The Devil's Drive: An Unfinished Rhapsody Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCAAABDDB EFEFEFGG HIJIII CKCLL GGMNNMDDOPOC QRNSRNNNTTRUR DGDGVVWW XYXYQ ESMSZ A2B2NB2 C2D2D2 B2CB2CB2B2B2RRWWA2| The Devil return'd to hell by two | A |
| And he stay'd at home till five | B |
| When he dined on some homicides done in rago t | C |
| And a rebel or so in an Irish stew | A |
| And sausages made of a self slain Jew | A |
| And bethought himself what next to do | A |
| 'And' quoth he 'I'll take a drive | B |
| I walk'd in the morning I'll ride to night | D |
| In darkness my children take most delight | D |
| And I'll see how my favourites thrive | B |
| - | |
| 'And what shall I ride in ' quoth Lucifer then | E |
| 'If I follow'd my taste indeed | F |
| I should mount in a waggon of wounded men | E |
| And smile to see them bleed | F |
| But these will be furnish'd again and again | E |
| And at present my purpose is speed | F |
| To see my manor as much as I may | G |
| And watch that no souls shall be poach'd away | G |
| - | |
| 'I have a state coach at Carlton House | H |
| A chariot in Seymour Place | I |
| But they're lent to two friends who make me amends | J |
| By driving my favourite pace | I |
| And they handle their reins with such a grace | I |
| I have something for both at the end of their race | I |
| - | |
| 'So now for the earth to take my chance ' | - |
| Then up to the earth sprang he | C |
| And making a jump from Moscow to France | K |
| He stepp'd across the sea | C |
| And rested his hoof on a turnpike road | L |
| No very great way from a bishop's abode | L |
| - | |
| But first as he flew I forgot to say | G |
| That he hover'd a moment upon his way | G |
| To look upon Leipsic plain | M |
| And so sweet to his eye was its sulphury glare | N |
| And so soft to his ear was the cry of despair | N |
| That he perch'd on a mountain of slain | M |
| And he gazed with delight from its grow ing height | D |
| Nor often on earth had he seen such a sight | D |
| Nor his work done half as well | O |
| For the field ran so red with the blood of the dead | P |
| That it blush'd like the waves of hell | O |
| Then loudly and wildly and long laugh'd he | C |
| 'Methinks they have here little need of me ' | - |
| - | |
| But the softest note that soothed his ear | Q |
| Was the sound of a widow sighing | R |
| And the sweetest sight was the icy tear | N |
| Which horror froze in the blue eye clear | S |
| Of a maid by her lover lying | R |
| As round her fell her long fair hair | N |
| And she look'd to heaven with that frenzied air | N |
| Which seem 'd to ask if a God were there | N |
| And stretch'd by the wall of a ruin'd hut | T |
| With its hollow cheek and eyes half shut | T |
| A child of famine dying | R |
| And the carnage begun when resistance is done | U |
| And the fall of the vainly flying | R |
| - | |
| But the Devil has reach'd our cliffs so white | D |
| And what did he there I pray | G |
| If his eyes were good he but saw by night | D |
| What we see every day | G |
| But he made a tour and kept a journal | V |
| Of all the wondrous sights nocturnal | V |
| And he sold it in shares to the Men of the Row | W |
| Who bid pretty well but they cheated him though | W |
| - | |
| The Devil first saw as he thought the Mail | X |
| Its coachman and his coat | Y |
| So instead of a pistol he cock'd his tail | X |
| And seized him by the throat | Y |
| 'Aha ' quoth he 'what have we here | Q |
| 'Tis a new barouche and an ancient peer ' | - |
| - | |
| So he sat him on his box again | E |
| And bade him have no fear | S |
| But be true to his club and stanch to his rein | M |
| His brothel and his beer | S |
| 'Next to seeing a lord at the council board | Z |
| I would rather see him here ' | - |
| - | |
| The Devil gat next to Westminster | A2 |
| And he turn'd to 'the room' of the Commons | B2 |
| But he heard as he purposed to enter in there | N |
| That 'the Lords' had received a sum mons | B2 |
| And he thought as a ' quondam aristocrat ' | - |
| He might peep at the peers though to hear them were flat | C2 |
| And he walk'd up the house so like one of our own | D2 |
| That they say that he stood pretty near the throne | D2 |
| - | |
| He saw the Lord Liverpool seemingly wise | B2 |
| The Lord Westmoreland certainly silly | C |
| And Johnny of Norfolk a man of some size | B2 |
| And Chatham so like his friend Billy | C |
| And he saw the tears in Lord Eldon's eyes | B2 |
| Because the Catholics would not rise | B2 |
| In spite of his prayers and his prophecies | B2 |
| And he heard which set Satan himself a staring | R |
| A certain Chief Justice say something like swearing | R |
| And the Devil was shock'd and quoth he 'I must go | W |
| For I find we have much better manners below | W |
| If thus he harangues when he passes my border | A2 |
| I shall hint to friend Moloch to call him to order ' | - |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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About The Devil's Drive: An Unfinished Rhapsody
The Devil's Drive: An Unfinished Rhapsody is a poem by George Gordon Byron. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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