The Borough. Letter Xxiv: Schools Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEDDFFGGHHIJ DDKKLLMMNNOOAAPPNNII QL QRRRRSSKKAADDRRTTU RRVVWWXXR RRJJYYZZDDA2A2B2B2RR C2C2RRXXAARRBBRRD2E2 D2EERR RRF2 F2F2G2G2F2F2RRRRH2I2 F2F2F2F2RRF2F2F2F2J2 J2K2K2YYYF2 F2RRYL2K2K2F2F2F2F2M 2M2RRN2N2RRO2O2RRP2P 2OOF2F2RRF2F2Q2Q2F2F 2F2F2F2R2R2C2RTo every class we have a School assign'd | A |
Rules for all ranks and food for every mind | A |
Yet one there is that small regard to rule | B |
Or study pays and still is deem'd a School | B |
That where a deaf poor patient widow sits | C |
And awes some thirty infants as she knits | C |
Infants of humble busy wives who pay | D |
Some trifling price for freedom through the day | D |
At this good matron's hut the children meet | E |
Who thus becomes the mother of the street | E |
Her room is small they cannot widely stray | D |
Her threshold high they cannot run away | D |
Though deaf she sees the rebel heroes shout | F |
Though lame her white rod nimbly walks about | F |
With band of yarn she keeps offenders in | G |
And to her gown the sturdiest rogue can pin | G |
Aided by these and spells and tell tale birds | H |
Her power they dread and reverence her words | H |
To Learning's second seats we now proceed | I |
Where humming students gilded primers read | J |
Or books with letters large and pictures gay | D |
To make their reading but a kind of play | D |
'Reading made easy ' so the titles tell | K |
But they who read must first begin to spell | K |
There may be profit in these arts but still | L |
Learning is labour call it what you will | L |
Upon the youthful mind a heavy load | M |
Nor must we hope to find the royal road | M |
Some will their easy steps to science show | N |
And some to heav'n itself their by way know | N |
Ah trust them not who fame or bliss would share | O |
Must learn by labour and must live by care | O |
Another matron of superior kind | A |
For higher schools prepares the rising mind | A |
Preparatory she her Learning calls | P |
The step first made to colleges and halls | P |
She early sees to what the mind will grow | N |
Nor abler judge of infant powers I know | N |
She sees what soon the lively will impede | I |
And how the steadier will in turn succeed | I |
Observes the dawn of wisdom fancy taste | Q |
And knows what parts will wear and what will | L |
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waste | Q |
She marks the mind too lively and at once | R |
Sees the gay coxcomb and the rattling dunce | R |
Long has she lived and much she loves to trace | R |
Her former pupils now a lordly race | R |
Whom when she sees rich robes and furs bedeck | S |
She marks the pride which once she strove to check | S |
A Burgess comes and she remembers well | K |
How hard her task to make his worship spell | K |
Cold selfish dull inanimate unkind | A |
'Twas but by anger he display'd a mind | A |
Now civil smiling complaisant and gay | D |
The world has worn th' unsocial crust away | D |
That sullen spirit now a softness wears | R |
And save by fits e'en dulness disappears | R |
But still the matron can the man behold | T |
Dull selfish hard inanimate and cold | T |
A Merchant passes 'Probity and truth | U |
Prudence and patience mark'd thee from thy youth ' | - |
Thus she observes but oft retains her fears | R |
For him who now with name unstain'd appears | R |
Nor hope relinquishes for one who yet | V |
Is lost in error and involved in debt | V |
For latent evil in that heart she found | W |
More open here but here the core was sound | W |
Various our Day Schools here behold we one | X |
Empty and still the morning duties done | X |
Soil'd tatter'd worn and thrown in various | R |
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heaps | R |
Appear their books and there confusion sleeps | R |
The workmen all are from the Babel fled | J |
And lost their tools till the return they dread | J |
Meantime the master with his wig awry | Y |
Prepares his books for business by and by | Y |
Now all th' insignia of the monarch laid | Z |
Beside him rest and none stand by afraid | Z |
He while his troop light hearted leap and play | D |
Is all intent on duties of the day | D |
No more the tyrant stern or judge severe | A2 |
He feels the father's and the husband's fear | A2 |
Ah little think the timid trembling crowd | B2 |
That one so wise so powerful and so proud | B2 |
Should feel himself and dread the humble ills | R |
Of rent day charges and of coalman's bills | R |
That while they mercy from their judge implore | C2 |
He fears himself a knocking at the door | C2 |
And feels the burthen as his neighbour states | R |
His humble portion to the parish rates | R |
They sit th' alloted hours then eager run | X |
Rushing to pleasure when the duty's done | X |
