The Ghost - Book Iv Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAABBCCDDEFGGHHAAII JJKKAALLMMAANNAAGGOO PPQQAARRSSTTUUAAVVWW XXYYAAMMDDGGEEAAUUZZ AAA2A2EEGGB2B2C2D2AA E2E2F2F2XXE2E2AAAAG2 G2AAJJJJH2H2I2I2XXJ2 J2JJJJHHE2E2UUJJI2I2 IITTJJK2K2JJE2E2L2L2 JJM2M2WWN2N2UUO2O2JJ I2I2XXB2B2PPI2I2VVE2 E2RRJJE2E2P2P2RRJJBB UUJJMMQ2R2H2H2E2E2L2 L2JJS2S2MMIIN2N2RRJJ MMT2T2BBJJU2JCoxcombs who vainly make pretence | A |
To something of exalted sense | A |
'Bove other men and gravely wise | A |
Affect those pleasures to despise | A |
Which merely to the eye confined | B |
Bring no improvement to the mind | B |
Rail at all pomp they would not go | C |
For millions to a puppet show | C |
Nor can forgive the mighty crime | D |
Of countenancing pantomime | D |
No not at Covent Garden where | E |
Without a head for play or player | F |
Or could a head be found most fit | G |
Without one player to second it | G |
They must obeying Folly's call | H |
Thrive by mere show or not at all | H |
With these grave fops who bless their brains | A |
Most cruel to themselves take pains | A |
For wretchedness and would be thought | I |
Much wiser than a wise man ought | I |
For his own happiness to be | J |
Who what they hear and what they see | J |
And what they smell and taste and feel | K |
Distrust till Reason sets her seal | K |
And by long trains of consequences | A |
Insured gives sanction to the senses | A |
Who would not Heaven forbid it waste | L |
One hour in what the world calls Taste | L |
Nor fondly deign to laugh or cry | M |
Unless they know some reason why | M |
With these grave fops whose system seems | A |
To give up certainty for dreams | A |
The eye of man is understood | N |
As for no other purpose good | N |
Than as a door through which of course | A |
Their passage crowding objects force | A |
A downright usher to admit | G |
New comers to the court of Wit | G |
Good Gravity forbear thy spleen | O |
When I say Wit I Wisdom mean | O |
Where such the practice of the court | P |
Which legal precedents support | P |
Not one idea is allow'd | Q |
To pass unquestion'd in the crowd | Q |
But ere it can obtain the grace | A |
Of holding in the brain a place | A |
Before the chief in congregation | R |
Must stand a strict examination | R |
Not such as those who physic twirl | S |
Full fraught with death from every curl | S |
Who prove with all becoming state | T |
Their voice to be the voice of Fate | T |
Prepared with essence drop and pill | U |
To be another Ward or Hill | U |
Before they can obtain their ends | A |
To sign death warrants for their friends | A |
And talents vast as theirs employ | V |
Secundum artem to destroy | V |
Must pass or laws their rage restrain | W |
Before the chiefs of Warwick Lane | W |
Thrice happy Lane where uncontroll'd | X |
In power and lethargy grown old | X |
Most fit to take in this bless'd land | Y |
The reins which fell from Wyndham's hand | Y |
Her lawful throne great Dulness rears | A |
Still more herself as more in years | A |
Where she and who shall dare deny | M |
Her right when Reeves and Chauncy's by | M |
Calling to mind in ancient time | D |
One Garth who err'd in wit and rhyme | D |
Ordains from henceforth to admit | G |
None of the rebel sons of Wit | G |
And makes it her peculiar care | E |
That Schomberg never shall be there | E |
Not such as those whom Polly trains | A |
To letters though unbless'd with brains | A |
Who destitute of power and will | U |
To learn are kept to learning still | U |
Whose heads when other methods fail | Z |
Receive instruction from the tail | Z |
Because their sires a common case | A |
Which brings the children to disgrace | A |
Imagine it a certain rule | A2 |
They never could beget a fool | A2 |
Must pass or must compound for ere | E |
The chaplain full of beef and prayer | E |
Will give his reverend permit | G |
Announcing them for orders fit | G |
So that the prelate what's a name | B2 |
All prelates now are much the same | B2 |
May with a conscience safe and quiet | C2 |
With holy hands lay on that fiat | D2 |
Which doth all faculties dispense | A |
All sanctity all faith all sense | A |
Makes Madan quite a saint appear | E2 |
And makes an oracle of Cheere | E2 |
Not such as in that solemn seat | F2 |
Where the Nine Ladies hold retreat | F2 |
The Ladies Nine who as we're told | X |
Scorning those haunts they loved of old | X |
The banks of Isis now prefer | E2 |
Nor will one hour from Oxford stir | E2 |
Are held for form which Balaam's ass | A |
As well as Balaam's self might pass | A |
And with his master take degrees | A |
Could he contrive to pay the fees | A |
Men of sound parts who deeply read | G2 |
O'erload the storehouse of the head | G2 |
With furniture they ne'er can use | A |
