Don Juan: Canto The Fourteenth Poem Rhyme Scheme

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If from great nature's or our own abyss	A
Of thought we could but snatch a certainty	B
Perhaps mankind might find the path they miss	A
But then 'twould spoil much good philosophy	B
One system eats another up and this	A
Much as old Saturn ate his progeny	B
For when his pious consort gave him stones	C
In lieu of sons of these he made no bones	C
	-
But System doth reverse the Titan's breakfast	D
And eats her parents albeit the digestion	E
Is difficult Pray tell me can you make fast	F
After due search your faith to any question	E
Look back o'er ages ere unto the stake fast	F
You bind yourself and call some mode the best one	E
Nothing more true than not to trust your senses	G
And yet what are your other evidences	H
	-
For me I know nought nothing I deny	I
Admit reject contemn and what know you	J
Except perhaps that you were born to die	I
And both may after all turn out untrue	J
An age may come Font of Eternity	B
When nothing shall be either old or new	J
Death so call'd is a thing which makes men weep	K
And yet a third of life is pass'd in sleep	K
	-
A sleep without dreams after a rough day	L
Of toil is what we covet most and yet	M
How clay shrinks back from more quiescent clay	L
The very Suicide that pays his debt	M
At once without instalments an old way	L
Of paying debts which creditors regret	M
Lets out impatiently his rushing breath	N
Less from disgust of life than dread of death	N
	-
'Tis round him near him here there every where	O
And there's a courage which grows out of fear	P
Perhaps of all most desperate which will dare	O
The worst to know it when the mountains rear	P
Their peaks beneath your human foot and there	O
You look down o'er the precipice and drear	O
The gulf of rock yawns you can't gaze a minute	Q
Without an awful wish to plunge within it	R
	-
'Tis true you don't but pale and struck with terror	O
Retire but look into your past impression	E
And you will find though shuddering at the mirror	O
Of your own thoughts in all their self confession	E
The lurking bias be it truth or error	O
To the unknown a secret prepossession	E
To plunge with all your fears but where You know not	S
And that's the reason why you do or do not	S
	-
But what's this to the purpose you will say	L
Gent reader nothing a mere speculation	E
For which my sole excuse is 'tis my way	L
Sometimes with and sometimes without occasion	E
I write what's uppermost without delay	L
This narrative is not meant for narration	E
But a mere airy and fantastic basis	T
To build up common things with common places	H
	-
You know or don't know that great Bacon saith	N
'Fling up a straw 'twill show the way the wind blows '	-
And such a straw borne on by human breath	N
Is poesy according as the mind glows	U
A paper kite which flies 'twixt life and death	N
A shadow which the onward soul behind throws	U
And mine's a bubble not blown up for praise	V
But just to play with as an infant plays	V
	-
The world is all before me or behind	W
For I have seen a portion of that same	X
And quite enough for me to keep in mind	W
Of passions too I have proved enough to blame	X
To the great pleasure of our friends mankind	W
Who like to mix some slight alloy with fame	X
For I was rather famous in my time	Y
Until I fairly knock'd it up with rhyme	Y
	-
I have brought this world about my ears and eke	Z
The other that's to say the clergy who	J
Upon my head have bid their thunders break	A2
In pious libels by no means a few	J
And yet I can't help scribbling once a week	Z
Tiring old readers nor discovering new	J
In youth I wrote because my mind was full	B2
And now because I feel it growing dull	C2
	-
But 'why then publish ' There are no rewards	D2
Of fame or profit when the world grows weary	O
I ask in turn Why do you play at cards	E2
Why drink Why read To make some hour less dreary	O
It occupies me to turn back regards	E2
On what I've seen or ponder'd sad or cheery	O
And what I write I cast upon the stream	F2
To swim or sink I have had at least my dream	F2
	-
I think that were I certain of success	G2
I hardly could compose another line	E
So long I've battled either more or less	G2
That no defeat can drive me from the Nine	E
This feeling 'tis not easy to express	G2
And yet 'tis not affected I opine	E
In play there are two pleasures for your choosing	H2
The one is winning and the other losing	H2
	-
Besides my Muse by no means deals in fiction	E
She gathers a repertory of facts	I2
Of course with some reserve and slight restriction	E
But mostly sings of human things and acts	I2
And that's one cause she meets with contradiction	E
For too much truth at first sight ne'er attracts	I2
And were her object only what's call'd glory	O
With more ease too she 'd tell a different story	O
	-
Love war a tempest surely there 's variety	O
Also a seasoning slight of lucubration	E
A bird's eye view too of that wild Society	O
A slight glance thrown on men of every station	E
If you have nought else here 's at least satiety	O
Both in performance and in preparation	E
And though these lines should only line portmanteaus	I2
Trade will be all the better for these Cantos	I2
	-
The portion of this world which I at present	O
Have taken up to fill the following sermon	E
Is one of which there's no description recent	O
The reason why is easy to determine	E
Although it seems both prominent and pleasant	O
There is a sameness in its gems and ermine	E
A dull and family likeness through all ages	I2
Of no great promise for poetic pages	I2
	-
With much to excite there's little to exalt	O
Nothing that speaks to all men and all times	I2
A sort of varnish over every fault	O
A kind of common place even in their crimes	I2
Factitious passions wit without much salt	O
A want of that true nature which sublimes	I2
Whate'er it shows with truth a smooth monotony	O
Of character in those at least who have got any	O
	-
Sometimes indeed like soldiers off parade	O
They break their ranks and gladly leave the drill	J2
But then the roll call draws them back afraid	O
And they must be or seem what they were still	J2
Doubtless it is a brilliant masquerade	O
But when of the first sight you have had your fill	J2
It palls at least it did so upon me	O
This paradise of pleasure and ennui	O
	-
When we have made our love and gamed our gaming	H2
Drest voted shone and may be something more	O
With dandies dined heard senators declaiming	H2
Seen beauties brought to market by the score	O
Sad rakes to sadder husbands chastely taming	H2
There's little left but to be bored or bore	O
Witness those 'ci devant jeunes hommes' who stem	K2
The stream nor leave the world which leaveth them	K2
	-
'Tis said indeed a general complaint	O
That no one has succeeded in describing	H2
The monde exactly as they ought to paint	O
Some say that authors only snatch by bribing	H2
The porter some slight scandals strange and quaint	O
To furnish matter for their moral gibing	H2
And that their books have but one style in common	E
My lady's prattle filter'd through her woman	E
	-
But this can't well be true just now for writers	I2
Are grown of the beau monde a part potential	C2
I've seen them balance even the scale with fighters	I2
Especially when young for that's essential	C2
Why do their sketches fail them as inditers	I2
Of what they deem themselves most consequential	C2
The real portrait of the highest tribe	L2
'Tis that in fact there's little to describe	L2
	-
'Haud ignara loquor ' these are Nugae 'quarum	K2
Pars parva fui ' but still art and part	O
Now I could much more easily sketch a harem	K2
A battle wreck or history of the heart	O
Than these things and besides I wish to spare 'em	K2
For reasons which I choose to keep apart	O
'Vetabo Cereris sacrum qui vulgarit '	-
Which means that vulgar people must not share it	O
	-
And therefore what I throw off is ideal	M2
Lower'd leaven'd like a history of freemasons	I2
Which	N2

George Gordon Byron

Don Juan: Canto The Fourteenth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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