The Farewell Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEBBFFGGHHII BBJJKKLLIIMMNNIIOOPP HHQQIIRREESSIITTUUVV WWEEXXDDIIYYBBZA2RRB 2B2OOEEC2C2IID2D2NNE 2E2KKIIF2F2G2IG2H2H2 IIIIG2TG2G2I2JJ2J2II HHWWK2K2VG2L2L2M2N2U UEEO2O2D2D2P2P2IIUUQ QQ2Q2IIIITTR2S2T2T2O OTTHHIIU2V2W2W2IIKKI IX2X2IIIH2P Farewell to Europe and at once farewell | A |
To all the follies which in Europe dwell | A |
To Eastern India now a richer clime | B |
Richer alas in everything but rhyme | B |
The Muses steer their course and fond of change | C |
At large in other worlds desire to range | C |
Resolved at least since they the fool must play | D |
To do it in a different place and way | D |
F What whim is this what error of the brain | E |
What madness worse than in the dog star's reign | E |
Why into foreign countries would you roam | B |
Are there not knaves and fools enough at home | B |
If satire be thy object and thy lays | F |
As yet have shown no talents fit for praise | F |
If satire be thy object search all round | G |
Nor to thy purpose can one spot be found | G |
Like England where to rampant vigour grown | H |
Vice chokes up every virtue where self sown | H |
The seeds of folly shoot forth rank and bold | I |
And every seed brings forth a hundredfold | I |
P No more of this though Truth the more our shame | B |
The more our guilt though Truth perhaps may claim | B |
And justify her part in this yet here | J |
For the first time e'en Truth offends my ear | J |
Declaim from morn to night from night to morn | K |
Take up the theme anew when day's new born | K |
I hear and hate be England what she will | L |
With all her faults she is my country still | L |
F Thy country and what then Is that mere word | I |
Against the voice of Reason to be heard | I |
Are prejudices deep imbibed in youth | M |
To counteract and make thee hate the truth | M |
'Tis sure the symptom of a narrow soul | N |
To draw its grand attachment from the whole | N |
And take up with a part men not confined | I |
Within such paltry limits men design'd | I |
Their nature to exalt where'er they go | O |
Wherever waves can roll and winds can blow | O |
Where'er the blessed sun placed in the sky | P |
To watch this subject world can dart his eye | P |
Are still the same and prejudice outgrown | H |
Consider every country as their own | H |
At one grand view they take in Nature's plan | Q |
Not more at home in England than Japan | Q |
P My good grave Sir of Theory whose wit | I |
Grasping at shadows ne'er caught substance yet | I |
'Tis mighty easy o'er a glass of wine | R |
On vain refinements vainly to refine | R |
To laugh at poverty in plenty's reign | E |
To boast of apathy when out of pain | E |
And in each sentence worthy of the schools | S |
Varnish'd with sophistry to deal out rules | S |
Most fit for practice but for one poor fault | I |
That into practice they can ne'er be brought | I |
At home and sitting in your elbow chair | T |
You praise Japan though you was never there | T |
But was the ship this moment under sail | U |
Would not your mind be changed your spirits fail | U |
Would you not cast one longing eye to shore | V |
And vow to deal in such wild schemes no more | V |
Howe'er our pride may tempt us to conceal | W |
Those passions which we cannot choose but feel | W |
There's a strange something which without a brain | E |
Fools feel and which e'en wise men can't explain | E |
Planted in man to bind him to that earth | X |
In dearest ties from whence he drew his birth | X |
If Honour calls where'er she points the way | D |
The sons of Honour follow and obey | D |
If need compels wherever we are sent | I |
'Tis want of courage not to be content | I |
But if we have the liberty of choice | Y |
And all depends on our own single voice | Y |
To deem of every country as the same | B |
Is rank rebellion 'gainst the lawful claim | B |
Of Nature and such dull indifference | Z |
May be philosophy but can't be sense | A2 |
F Weak and unjust distinction strange design | R |
Most peevish most perverse to undermine | R |
Philosophy and throw her empire down | B2 |
By means of Sense from whom she holds her crown | B2 |
Divine Philosophy to thee we owe | O |
All that is worth possessing here below | O |
Virtue and wisdom consecrate thy reign | E |
Doubled each joy and pain no longer pain | E |
When like a garden where for want of toil | C2 |
And wholesome discipline the rich rank soil | C2 |
Teems with incumbrances where all around | I |
Herbs noxious in their nature make the ground | I |
Like the good mother of a thankless son | D2 |