His hour of leisure is of different kind | A |
Then cares domestic rush upon his mind | A |
And half the ease and comfort he enjoys | R |
Is when surrounded by slates books and boys | R |
Poor Reuben Dixon has the noisiest school | B |
Of ragged lads who ever bow'd to rule | B |
Low in his price the men who heave our coals | R |
And clean our causeways send him boys in shoals | R |
To see poor Reuben with his fry beside | D2 |
Their half check'd rudeness and his half scorn'd | E2 |
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pride | D2 |
Their room the sty in which th' assembly meet | E |
In the close lane behind the Northgate street | E |
T'observe his vain attempts to keep the peace | R |
Till tolls the bell and strife and troubles cease | R |
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- | |
Calls for our praise his labour praise deserves | R |
But not our pity Reuben has no nerves | R |
'Mid noise and dirt and stench and play and | F2 |
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prate | F2 |
He calmly cuts the pen or views the slate | F2 |
But Leonard yes for Leonard's fate I grieve | G2 |
Who loaths the station which he dares not leave | G2 |
He cannot dig he will not beg his bread | F2 |
All his dependence rests upon his head | F2 |
And deeply skill'd in sciences and arts | R |
On vulgar lads he wastes superior parts | R |
Alas what grief that feeling mind sustains | R |
In guiding hands and stirring torpid brains | R |
He whose proud mind from pole to pole will move | H2 |
And view the wonders of the worlds above | I2 |
Who thinks and reasons strongly hard his fate | F2 |
Confined for ever to the pen and slate | F2 |
True he submits and when the long dull day | F2 |
Has slowly pass'd in weary tasks away | F2 |
To other worlds with cheerful view he looks | R |
And parts the night between repose and books | R |
Amid his labours he has sometimes tried | F2 |
To turn a little from his cares aside | F2 |
Pope Milton Dryden with delight has seized | F2 |
His soul engaged and of his trouble eased | F2 |
When with a heavy eye and ill done sum | J2 |
No part conceived a stupid boy will come | J2 |
Then Leonard first subdues the rising frown | K2 |
And bids the blockhead lay his blunders down | K2 |
O'er which disgusted he will turn his eye | Y |
To his sad duty his sound mind apply | Y |
And vex'd in spirit throw his pleasures by | Y |
Turn we to Schools which more than these afford | F2 |
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The sound instruction and the wholesome board | F2 |
And first our School for Ladies pity calls | R |
For one soft sigh when we behold these walls | R |
Placed near the town and where from window high | Y |
The fair confined may our free crowds espy | L2 |
With many a stranger gazing up and down | K2 |
And all the envied tumult of the town | K2 |
May in the smiling summer eve when they | F2 |
Are sent to sleep the pleasant hours away | F2 |
Behold the poor whom they conceive the bless'd | F2 |
Employ'd for hours and grieved they cannot rest | F2 |
Here the fond girl whose days are sad and few | M2 |
Since dear mamma pronounced the last adieu | M2 |
Looks to the road and fondly thinks she hears | R |
The carriage wheels and struggles with her tears | R |
All yet is new the misses great and small | N2 |
Madam herself and teachers odious all | N2 |
From laughter pity nay command she turns | R |
But melts in softness or with anger burns | R |
Nauseates her food and wonders who can sleep | O2 |
On such mean beds where she can only weep | O2 |
She scorns condolence but to all she hates | R |
Slowly at length her mind accommodates | R |
Then looks on bondage with the same concern | P2 |
As others felt and finds that she must learn | P2 |
As others learn'd the common lot to share | O |
To search for comfort and submit to care | O |
There are 'tis said who on these seats attend | F2 |
And to these ductile minds destruction vend | F2 |
Wretches to virtue peace and nature foes | R |
To these soft minds their wicked trash expose | R |
Seize on the soul ere passions take the sway | F2 |
And lead the heart ere yet it feels astray | F2 |
Smugglers obscene and can there be who take | Q2 |
Infernal pains the sleeping vice to wake | Q2 |
Can there be those by whom the thought defiled | F2 |
Enters the spotless bosom of a child | F2 |
By whom the ill is to the heart conveyed | F2 |
Who lend the foe not yet in arms their aid | F2 |
And sap the city walls before the siege be laid | F2 |
Oh rather skulking in the by ways steal | R2 |
And rob the poorest traveller of his meal | R2 |
Burst through the humblest trader's bolted door | C2 |
Bear from the widow's hut her winter s | R |
George Crabbe
(1)
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