The Borough. Letter Xxiii: Prisons Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFG FHHIIJKLEMMNNLLOOPPK QRRSSTUIIVVWWTTXXYYZ ZA2A2B2B2C2C2A2A2D2E 2 D2F2F2JJG2H2EEI2I2XX J2J2K2K2RRL2M2SSN2N2 N2N2O2O2N2N2P2P2N2N2 LQ2 R2N2 QKS2N2 S2N2N2N2N2N2N2N2T2T2 U2U2N2N2N2 N2N2N2N2N2N2V2V2W2W2 N2N2N2N2Q2Q2HHE2E2X2 X2T2T2N2N2H2H2Y2Y2N2 N2Z2Z2G2G2A3A3B3B3N2 C3C3N2N2N2N2A3 R2LN2N2D2D2A3A3Y2Y2D 3L2'TIS well that Man to all the varying states | A |
Of good and ill his mind accommodates | A |
He not alone progressive grief sustains | B |
But soon submits to unexperienced pains | B |
Change after change all climes his body bears | C |
His mind repeated shocks of changing cares | C |
Faith and fair Virtue arm the nobler breast | D |
Hope and mere want of feeling aid the rest | D |
Or who could bear to lose the balmy air | E |
Of summer's breath from all things fresh and fair | E |
With all that man admires or loves below | F |
All earth and water wood and vale bestow | F |
Where rosy pleasures smile whence real blessings | G |
- | |
flow | F |
With sight and sound of every kind that lives | H |
And crowning all with joy that freedom gives | H |
Who could from these in some unhappy day | I |
Bear to be drawn by ruthless arms away | I |
To the vile nuisance of a noisome room | J |
Where only insolence and misery come | K |
Save that the curious will by chance appear | L |
Or some in pity drop a fruitless tear | E |
To a damp Prison where the very sight | M |
Of the warm sun is favour and not right | M |
Where all we hear or see the feelings shock | N |
The oath and groan the fetter and the lock | N |
Who could bear this and live Oh many a year | L |
All this is borne and miseries more severe | L |
And some there are familiar with the scene | O |
Who live in mirth though few become serene | O |
Far as I might the inward man perceive | P |
There was a constant effort not to grieve | P |
Not to despair for better days would come | K |
And the freed debtor smile again at home | Q |
Subdued his habits he may peace regain | R |
And bless the woes that were not sent in vain | R |
Thus might we class the Debtors here confined | S |
The more deceived the more deceitful kind | S |
Here are the guilty race who mean to live | T |
On credit that credulity will give | U |
Who purchase conscious they can never pay | I |
Who know their fate and traffic to betray | I |
On whom no pity fear remorse prevail | V |
Their aim a statute their resource a jail | V |
These are the public spoilers we regard | W |
No dun so harsh no creditor so hard | W |
A second kind are they who truly strive | T |
To keep their sinking credit long alive | T |
Success nay prudence they may want but yet | X |
They would be solvent and deplore a debt | X |
All means they use to all expedients run | Y |
And are by slow sad steps at last undone | Y |
Justly perhaps you blame their want of skill | Z |
But mourn their feelings and absolve their will | Z |
There is a Debtor who his trifling all | A2 |
Spreads in a shop it would not fill a stall | A2 |
There at one window his temptation lays | B2 |
And in new modes disposes and displays | B2 |
Above the door you shall his name behold | C2 |
And what he vends in ample letters told | C2 |
The words 'Repository ' 'Warehouse ' all | A2 |
He uses to enlarge concerns so small | A2 |
He to his goods assigns some beauty's name | D2 |
Then in her reign and hopes they'll share her | E2 |
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fame | D2 |
And talks of credit commerce traffic trade | F2 |
As one important by their profit made | F2 |
But who can paint the vacancy the gloom | J |
And spare dimensions of one backward room | J |
Wherein he dines if so 'tis fit to speak | G2 |
Of one day's herring and the morrow's steak | H2 |
An anchorite in diet all his care | E |
Is to display his stock and vend his ware | E |
Long waiting hopeless then he tries to meet | I2 |
A kinder fortune in a distant street | I2 |
There he again displays increasing yet | X |
Corroding sorrow and consuming debt | X |
Alas he wants the requisites to rise | J2 |
The true connections the availing ties | J2 |
They who proceed on certainties advance | K2 |
These are not times when men prevail by chance | K2 |
But still he tries till after years of pain | R |
He finds with anguish he has tried in vain | R |
Debtors are these on whom 'tis hard to press | L2 |
'Tis base impolitic and merciless | M2 |
To these we add a miscellaneous kind | S |
By pleasure pride and indolence confined | S |
Those whom no calls no warnings could divert | N2 |
The unexperienced and the inexpert | N2 |
