The Duellist - Book Iii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKEEJLMMNNOOPPQQRRSS TTUUVVWWDDXXYYZZEEA2 A2B2C2D2D2E2E2F2F2B2 C2G2H2DDI2I2J2J2K2K2 L2L2M2M2N2O2P2P2EEQ2 R2S2S2T2T2U2U2PV2I2I 2T2T2B2B2W2W2X2X2RRY 2Y2Z2Z2A3A3EESSB3B3D DC3C3D3D3RRA3A3RRF2F 2E3E3QQD2D2A3A3E2E2F 3F3G3I2FFIIH3H3E2E2P 2P2I3I3J3J3PPK3K3Z2Z 2L3L3M3C2WWEEN3N3J3J 3O3O3DDN3N3RRN3N3P3P 3YYU2U2YYEEDDEEFFQ3Q 3HHR3R3N3N3| Ah me what mighty perils wait | A |
| The man who meddles with a state | A |
| Whether to strengthen or oppose | B |
| False are his friends and firm his foes | B |
| How must his soul once ventured in | C |
| Plunge blindly on from sin to sin | C |
| What toils he suffers what disgrace | D |
| To get and then to keep a place | D |
| How often whether wrong or right | E |
| Must he in jest or earnest fight | E |
| Risking for those both life and limb | F |
| Who would not risk one groat for him | F |
| Under the Temple lay a Cave | G |
| Made by some guilty coward slave | G |
| Whose actions fear'd rebuke a maze | H |
| Of intricate and winding ways | H |
| Not to be found without a clue | I |
| One passage only known to few | I |
| In paths direct led to a cell | J |
| Where Fraud in secret loved to dwell | J |
| With all her tools and slaves about her | K |
| Nor fear'd lest Honesty should rout her | K |
| In a dark corner shunning sight | E |
| Of man and shrinking from the light | E |
| One dull dim taper through the cell | J |
| Glimmering to make more horrible | L |
| The face of darkness she prepares | M |
| Working unseen all kinds of snares | M |
| With curious but destructive art | N |
| Here through the eye to catch the heart | N |
| Gay stars their tinsel beams afford | O |
| Neat artifice to trap a lord | O |
| There fit for all whom Folly bred | P |
| Wave plumes of feathers for the head | P |
| Garters the hag contrives to make | Q |
| Which as it seems a babe might break | Q |
| But which ambitious madmen feel | R |
| More firm and sure than chains of steel | R |
| Which slipp'd just underneath the knee | S |
| Forbid a freeman to be free | S |
| Purses she knew did ever curse | T |
| Travel more sure than in a purse | T |
| Which by some strange and magic bands | U |
| Enslave the soul and tie the hands | U |
| Here Flattery eldest born of Guile | V |
| Weaves with rare skill the silken smile | V |
| The courtly cringe the supple bow | W |
| The private squeeze the levee vow | W |
| With which no strange or recent case | D |
| Fools in deceive fools out of place | D |
| Corruption who in former times | X |
| Through fear or shame conceal'd her crimes | X |
| And what she did contrived to do it | Y |
| So that the public might not view it | Y |
| Presumptuous grown unfit was held | Z |
| For their dark councils and expell'd | Z |
| Since in the day her business might | E |
| Be done as safe as in the night | E |
| Her eye down bending to the ground | A2 |
| Planning some dark and deadly wound | A2 |
| Holding a dagger on which stood | B2 |
| All fresh and reeking drops of blood | C2 |
| Bearing a lantern which of yore | D2 |
| By Treason borrow'd Guy Fawkes bore | D2 |
| By which since they improved in trade | E2 |
| Excisemen have their lanterns made | E2 |
| Assassination her whole mind | F2 |
| Blood thirsting on her arm reclined | F2 |
| Death grinning at her elbow stood | B2 |
| And held forth instruments of blood | C2 |
| Vile instruments which cowards choose | G2 |
| But men of honour dare not use | H2 |
| Around his Lordship and his Grace | D |
| Both qualified for such a place | D |
| With many a Forbes and many a Dun | I2 |
| Each a resolved and pious son | I2 |
| Wait her high bidding each prepared | J2 |
| As she around her orders shared | J2 |
| Proof 'gainst remorse to run to fly | K2 |
| And bid the destined victim die | K2 |
| Posting on Villany's black wing | L2 |
| Whether he patriot is or king | L2 |
| Oppression willing to appear | M2 |
| An object of our love not fear | M2 |
| Or at the most a reverend awe | N2 |
| To breed usurp'd the garb of Law | O2 |
| A book she held on which her eyes | P2 |
| Were deeply fix'd whence seem'd to rise | P2 |
| Joy in her breast a book of might | E |
| Most wonderful which black to white | E |
| Could turn and without help of laws | Q2 |
| Could make the worse the better cause | R2 |
| She read by flattering hopes deceived | S2 |
| She wish'd and what she wish'd believed | S2 |
| To make that book for ever stand | T2 |
| The rule of wrong through all the land | T2 |
| On the back fair and worthy note | U2 |
| At large was Magna Charta wrote | U2 |
| But turn your eye within and read | P |
| A bitter lesson Norton's Creed | V2 |
| Ready e'en with a look to run | I2 |
| Fast as the coursers of the sun | I2 |
| To worry Virtue at her hand | T2 |
| Two half starved greyhounds took their stand | T2 |
| A curious model cut in wood | B2 |
| Of a most ancient castle stood | B2 |
| Full in her view the gates were barr'd | W2 |
