Don Juan: Canto The First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCDEFAGHGHGHIA JDKDKDLM IDIDIDNM EOCOCOCM PDQDQDRM STSTSTIM MTMTMTIM FMFMFMMM UIUIUIIM VMVMVMWM MXMXMXYM ZA2ZA2ZA2IM MMMMMMDA2I | A |
I want a hero an uncommon want | B |
When every year and month sends forth a new one | C |
Till after cloying the gazettes with cant | D |
The age discovers he is not the true one | C |
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt | D |
I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan | E |
We all have seen him in the pantomime | F |
Sent to the Devil somewhat ere his time II | A |
Vernon the butcher Cumberland Wolfe Hawke | G |
Prince Ferdinand Granby Burgoyne Keppel Howe | H |
Evil and good have had their tithe of talk | G |
And filled their sign posts then like Wellesley now | H |
Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk | G |
Followers of fame nine farrow of that sow | H |
France too had Buonapart and Dumourier | I |
Recorded in the Moniteur and Courier III | A |
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Barnave Brissot Condorcet Mirabeau | J |
P tion Clootz Danton Marat La Fayette | D |
Were French and famous people as we know | K |
And there were others scarce forgotten yet | D |
Joubert Hoche Marceau Lannes Desaix Moreau | K |
With many of the military set | D |
Exceedingly remarkable at times | L |
But not at all adapted to my rhymes IV | M |
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Nelson was once Britannia's god of War | I |
And still should be so but the tide is turn'd | D |
There's no more to be said of Trafalgar | I |
'Tis with our hero quietly inurn'd | D |
Because the army's grown more popular | I |
At which the naval people are concern'd | D |
Besides the Prince is all for the land service | N |
Forgetting Duncan Nelson Howe and Jervis V | M |
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Brave men were living before Agamemnon | E |
And since exceeding valorous and sage | O |
A good deal like him too though quite the same none | C |
But then they shone not on the poet's page | O |
And so have been forgotten I condemn none | C |
But can't find any in the present age | O |
Fit for my poem that is for my new one | C |
So as I said I'll take my friend Don Juan VI | M |
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Most epic poets plunge in medias res | P |
Horace makes this the heroic turnpike road | D |
And then your hero tells whene'er you please | Q |
What went before by way of episode | D |
While seated after dinner at his ease | Q |
Beside his mistress in some soft abode | D |
Palace or garden paradise or cavern | R |
Which serves the happy couple for a tavern VII | M |
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That is the usual method but not mine | S |
My way is to begin with the beginning | T |
The regularity of my design | S |
Forbids all wandering as the worst of sinning | T |
And therefore I shall open with a line | S |
Although it cost me half an hour in spinning | T |
Narrating somewhat of Don Juan's father | I |
And also of his mother if you'd rather CC | M |
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My poem's epic and is meant to be | M |
Divided in twelve books each book containing | T |
With love and war a heavy gale at sea | M |
A list of ships and captains and kings reigning | T |
New characters the episodes are three | M |
A panoramic view of Hell's in training | T |
After the style of Virgil and of Homer | I |
So that my name of Epic's no misnomer CCI | M |
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All these things will be specified in time | F |
With strict regard to Aristotle's rules | M |
The Vade Mecum of the true sublime | F |
Which makes so many poets and some fools | M |
Prose poets like blank verse I'm fond of rhyme | F |
Good workmen never quarrel with their tools | M |
I've got new mythological machinery | M |
And very handsome supernatural scenery CCII | M |
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There's only one slight difference between | U |
Me and my epic brethren gone before | I |
And here the advantage is my own I ween | U |
Not that I have not several merits more | I |
But this will more peculiarly be seen | U |
They so embellish that 'tis quite a bore | I |
Their labyrinth of fables to thread through | I |
Whereas this story's actually true CCIII | M |
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If any person doubt it I appeal | V |
To history tradition and to facts | M |
To newspapers whose truth all know and feel | V |
To plays in five and operas in three acts | M |
All these confirm my statement a good deal | V |
But that which more completely faith exacts | M |
Is that myself and several now in Seville | W |
Saw Juan's last elopement with the Devil CCIV | M |
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If ever I should condescend to prose | M |
I'll write poetical commandments which | X |
Shall supersede beyond all doubt all those | M |
That went before in these I shall enrich | X |
My text with many things that no one knows | M |
And carry precept to the highest pitch | X |
I'll call the work Longinus o'er a Bottle | Y |
Or Every Poet his own Aristotle CCV | M |
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Thou shalt believe in Milton Dryden Pope | Z |
Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth Coleridge Southey | A2 |
Because the first is craz'd beyond all hope | Z |
The second drunk the third so quaint and mouthy | A2 |
With Crabbe it may be difficult to cope | Z |
And Campbell's Hippocrene is somewhat drouthy | A2 |
Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers nor | I |
Commit flirtation with the muse of Moore CCVI | M |
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Thou shalt not covet Mr Sotheby's Muse | M |
His Pegasus nor anything that's his | M |
Thou shalt not bear false witness like the Blues | M |
There's one at least is very fond of this | M |
Thou shalt not write in short but what I choose | M |
This is true criticism and you may kiss | M |
Exactly as you please or not the rod | D |
But if you don't I'll lay it on by G d | A2 |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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