Curse her own womb by fruitfulness undone | D2 |
Like such a garden when the human soul | N |
Uncultured wild impatient of control | N |
Brings forth those passions of luxuriant race | E2 |
Which spread and stifle every herb of grace | E2 |
Whilst Virtue check'd by the cold hand of Scorn | K |
Seems withering on the bed where she was born | K |
Philosophy steps in with steady hand | I |
She brings her aid she clears the encumber'd land | I |
Too virtuous to spare Vice one stroke too wise | F2 |
One moment to attend to Pity's cries | F2 |
See with what godlike what relentless power | G2 |
She roots up every weed | I |
P And every flower | G2 |
Philosophy a name of meek degree | H2 |
Embraced in token of humility | H2 |
By the proud sage who whilst he strove to hide | I |
In that vain artifice reveal'd his pride | I |
Philosophy whom Nature had design'd | I |
To purge all errors from the human mind | I |
Herself misled by the philosopher | G2 |
At once her priest and master made us err | T |
Pride pride like leaven in a mass of flour | G2 |
Tainted her laws and made e'en Virtue sour | G2 |
Had she content within her proper sphere | I2 |
Taught lessons suited to the human ear | J |
Which might fair Virtue's genuine fruits produce | J2 |
Made not for ornament but real use | J2 |
The heart of man unrivall'd she had sway'd | I |
Praised by the good and by the bad obey'd | I |
But when she overturning Reason's throne | H |
Strove proudly in its place to plant her own | H |
When she with apathy the breast would steel | W |
And teach us deeply feeling not to feel | W |
When she would wildly all her force employ | K2 |
Not to correct our passions but destroy | K2 |
When not content our nature to restore | V |
As made by God she made it all new o'er | G2 |
When with a strange and criminal excess | L2 |
To make us more than men she made us less | L2 |
The good her dwindled power with pity saw | M2 |
The bad with joy and none but fools with awe | N2 |
Truth with a simple and unvarnish'd tale | U |
E'en from the mouth of Norton might prevail | U |
Could she get there but Falsehood's sugar'd strain | E |
Should pour her fatal blandishments in vain | E |
Nor make one convert though the Siren hung | O2 |
Where she too often hangs on Mansfield's tongue | O2 |
Should all the Sophs whom in his course the sun | D2 |
Hath seen or past or present rise in one | D2 |
Should he whilst pleasure in each sentence flows | P2 |
Like Plato give us poetry in prose | P2 |
Should he full orator at once impart | I |
The Athenian's genius with the Roman's art | I |
Genius and Art should in this instance fail | U |
Nor Rome though join'd with Athens here prevail | U |
'Tis not in man 'tis not in more than man | Q |
To make me find one fault in Nature's plan | Q |
Placed low ourselves we censure those above | Q2 |
And wanting judgment think that she wants love | Q2 |
Blame where we ought in reason to commend | I |
And think her most a foe when most a friend | I |
Such be philosophers their specious art | I |
Though Friendship pleads shall never warp my heart | I |
Ne'er make me from this breast one passion tear | T |
Which Nature my best friend hath planted there | T |
F Forgiving as a friend what whilst I live | R2 |
As a philosopher I can't forgive | S2 |
In this one point at last I join with you | T2 |
To Nature pay all that is Nature's due | T2 |
But let not clouded Reason sink so low | O |
To fancy debts she does not cannot owe | O |
Bear to full manhood grown those shackles bear | T |
Which Nature meant us for a time to wear | T |
As we wear leading strings which useless grown | H |
Are laid aside when we can walk alone | H |
But on thyself by peevish humour sway'd | I |
Wilt thou lay burdens Nature never laid | I |
Wilt thou make faults whilst Judgment weakly errs | U2 |
And then defend mistaking them for hers | V2 |
Darest thou to say in our enlighten'd age | W2 |
That this grand master passion this brave rage | W2 |
Which flames out for thy country was impress'd | I |
And fix'd by Nature in the human breast | I |
If you prefer the place where you were born | K |
And hold all others in contempt and scorn | K |
On fair comparison if on that land | I |
With liberal and a more than equal hand | I |
Her gifts as in profusion Plenty sends | X2 |
If Virtue meets with more and better friends | X2 |
If Science finds a patron 'mongst the great | I |
If Honesty is minister of state | I |
If Power the guardian of our rights design'd | I |
Is to that great that only end c | H2 |
Charles Churchill
(1)
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