Don Juan: Canto The Sixteenth Poem Rhyme Scheme

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George Gordon Byron

Don Juan: Canto The Sixteenth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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The antique Persians taught three useful things	A
To draw the bow to ride and speak the truth	B
This was the mode of Cyrus best of kings	A
A mode adopted since by modern youth	B
Bows have they generally with two strings	A
Horses they ride without remorse or ruth	B
At speaking truth perhaps they are less clever	C
But draw the long bow better now than ever	C
	-
The cause of this effect or this defect	D
'For this effect defective comes by cause '	-
Is what I have not leisure to inspect	D
But this I must say in my own applause	E
Of all the Muses that I recollect	D
Whate'er may be her follies or her flaws	E
In some things mine's beyond all contradiction	F
The most sincere that ever dealt in fiction	F
	-
And as she treats all things and ne'er retreats	G
From any thing this epic will contain	H
A wilderness of the most rare conceits	G
Which you might elsewhere hope to find in vain	H
'Tis true there be some bitters with the sweets	G
Yet mix'd so slightly that you can't complain	H
But wonder they so few are since my tale is	G
'De rebus cunctis et quibusdam aliis '	-
	-
But of all truths which she has told the most	I
True is that which she is about to tell	J
I said it was a story of a ghost	I
What then I only know it so befell	J
Have you explored the limits of the coast	I
Where all the dwellers of the earth must dwell	J
'Tis time to strike such puny doubters dumb as	G
The sceptics who would not believe Columbus	G
	-
Some people would impose now with authority	K
Turpin's or Monmouth Geoffry's Chronicle	L
Men whose historical superiority	K
Is always greatest at a miracle	L
But Saint Augustine has the great priority	K
Who bids all men believe the impossible	L
Because 'tis so Who nibble scribble quibble he	K
Quiets at once with 'quia impossibile '	-
	-
And therefore mortals cavil not at all	M
Believe if 'tis improbable you must	N
And if it is impossible you shall	O
'Tis always best to take things upon trust	N
I do not speak profanely to recall	M
Those holier mysteries which the wise and just	N
Receive as gospel and which grow more rooted	P
As all truths must the more they are disputed	P
	-
I merely mean to say what Johnson said	Q
That in the course of some six thousand years	G
All nations have believed that from the dead	Q
A visitant at intervals appears	G
And what is strangest upon this strange head	Q
Is that whatever bar the reason rears	G
'Gainst such belief there's something stronger still	R
In its behalf let those deny who will	R
	-
The dinner and the soiree too were done	F
The supper too discuss'd the dames admired	S
The banqueteers had dropp'd off one by one	F
The song was silent and the dance expired	T
The last thin petticoats were vanish'd gone	U
Like fleecy Clouds into the sky retired	T
And nothing brighter gleam'd through the saloon	V
Than dying tapers and the peeping moon	V
	-
The evaporation of a joyous day	W
Is like the last glass of champagne without	X
The foam which made its virgin bumper gay	W
Or like a system coupled with a doubt	X
Or like a soda bottle when its spray	W
Has sparkled and let half its spirit out	X
Or like a billow left by storms behind	Y
Without the animation of the wind	Y
	-
Or like an opiate which brings troubled rest	Z
Or none or like like nothing that I know	A2
Except itself such is the human breast	Z
A thing of which similitudes can show	A2
No real likeness like the old Tyrian vest	Z
Dyed purple none at present can tell how	B2
If from a shell fish or from cochineal	R
So perish every tyrant's robe piece meal	R
	-
But next to dressing for a rout or ball	R
Undressing is a woe our robe de chambre	W
May sit like that of Nessus and recall	R
Thoughts quite as yellow but less clear than amber	W
Titus exclaim'd 'I've lost a day ' Of all	R
The nights and days most people can remember	W
I have had of both some not to be disdain'd	C2
I wish they 'd state how many they have gain'd	C2
	-
And Juan on retiring for the night	D2
