pitt by turns a devil and a god	Y2
Maintains e'en to the very teeth of Power	I2
The same thing right and wrong in half an hour	I2
Now all is well now he suspects a plot	M
And plainly proves whatever is is not	M
Fearfully wise he shakes his empty head	J
And deals out empires as he deals out thread	J
His useless scales are in a corner flung	P3
And Europe's balance hangs upon his tongue	P3
Peace to such triflers be our happier plan	E3
To pass through life as easy as we can	E3
Who's in or out who moves this grand machine	O
Nor stirs my curiosity nor spleen	O
Secrets of state no more I wish to know	Y
Than secret movements of a puppet show	Y
Let but the puppets move I've my desire	I2
Unseen the hand which guides the master wire	I2
What is't to us if taxes rise or fall	L2
Thanks to our fortune we pay none at all	L2
Let muckworms who in dirty acres deal	O3
Lament those hardships which we cannot feel	O3
His Grace who smarts may bellow if he please	Y
But must I bellow too who sit at ease	Y
By custom safe the poet's numbers flow	Y
Free as the light and air some years ago	Y
No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains	Y
To tax our labours and excise our brains	Y
Burthens like these vile earthly buildings bear	G
No tribute's laid on castles in the air	G
Let then the flames of war destructive reign	Q3
And England's terrors awe imperious Spain	Q3
Let every venal clan and neutral tribe	R3
Learn to receive conditions not prescribe	R3
Let each new year call loud for new supplies	Y
And tax on tax with double burthen rise	Y
Exempt we sit by no rude cares oppress'd	N2
And having little are with little bless'd	N2
All real ills in dark oblivion lie	G3
And joys by fancy form'd their place supply	G3
Night's laughing hours unheeded slip away	I
Nor one dull thought foretells approach of day	I
Thus have we lived and whilst the Fates afford	S3
Plain plenty to supply the frugal board	S3
Whilst Mirth with Decency his lovely bride	X
And wine's gay god with Temperance by his side	X
Their welcome visit pay whilst Health attends	Y
The narrow circle of our chosen friends	Y
Whilst frank Good humour consecrates the treat	F3
And woman makes society complete	F3
Thus will we live though in our teeth are hurl'd	T3
Those hackney strumpets Prudence and the World	T3
Prudence of old a sacred term implied	X
Virtue with godlike wisdom for her guide	X
But now in general use is known to mean	O
The stalking horse of vice and folly's screen	O
The sense perverted we retain the name	U3
Hypocrisy and Prudence are the same	U3
A tutor once more read in men than books	Y
A kind of crafty knowledge in his looks	Y
Demurely sly with high preferment bless'd	N2
His favourite pupil in these words address'd	N2
Wouldst thou my son be wise and virtuous deem'd	V3
By all mankind a prodigy esteem'd	V3
Be this thy rule be what men prudent call	L2
Prudence almighty Prudence gives thee all	L2
Keep up appearances there lies the test	N2
The world will give thee credit for the rest	N2
Outward be fair however foul within	W3
Sin if thou wilt but then in secret sin	W3
This maxim's into common favour grown	E
Vice is no longer vice unless 'tis known	E
Virtue indeed may barefaced take the field	X3
But vice is virtue when 'tis well conceal'd	X3
Should raging passion drive thee to a whore	Q2
Let Prudence lead thee to a postern door	Q2
Stay out all night but take especial care	G
That Prudence bring thee back to early prayer	G
As one with watching and with study faint	Y3
Reel in a drunkard and reel out a saint	Y3
With joy the youth this useful lesson heard	Z3
And in his memory stored each precious word	Z3
Successfully pursued the plan and now	A4
Room for my Lord Virtue stand by and bow	A4
And is this all is this the worldling's art	B3
To mask but not amend a vicious heart	B3
Shall lukewarm caution and demeanour grave	I3
For wise and good stamp every supple knave	I3
Shall wretches whom no real virtue warms	Y
Gild fair their names and states with empty forms	Y
While Virtue seeks in vain the wish'd for prize	Y
Because disdaining ill she hates disguise	Y
Because she frankly pours fourth all her store	Q2
Seems what she is and scorns to pass for more	Q2
Well be it so let vile dissemblers hold	H
Unenvied power and boast their dear bought gold	H
Me neither power shall tempt nor thirst of pelf	I3
To flatter others or deny myself	I3
Might the whole world be placed within my span	E3
I would not be that thing that prudent man	E3
What cries Sir Pliant would you then oppose	Y
Yourself alone against a host of foes	Y
Let not conceit and peevish lust to rail	A3
Above all sense of interest prevail	A3
Throw off for shame this petulance of wit	N3
Be wise be modest and for once submit	N3
Too hard the task 'gainst multitudes to fight	K
You must be wrong the World is in the right	K
What is this World A term which men have got	M
To signify not one in ten knows what	B4
A term which with no more precision passes	Y
To point out herds of men than herds of asses	Y
In common use no more it means we find	C2
Than many fools in same opinions join'd	C4
Can numbers then change Nature's stated laws	Y
Can numbers make the worse the better cause	Y
Vice must be vice virtue be virtue still	J2
Though thousands rail at good and practise ill	J2
Wouldst thou defend the Gaul's destructive rage	R2
Because vast nations on his part engage	R2
Though to support the rebel Caesar's cause	Y
Tumultuous legions arm against the laws	Y
Though scandal would our patriot's name impeach	D4
And rails at virtues which she cannot reach	D4
What honest man but would with joy submit	N3
To bleed with Cato and retire with Pitt	N3
Steadfast and true to virtue's sacred laws	Y
Unmoved by vulgar censure or applause	Y
Let the World talk my friend that World we know	Y
Which calls us guilty cannot make us so	Y
Unawed by numbers follow Nature's plan	E3
Assert the rights or quit the name of man	E3
Consider well weigh strictly right and wrong	E4
Resolve not quick but once resolved be strong	E4
In spite of Dulness and in spite of Wit	N3
If to thyself thou canst thyself acquit	N3
Rather stand up assured with conscious pride	X
Alone than err with millions on thy side	X

Charles Churchill

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