| And soldiers on the watch kept guard | W2 |
| In the front openly in black | X2 |
| Was wrote The Tower but on the back | X2 |
| Mark'd with a secretary's seal | R |
| In bloody letters The Bastile | R |
| Around a table fully bent | Y2 |
| On mischief of most black intent | Y2 |
| Deeply determined that their reign | Z2 |
| Might longer last to work the bane | Z2 |
| Of one firm patriot whose heart tied | A3 |
| To Honour all their power defied | A3 |
| And brought those actions into light | E |
| They wish'd to have conceal'd in night | E |
| Begot born bred to infamy | S |
| A privy council sat of three | S |
| Great were their names of high repute | B3 |
| And favour through the land of Bute | B3 |
| The first entitled to the place | D |
| Of Honour both by gown and grace | D |
| Who never let occasion slip | C3 |
| To take right hand of fellowship | C3 |
| And was so proud that should he meet | D3 |
| The twelve apostles in the street | D3 |
| He'd turn his nose up at them all | R |
| And shove his Saviour from the wall | R |
| Who was so mean Meanness and Pride | A3 |
| Still go together side by side | A3 |
| That he would cringe and creep be civil | R |
| And hold a stirrup for the Devil | R |
| If in a journey to his mind | F2 |
| He'd let him mount and ride behind | F2 |
| Who basely fawn'd through all his life | E3 |
| For patrons first then for a wife | E3 |
| Wrote Dedications which must make | Q |
| The heart of every Christian quake | Q |
| Made one man equal to or more | D2 |
| Than God then left him as before | D2 |
| His God he left and drawn by pride | A3 |
| Shifted about to t' other side | A3 |
| Was by his sire a parson made | E2 |
| Merely to give the boy a trade | E2 |
| But he himself was thereto drawn | F3 |
| By some faint omens of the lawn | F3 |
| And on the truly Christian plan | G3 |
| To make himself a gentleman | I2 |
| A title in which Form array'd him | F |
| Though Fate ne'er thought on 't when she made him | F |
| The oaths he took 'tis very true | I |
| But took them as all wise men do | I |
| With an intent if things should turn | H3 |
| Rather to temporise than burn | H3 |
| Gospel and loyalty were made | E2 |
| To serve the purposes of trade | E2 |
| Religions are but paper ties | P2 |
| Which bind the fool but which the wise | P2 |
| Such idle notions far above | I3 |
| Draw on and off just like a glove | I3 |
| All gods all kings let his great aim | J3 |
| Be answer'd were to him the same | J3 |
| A curate first he read and read | P |
| And laid in whilst he should have fed | P |
| The souls of his neglected flock | K3 |
| Of reading such a mighty stock | K3 |
| That he o'ercharged the weary brain | Z2 |
| With more than she could well contain | Z2 |
| More than she was with spirits fraught | L3 |
| To turn and methodise to thought | L3 |
| And which like ill digested food | M3 |
| To humours turn'd and not to blood | C2 |
| Brought up to London from the plough | W |
| And pulpit how to make a bow | W |
| He tried to learn he grew polite | E |
| And was the poet's parasite | E |
| With wits conversing and wits then | N3 |
| Were to be found 'mongst noblemen | N3 |
| He caught or would have caught the flame | J3 |
| And would be nothing or the same | J3 |
| He drank with drunkards lived with sinners | O3 |
| Herded with infidels for dinners | O3 |
| With such an emphasis and grace | D |
| Blasphemed that Potter kept not pace | D |
| He in the highest reign of noon | N3 |
| Bawled bawdy songs to a psalm tune | N3 |
| Lived with men infamous and vile | R |
| Truck'd his salvation for a smile | R |
| To catch their humour caught their plan | N3 |
| And laugh'd at God to laugh with man | N3 |
| Praised them when living in each breath | P3 |
| And damn'd their memories after death | P3 |
| To prove his faith which all admit | Y |
| Is at least equal to his wit | Y |
| And make himself a man of note | U2 |
| He in defence of Scripture wrote | U2 |
| So long he wrote and long about it | Y |
| That e'en believers 'gan to doubt it | Y |
| He wrote too of the inward light | E |
| Though no one knew how he came by 't | E |
| And of that influencing grace | D |
| Which in his life ne'er found a place | D |
| He wrote too of the Holy Ghost | E |
| Of whom no more than doth a post | E |
| He knew nor should an angel show him | F |
| Would he or know or choose to know him | F |
| Next for he knew 'twixt every science | Q3 |
| There was a natural alliance | Q3 |
| He wrote to advance his Maker's praise | H |
| Comments on rhymes and notes on plays | H |
| And with an all sufficient air | R3 |
| Placed himself in the critic's chair | R3 |
| Usurp'd o'er Reason full dominion | N3 |
| And govern'd merely by Opin | N3 |
Charles Churchill
(1)
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The Duellist - Book Iii is a poem by Charles Churchill. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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