A Farewell To Tobacco Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFGBBHH IIJKLLLMMNN OOOOPPQQQ QQQQQQKK RRGGSTQQUU KKVVQQRRUUQQ WWKKSSQQXX CCKKYC YCCBBQQZZQQA2A2QQB2K TTZZFFFQQCC CCCCC2C2ZZQQ BBD2D2QQKKCCCCKKQQKK E2E2F2F2QQCCMay the Babylonish curse | A |
Straight confound my stammering verse | A |
If I can a passage see | B |
In this word perplexity | B |
Or a fit expression find | C |
Or a language to my mind | C |
Still the phrase is wide or scant | D |
To take leave of thee great plant | D |
Or in any terms relate | E |
Half my love or half my hate | E |
For I hate yet love thee so | F |
That whichever thing I shew | G |
The plain truth will seem to be | B |
A constrain'd hyperbole | B |
And the passion to proceed | H |
More from a mistress than a weed | H |
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Sooty retainer to the vine | I |
Bacchus' black servant negro fine | I |
Sorcerer that mak'st us dote upon | J |
Thy begrimed complexion | K |
And for thy pernicious sake | L |
More and greater oaths to break | L |
Than reclaimed lovers take | L |
'Gainst women thou thy siege dost lay | M |
Much too in the female way | M |
While thou suck'st the lab'ring breath | N |
Faster than kisses or than death | N |
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Thou in such a cloud dost bind us | O |
That our worst foes cannot find us | O |
And ill fortune that would thwart us | O |
Shoots at rovers shooting at us | O |
While each man thro' thy height'ning steam | P |
Does like a smoking Etna seem | P |
And all about us does express | Q |
Fancy and wit in richest dress | Q |
A Sicilian fruitfulness | Q |
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Thou through such a mist dost shew us | Q |
That our best friends do not know us | Q |
And for those allowed features | Q |
Due to reasonable creatures | Q |
Liken'st us to fell Chimeras | Q |
Monsters that who see us fear us | Q |
Worse than Cerberus or Geryon | K |
Or who first lov'd a cloud Ixion | K |
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Bacchus we know and we allow | R |
His tipsy rites But what art thou | R |
That but by reflex canst shew | G |
What his deity can do | G |
As the false Egyptian spell | S |
Aped the true Hebrew miracle | T |
Some few vapours thou may'st raise | Q |
The weak brain may serve to amaze | Q |
But to the reins and nobler heart | U |
Canst nor life nor heat impart | U |
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Brother of Bacchus later born | K |
The old world was sure forlorn | K |
Wanting thee that aidest more | V |
The god's victories than before | V |
All his panthers and the brawls | Q |
Of his piping Bacchanals | Q |
These as stale we disallow | R |
Or judge of thee meant only thou | R |
His true Indian conquest art | U |
And for ivy round his dart | U |
The reformed god now weaves | Q |
A finer thyrsus of thy leaves | Q |
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Scent to match thy rich perfume | W |
Chemic art did ne'er presume | W |
Through her quaint alembic strain | K |
None so sov'reign to the brain | K |
Nature that did in thee excel | S |
Fram'd again no second smell | S |
Roses violets but toys | Q |
For the smaller sort of boys | Q |
Or for greener damsels meant | X |
Thou art the only manly scent | X |
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Stinking'st of the stinking kind | C |
Filth of the mouth and fog of the mind | C |
Africa that brags her foyson | K |
Breeds no such prodigious poison | K |
Henbane nightshade both together | Y |
Hemlock aconite | C |
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Nay rather | Y |
Plant divine of rarest virtue | C |
Blisters on the tongue would hurt you | C |
'Twas but in a sort I blam'd thee | B |
None e'er prosper'd who defam'd thee | B |
Irony all and feign'd abuse | Q |
Such as perplext lovers use | Q |
At a need when in despair | Z |
To paint forth their fairest fair | Z |
Or in part but to express | Q |
That exceeding comeliness | Q |
Which their fancies doth so strike | A2 |
They borrow language of dislike | A2 |
And instead of Dearest Miss | Q |
Jewel Honey Sweetheart Bliss | Q |
And those forms of old admiring | B2 |
Call her Cockatrice and Siren | K |
Basilisk and all that's evil | T |
Witch Hyena Mermaid Devil | T |
Ethiop Wench and Blackamoor | Z |
Monkey Ape and twenty more | Z |
Friendly Trait'ress loving Foe | F |
Not that she is truly so | F |
But no other way they know | F |
A contentment to express | Q |
Borders so upon excess | Q |
That they do not rightly wot | C |
Whether it be pain or not | C |
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Or as men constrain'd to part | C |
With what's nearest to their heart | C |
While their sorrow's at the height | C |
Lose discrimination quite | C |
And their hasty wrath let fall | C2 |
To appease their frantic gall | C2 |
On the darling thing whatever | Z |
Whence they feel it death to sever | Z |
Though it be as they perforce | Q |
Guiltless of the sad divorce | Q |
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For I must nor let it grieve thee | B |
Friendliest of plants that I must leave thee | B |
For thy sake tobacco I | D2 |
Would do any thing but die | D2 |
And but seek to extend my days | Q |
Long enough to sing thy praise | Q |
But as she who once hath been | K |
A king's consort is a queen | K |
Ever after nor will bate | C |
Any tittle of her state | C |
Though a widow or divorced | C |
So I from thy converse forced | C |
The old name and style retain | K |
A right Katherine of Spain | K |
And a seat too 'mongst the joys | Q |
Of the blest Tobacco Boys | Q |
Where though I by sour physician | K |
Am debarr'd the full fruition | K |
Of thy favours I may catch | E2 |
Some collateral sweets and snatch | E2 |
Sidelong odours that give life | F2 |
Like glances from a neighbour's wife | F2 |
And still live in the by places | Q |
And the suburbs of thy graces | Q |
And in thy borders take delight | C |
An unconquer'd Canaanite | C |
Charles Lamb
(1)
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