Cannot forgive our rambling Muse | A |
This wild excursion cannot see | J |
Why Physic and Divinity | J |
To the surprise of all beholders | J |
Are lugg'd in by the head and shoulders | J |
Or how in any point of view | H2 |
Oxford hath any thing to do | H2 |
But men of nice and subtle learning | I2 |
Remarkable for quick discerning | I2 |
Through spectacles of critic mould | X |
Without instruction will behold | X |
That we a method here have got | J2 |
To show what is by what is not | J2 |
And that our drift parenthesis | J |
For once apart is briefly this | J |
Within the brain's most secret cells | J |
A certain Lord Chief Justice dwells | J |
Of sovereign power whom one and all | H |
With common voice we Reason call | H |
Though for the purposes of satire | E2 |
A name in truth is no great matter | E2 |
Jefferies or Mansfield which you will | U |
It means a Lord Chief Justice still | U |
Here so our great projectors say | J |
The Senses all must homage pay | J |
Hither they all must tribute bring | I2 |
And prostrate fall before their king | I2 |
Whatever unto them is brought | I |
Is carried on the wings of Thought | I |
Before his throne where in full state | T |
He on their merits holds debate | T |
Examines cross examines weighs | J |
Their right to censure or to praise | J |
Nor doth his equal voice depend | K2 |
On narrow views of foe and friend | K2 |
Nor can or flattery or force | J |
Divert him from his steady course | J |
The channel of Inquiry's clear | E2 |
No sham examination's here | E2 |
He upright justicer no doubt | L2 |
Ad libitum puts in and out | L2 |
Adjusts and settles in a trice | J |
What virtue is and what is vice | J |
What is perfection what defect | M2 |
What we must choose and what reject | M2 |
He takes upon him to explain | W |
What pleasure is and what is pain | W |
Whilst we obedient to the whim | N2 |
And resting all our faith on him | N2 |
True members of the Stoic Weal | U |
Must learn to think and cease to feel | U |
This glorious system form'd for man | O2 |
To practise when and how he can | O2 |
If the five Senses in alliance | J |
To Reason hurl a proud defiance | J |
And though oft conquer'd yet unbroke | I2 |
Endeavour to throw off that yoke | I2 |
Which they a greater slavery hold | X |
Than Jewish bondage was of old | X |
Or if they something touch'd with shame | B2 |
Allow him to retain the name | B2 |
Of Royalty and as in sport | P |
To hold a mimic formal court | P |
Permitted no uncommon thing | I2 |
To be a kind of puppet king | I2 |
And suffer'd by the way of toy | V |
To hold a globe but not employ | V |
Our system mongers struck with fear | E2 |
Prognosticate destruction near | E2 |
All things to anarchy must run | R |
The little world of man's undone | R |
Nay should the Eye that nicest sense | J |
Neglect to send intelligence | J |
Unto the Brain distinct and clear | E2 |
Of all that passes in her sphere | E2 |
Should she presumptuous joy receive | P2 |
Without the Understanding's leave | P2 |
They deem it rank and daring treason | R |
Against the monarchy of Reason | R |
Not thinking though they're wondrous wise | J |
That few have reason most have eyes | J |
So that the pleasures of the mind | B |
To a small circle are confined | B |
Whilst those which to the senses fall | U |
Become the property of all | U |
Besides and this is sure a case | J |
Not much at present out of place | J |
Where Nature reason doth deny | M |
No art can that defect supply | M |
But if for it is our intent | Q2 |
Fairly to state the argument | R2 |
A man should want an eye or two | H2 |
The remedy is sure though new | H2 |
The cure's at hand no need of fear | E2 |
For proof behold the Chevalier | E2 |
As well prepared beyond all doubt | L2 |
To put eyes in as put them out | L2 |
But argument apart which tends | J |
To embitter foes and separate friends | J |
Nor turn'd apostate from the Nine | S2 |
Would I though bred up a divine | S2 |
And foe of course to Reason's Weal | M |
Widen that breach I cannot heal | M |
By his own sense and feelings taught | I |
In speech as liberal as in thought | I |
Let every man enjoy his whim | N2 |
What's he to me or I to him | N2 |
Might I though never robed in ermine | R |
A matter of this weight determine | R |
No penalties should settled be | J |
To force men to hypocrisy | J |
To make them ape an awkward zeal | M |
And feeling not pretend to feel | M |
I would not have might sentence rest | T2 |
Finally fix'd within my breast | T2 |
E'en Annet censured and confined | B |
Because we're of a different mind | B |
Nature who in her act most free | J |
Herself delights in liberty | J |
Profuse in love and without bound | U2 |
Pours joy on every crea | J |
Charles Churchill
(1)
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