Felt restless and perplex'd and compromised	E2
He thought Aurora Raby's eyes more bright	D2
Than Adeline such is advice advised	E2
If he had known exactly his own plight	D2
He probably would have philosophised	D2
A great resource to all and ne'er denied	D2
Till wanted therefore Juan only sigh'd	D2
	-
He sigh'd the next resource is the full moon	V
Where all sighs are deposited and now	B2
It happen'd luckily the chaste orb shone	F2
As clear as such a climate will allow	B2
And Juan's mind was in the proper tone	F2
To hail her with the apostrophe 'O thou '	-
Of amatory egotism the Tuism	G2
Which further to explain would be a truism	G2
	-
But lover poet or astronomer	W
Shepherd or swain whoever may behold	D2
Feel some abstraction when they gaze on her	W
Great thoughts we catch from thence besides a cold	D2
Sometimes unless my feelings rather err	W
Deep secrets to her rolling light are told	D2
The ocean's tides and mortals' brains she sways	G
And also hearts if there be truth in lays	G
	-
Juan felt somewhat pensive and disposed	D2
For contemplation rather than his pillow	R
The Gothic chamber where he was enclosed	D2
Let in the rippling sound of the lake's billow	R
With all the mystery by midnight caused	D2
Below his window waved of course a willow	R
And he stood gazing out on the cascade	D2
That flash'd and after darken'd in the shade	D2
	-
Upon his table or his toilet which	H2
Of these is not exactly ascertain'd	D2
I state this for I am cautious to a pitch	H2
Of nicety where a fact is to be gain'd	D2
A lamp burn'd high while he leant from a niche	H2
Where many a Gothic ornament remain'd	D2
In chisell'd stone and painted glass and all	R
That time has left our fathers of their hall	R
	-
Then as the night was clear though cold he threw	W
His chamber door wide open and went forth	I2
Into a gallery of a sombre hue	W
Long furnish'd with old pictures of great worth	J2
Of knights and dames heroic and chaste too	W
As doubtless should be people of high birth	J2
But by dim lights the portraits of the dead	D2
Have something ghastly desolate and dread	D2
	-
The forms of the grim knight and pictured saint	D2
Look living in the moon and as you turn	K2
Backward and forward to the echoes faint	D2
Of your own footsteps voices from the urn	K2
Appear to wake and shadows wild and quaint	D2
Start from the frames which fence their aspects stern	K2
As if to ask how you can dare to keep	L2
A vigil there where all but death should sleep	L2
	-
And the pale smile of beauties in the grave	M2
The charms of other days in starlight gleams	G
Glimmer on high their buried locks still wave	M2
Along the canvas their eyes glance like dreams	G
On ours or spars within some dusky cave	M2
But death is imaged in their shadowy beams	G
A picture is the past even ere its frame	G2
Be gilt who sate hath ceased to be the same	G2
	-
As Juan mused on mutability	D2
Or on his mistress terms synonymous	G
No sound except the echo of his sigh	N2
Or step ran sadly through that antique house	G
When suddenly he heard or thought so nigh	N2
A supernatural agent or a mouse	G
Whose little nibbling rustle will embarrass	G
Most people as it plays along the arras	G
	-
It was no mouse but lo a monk array'd	D2
In cowl and beads and dusky garb appear'd	D2
Now in the moonlight and now lapsed in shade	D2
With steps that trod as heavy yet unheard	D2
His garments only a slight murmur made	D2
He moved as shadowy as the sisters weird	D2
But slowly and as he pass'd Juan by	N2
Glanced without pausing on him a bright eye	N2
	-
Juan was petrified he had heard a hint	D2
Of such a spirit in these halls of old	D2
But thought like most men there was nothing in't	D2
Beyond the rumour which such spots unfold	D2
Coin'd from surviving superstition's mint	D2
Which passes ghosts in currency like gold	D2
But rarely seen like gold compared with paper	W
And did he see this or was it a vapour	W
	-
Once twice thrice pass'd repass'd the thing of air	W
Or earth beneath or heaven or t'other place	G
And Juan gazed upon it with a stare	W
Yet could not speak or move but on its base	G
As stands a statue stood he felt his hair	W
Twine like a knot of snakes	G