The builder idler schemer gamester sot | N2 |
The follies different but the same their lot | N2 |
Victims of horses lasses drinking dice | O2 |
Of every passion humour whim and vice | O2 |
See that sad Merchant who but yesterday | N2 |
Had a vast household in command and pay | N2 |
He now entreats permission to employ | P2 |
A boy he needs and then entreats the boy | P2 |
And there sits one improvident but kind | N2 |
Bound for a friend whom honour could not bind | N2 |
Sighing he speaks to any who appear | L |
'A treach'rous friend 'twas that which sent me | Q2 |
- | |
here | R2 |
I was too kind I thought I could depend | N2 |
On his bare word he was a treach'rous friend ' | - |
A Female too it is to her a home | Q |
She came before and she again will come | K |
Her friends have pity when their anger drops | S2 |
They take her home she's tried her schools and | N2 |
- | |
shops | S2 |
Plan after plan but fortune would not mend | N2 |
She to herself was still the treach'rous friend | N2 |
And wheresoe'er began all here was sure to end | N2 |
And there she sits as thoughtless and as gay | N2 |
As if she'd means or not a debt to pay | N2 |
Or knew to morrow she'd be call'd away | N2 |
Or felt a shilling and could dine to day | N2 |
While thus observing I began to trace | T2 |
The sober'd features of a well known face | T2 |
Looks once familiar manners form'd to please | U2 |
And all illumined by a heart at ease | U2 |
But fraud and flattery ever claim'd a part | N2 |
Still unresisted of that easy heart | N2 |
But he at length beholds me 'Ah my friend | N2 |
'And have thy pleasures this unlucky end ' | - |
'Too sure ' he said and smiling as he sigh'd | N2 |
'I went astray though Prudence seem'd my guide | N2 |
All she proposed I in my heart approved | N2 |
And she was honour'd but my pleasure loved | N2 |
Pleasure the mistress to whose arms I fled | N2 |
From wife like lectures angry Prudence read | N2 |
'Why speak the madness of a life like mine | V2 |
The powers of beauty novelty and wine | V2 |
Why paint the wanton smile the venal vow | W2 |
Or friends whose worth I can appreciate now | W2 |
Oft I perceived my fate and then could say | N2 |
I'll think to morrow I must live to day | N2 |
So am I here I own the laws are just | N2 |
And here where thought is painful think I must | N2 |
But speech is pleasant this discourse with thee | Q2 |
Brings to my mind the sweets of liberty | Q2 |
Breaks on the sameness of the place and gives | H |
The doubtful heart conviction that it lives | H |
'Let me describe my anguish in the hour | E2 |
When law detain'd me and I felt its power | E2 |
'When in that shipwreck this I found my shore | X2 |
And join'd the wretched who were wreck'd before | X2 |
When I perceived each feature in the face | T2 |
Pinch'd through neglect or turbid by disgrace | T2 |
When in these wasting forms affliction stood | N2 |
In my afiiicted view it chill'd my blood | N2 |
And forth I rush'd a quick retreat to make | H2 |
Till a loud laugh proclaim'd the dire mistake | H2 |
But when the groan had settled to a sigh | Y2 |
When gloom became familiar to the eye | Y2 |
When I perceive how others seem to rest | N2 |
With every evil rankling in my breast | N2 |
Led by example I put on the man | Z2 |
Sing off my sighs and trifle as I can | Z2 |
'Homer nay Pope for never will I seek | G2 |
Applause for learning nought have I with Greek | G2 |
Gives us the secrets of his pagan hell | A3 |
Where ghost with ghost in sad communion dwell | A3 |
Where shade meets shade and round the gloomy meads | B3 |
They glide and speak of old heroic deeds | B3 |
What fields they conquer'd and what foes they | N2 |
- | |
slew | C3 |
And sent to join the melancholy crew | C3 |
When a new spirit in that world was found | N2 |
A thousand shadowy forms came flitting round | N2 |
Those who had known him fond inquiries made | N2 |
'Of all we left inform us gentle shade | N2 |
Now as we lead thee in our realms to dwell | A3 |
Our twilight groves and meads of asphodel ' | - |
'What paints the poet is our station here | R2 |
Where we like ghosts and flitting shades appear | L |
This is the hell he sings and here we meet | N2 |
And former deeds to new made friends repeat | N2 |
Heroic deeds which here obtain us fame | D2 |
And are in fact the causes why we came | D2 |
Yes this dim region is old Homer's hell | A3 |
Abate but groves and meads of asphodel | A3 |
Here when a stranger from your world we spy | Y2 |
We gather round him and for news apply | Y2 |
He hears unheeding nor can speech endure | D3 |
But s | L2 |
George Crabbe
(1)
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