Granta: A Medley Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEDE FEFE GBHB BIBI JKJK LBLB MDMD NONP QRQR SKSK TDTD DUDU FVFV WEWE XKXK FGFG YZYZ A2B2A2I C2DC2D D2E2D2F2 G2BG2B DH2DZ I2J2K2L2 DGDGOh could Le Sage's demon's gift | A |
Be realized at my desire | B |
This night my trembling form he'd lift | A |
To place it on St Mary's spire | C |
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Then would unroof'd old Granta's halls | D |
Pedantic inmates full display | E |
Fellows who dream on lawn or stalls' | D |
The price of venal votes to pay | E |
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Then would I view each rival wight | F |
Petty and Palreerston survey | E |
Who canvass there with all their might | F |
Against the next elective day | E |
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Lo candidates and voters lie | G |
All lull'd in sleep a goodly number | B |
A race renown'd for piety | H |
Whose conscience won't disturb their slumber | B |
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Lord H indeed rnay not demur | B |
Fellows are sage reflecting men | I |
They know preferment can occur | B |
But very seldom now and then | I |
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They know the Chancellor has got | J |
Some pretty livings in disposal | K |
Each hopes that one may be his lot | J |
And therefore smiles on his proposal | K |
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Now from the soporific scene | L |
I'll turn mine eye as night grows later | B |
To view unheeded and unseen | L |
The studious sons of Alma Mater | B |
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There in apartments small and damp | M |
The candidate for college prizes | D |
Sits poring by the midnight lamp | M |
Goes late to bed yet early rises | D |
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He surely well deserves to gain them | N |
With all the honours of his college | O |
Who striving hardly to obtain them | N |
Thus seeks unprofitable knowledge | P |
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Who sacrifices hours of rest | Q |
To scan precisely meres Attic | R |
Or agitates his anxious breast | Q |
In solving problems mathematic | R |
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Who reads false quantities in Seale | S |
Or puzzles o'er the deep triangle | K |
Deprived of many a wholesome meal | S |
In barbarous Latin doom'd to wrangle | K |
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Renouncing every pleasing page | T |
From authors of historic use | D |
Preferring to the letter'd sage | T |
The square of the hypothenuse | D |
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Still harmless are these occupations | D |
That hurt none but the hapless student | U |
Compared with other recreations | D |
Which bring together the imprudent | U |
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Whose daring revels shock the sight | F |
When vice and infamy combine | V |
When drunkenness and dice invite | F |
As every sense is steep'd in wine | V |
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Not so the methodistic crew | W |
Who plans of reformation lay | E |
In humble attitude they sue | W |
And for the sins of others pray | E |
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Forgetting that their pride of spirit | X |
Their exultation in their trial | K |
Detracts most largely from the merit | X |
Of all their boasted self denial | K |
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'Tis morn from these I turn my sight | F |
What scene is this which meets the eye | G |
A numerous crowd array'd in white | F |
Across the green in numbers fly | G |
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Loud rings in air the chapel bell | Y |
'Tis hush'd what sounds are these I hear | Z |
The organ's soft celestial swell | Y |
Rolls deeply on the list'ning ear | Z |
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To this is join'd the sacred song | A2 |
The royal minstrel's hallow'd strain | B2 |
Though he who hears the music long | A2 |
Will never wish to hear again | I |
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Our choir would be scarcely excused | C2 |
Even as a band of raw beginners | D |
All mercy now must be refused | C2 |
To such a set of croaking sinners | D |
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If David when his toils were ended | D2 |
Had heard these blockheads sing before him | E2 |
To us his psalms had ne'er descended | D2 |
In furious mood he would have tore 'em | F2 |
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The luckless Israelites when taken | G2 |
By some inhuman tyrant's order | B |
Were ask'd to sing by joy forsaken | G2 |
On Babylonian river's border | B |
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Oh had they sung in notes like these | D |
Inspired by stratagem or fear | H2 |
They might have set their hearts at ease | D |
The devil a soul had stay'd to hear | Z |
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But if I scribble longer now | I2 |
The deuce a soul will stay to read | J2 |
My pen is blunt my ink is low | K2 |
'Tis almost time to stop indeed | L2 |
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Therefore farewell old Granta's spires | D |
No more like Cleofas I fly | G |
No more thy theme my muse inspires | D |
The reader's tired and so am I | G |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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