Don Juan: Canto The Seventeenth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCBDE FGFGFHII JKJKJKLM NOPQPRSS TUT TV W KCXCXYZS A2B2A2B2A2B2B2B2 XC2XC2XC2B2B2 D2ZE2ZD2ZB2B2 B2F2B2F2B2F2G2G2 SH2SH2SH2XX I2XJ2XJ2XK2K2 H2B2H2B2H2B2H2H2 XB2XB2XB2B2B2

The world is full of orphans firstly thoseA
Who are so in the strict sense of the phraseB
But many a lonely tree the loftier growsA
Than others crowded in the forest's mazeB
The next are such as are not doomed to loseC
Their tender parents in their budding daysB
But merely their parental tendernessD
Which leaves them orphans of the heart no lessE
-
The next are 'only children' as they are styledF
Who grow up children only since the old sawG
Pronounces that an 'only' 's a spoilt childF
But not to go too far I hold it lawG
That where their education harsh or mildF
'Transgresses the great bounds of love or aweH
The sufferers be't in heart or intellectI
Whate'er the cause are orphans in effectI
-
But to return unto the stricter ruleJ
As far as words make rules our common notionK
Of orphans paints at once a parish schoolJ
A half starved babe a wreck upon life's oceanK
A human what the Italians nickname 'mule'J
A theme for pity or some worse emotionK
Yet if examined it might be admittedL
The wealthiest orphans are to be more pitiedM
-
Too soon they are parents to themselves for whatN
Are tutors guardians and so forth comparedO
With Nature's genial genitors so thatP
A child of Chancery that Star Chamber wardQ
I'll take the likeness I can first come atP
Is like a duckling by Dame Partlett rearedR
And frights especially if 'tis a daughterS
The old hen by running headlong to the waterS
-
There is a commonplace book argumentT
Which glibly glides from every vulgar tongueU
When any dare a new light to presentT
'If you are right then everybody's wrong '-
Suppose the converse of this precedentT
So often urged so loudly and so longV
'If you are wrong then everybody's right '-
Was ever everybody yet so quiteW
-
Therefore I would solicit free discussionK
Upon all points no matter what or whoseC
Because as ages upon ages push onX
The last is apt the former to accuseC
Of pillowing its head on a pincushionX
Heedless of pricks because it was obtuseY
What was a paradox becomes a truth orZ
A something like it as bear witness LutherS
-
The sacraments have been reduced to twoA2
And witches unto none though somewhat lateB2
Since burning aged women save a fewA2
Not witches only bitches who createB2
Mischief in families as some know or knewA2
Should still be singed but slightly let me stateB2
Has been declared an act of inurbanityB2
Malg Sir Matthew Hale's great humanityB2
-
Great Galileo was debarred the sunX
Because he fixed it and to stop his talkingC2
How earth could round the solar orbit runX
Found his own legs embargoed from mere walkingC2
The man was well nigh dead ere men begunX
To think his skull had not some need of caulkingC2
But now it seems he's right his notion justB2
No doubt a consolation to his dustB2
-
Pythagoras Locke Socrates but pagesD2
Might be filled up as vainly as beforeZ
With the sad usage of all sorts of sagesE2
Who in his lifetime each was deemed a boreZ
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy agesD2
This they must bear with and perhaps much moreZ
The wise man's sure when he no more can share it heB2
Will have a firm post obit on posterityB2
-
If such doom waits each intellectual giantB2
We little people in our lesser wayF2
To life's small rubs should surely be more pliantB2
And so for one will I as well I mayF2
Would that I were less bilious but oh fie on'tB2
Just as I make my mind up everydayF2
To be a totus teres stoic sageG2
The wind shifts and I fly into a rageG2
-
Temperate I am yet never had a temperS
Modest I am yet with some slight assuranceH2
Changeable too yet somehow idem semperS
Patient but not enamoured of enduranceH2
Cheerful but sometimes rather apt to whimperS
Mild but at times a sort of Hercules furensH2
So that I almost think that the same skinX
For one without has two or three withinX
-
Our hero was in canto the sixteenthI2
Left in a tender moonlight situationX
Such as enables man to show his strengthJ2
Moral or physical On this occasionX
Whether his virtue triumphed or at lengthJ2
His vice for he was of a kindling nationX
Is more than I shall venture to describeK2
Unless some beauty with a kiss should bribeK2
-
I leave the thing a problem like all thingsH2
The morning came and breakfast tea and toastB2
Of which most men partake but no one singsH2
The company whose birth wealth worth have costB2
My trembling lyre already several stringsH2
Assembled with our hostess and mine hostB2
The guests dropped in the last but one Her GraceH2
The latest Juan with his virgin faceH2
-
Which best is to encounter ghost or noneX
'Twere difficult to say but Juan lookedB2
As if he had combated with more than oneX
Being wan and worn with eyes that hardly brookedB2
The light that through the Gothic windows shoneX
Her Grace too had a sort of air rebukedB2
Seemed pale and shivered as if she had keptB2
A vigil or dreamt rather more than sleptB2

George Gordon Byron



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