The Waltz Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEDDFF GHIIIIJJDDIIII CCKKLLDDII MMIIDDNOPPIIDDII DDII IIQQIIDDIIRRIIIIDDDD DDDDSSDDDDTTUU IIVVDDRRIIWWDDJJ UUMMIIDDXXSSII YYDDZZUUII HHA2A2DDB2B2C2C2DDII HHDDD2E2IIIIIIIIDUII DDIID2D2UUIIUUUUURRI IIIUURRKKDDRRF2F2G2G 2DDH2H2DDDDMMI2I2YYU U HHJ2J2DDIIIIYYDD DDQQDDYYUUDDDDHHMM YYE2K2L2GKKIIMuse of the many twinkling feet whose charms | A |
Are now extended up from legs to arms | A |
Terpsichore too long misdeemed a maid | B |
Reproachful term bestowed but to upbraid | B |
Henceforth in all the bronze of brightness shine | C |
The least a Vestal of the Virgin Nine | C |
Far be from thee and thine the name of Prude | D |
Mocked yet triumphant sneered at unsubdued | D |
Thy legs must move to conquer as they fly | E |
If but thy coats are reasonably high | E |
Thy breast if bare enough requires no shield | D |
Dance forth sans armour thou shalt take the field | D |
And own impregnable to most assaults | F |
Thy not too lawfully begotten Waltz | F |
- | |
Hail nimble Nymph to whom the young hussar | G |
The whiskered votary of Waltz and War | H |
His night devotes despite of spur and boots | I |
A sight unmatched since Orpheus and his brutes | I |
Hail spirit stirring Waltz beneath whose banners | I |
A modern hero fought for modish manners | I |
On Hounslow's heath to rival Wellesley's fame | J |
Cocked fired and missed his man but gained his aim | J |
Hail moving muse to whom the fair one's breast | D |
Gives all it can and bids us take the rest | D |
Oh for the flow of Busby or of Fitz | I |
The latter's loyalty the former's wits | I |
To energise the object I pursue | I |
And give both Belial and his Dance their due | I |
- | |
Imperial Waltz imported from the Rhine | C |
Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine | C |
Long be thine import from all duty free | K |
And Hock itself be less esteemed than thee | K |
In some few qualities alike for Hock | L |
Improves our cellar thou our living stock | L |
The head to Hock belongs thy subtler art | D |
Intoxicates alone the heedless heart | D |
Through the full veins thy gentler poison swims | I |
And wakes to Wantonness the willing limbs | I |
- | |
Oh Germany how much to thee we owe | M |
As heaven born Pitt can testify below | M |
Ere cursed Confederation made thee France's | I |
And only left us thy d d debts and dances | I |
Of subsidies and Hanover bereft | D |
We bless thee still George the Third is left | D |
Of kings the best and last not least in worth | N |
For graciously begetting George the Fourth | O |
To Germany and Highnesses serene | P |
Who owe us millions don't we owe the Queen | P |
To Germany what owe we not besides | I |
So oft bestowing Brunswickers and brides | I |
Who paid for vulgar with her royal blood | D |
Drawn from the stem of each Teutonic stud | D |
Who sent us so be pardoned all her faults | I |
A dozen dukes some kings a Queen and Waltz | I |
- | |
But peace to her her Emperor and Diet | D |
Though now transferred to Buonapart egrave 's fiat | D |
Back to my theme O muse of Motion say | I |
How first to Albion found thy Waltz her way | I |
- | |
Borne on the breath of Hyperborean gales | I |
From Hamburg's port while Hamburg yet had mails | I |
Ere yet unlucky Fame compelled to creep | Q |
To snowy Gottenburg was chilled to sleep | Q |
Or starting from her slumbers deigned arise | I |
Heligoland to stock thy mart with lies | I |
While unburnt Moscow yet had news to send | D |
Nor owed her fiery Exit to a friend | D |
She came Waltz came and with her certain sets | I |
Of true despatches and as true Gazettes | I |
Then flamed of Austerlitz the blest despatch | R |
Which Moniteur nor Morning Post can match | R |
And almost crushed beneath the glorious news | I |
Ten plays and forty tales of Kotzebue's | I |
One envoy's letters six composer's airs | I |
And loads from Frankfort and from Leipsic fairs | I |
Meiners' four volumes upon Womankind | D |
Like Lapland witches to ensure a wind | D |
Brunck's heaviest tome for ballast and to back it | D |
Of Heyn egrave such as should not sink the packet | D |
- | |
Fraught with this cargo and her fairest freight | D |
Delightful Waltz on tiptoe for a Mate | D |
The welcome vessel reached the genial strand | D |
And round her flocked the daughters of the land | D |
Not decent David when before the ark | S |
His grand Pas seul excited some remark | S |
Not love lorn Quixote when his Sancho thought | D |
The knight's Fandango friskier than it ought | D |
Not soft Herodias when with winning tread | D |
Her nimble feet danced off another's head | D |
Not Cleopatra on her Galley's Deck | T |
Displayed so much of leg or more of neck | T |
Than Thou ambrosial Waltz when first the Moon | U |
Beheld thee twirling to a Saxon tune | U |
- | |
To You ye husbands of ten years whose brows | I |
Ache with the annual tributes of a spouse | I |
To you of nine years less who only bear | V |
The budding sprouts of those that you shall wear | V |
With added ornaments around them rolled | D |
Of native brass or law awarded gold | D |
To You ye Matrons ever on the watch | R |
To mar a son's or make a daughter's match | R |
To You ye children of whom chance accords | I |
Always the Ladies and sometimes their Lords | I |
To You ye single gentlemen who seek | W |
Torments for life or pleasures for a week | W |
As Love or Hymen your endeavours guide | D |
To gain your own or snatch another's bride | D |
To one and all the lovely Stranger came | J |
And every Ball room echoes with her name | J |
- | |
Endearing Waltz to thy more melting tune | U |
Bow Irish Jig and ancient Rigadoon | U |
Scotch reels avaunt and Country dance forego | M |
Your future claims to each fantastic toe | M |
Waltz Waltz alone both legs and arms demands | I |
Liberal of feet and lavish of her hands | I |
Hands which may freely range in public sight | D |
Where ne'er before but pray put out the light | D |
Methinks the glare of yonder chandelier | X |
Shines much too far or I am much too near | X |
And true though strange Waltz whispers this remark | S |
My slippery steps are safest in the dark | S |
But here the Muse with due decorum halts | I |
And lends her longest petticoat to Waltz | I |
- | |
Observant Travellers of every time | Y |
Ye Quartos published upon every clime | Y |
say shall dull Romaika's heavy round | D |
Fandango's wriggle or Bolero's bound | D |
Can Egypt's Almas tantalising group | Z |
Columbia's caperers to the warlike Whoop | Z |
Can aught from cold Kamschatka to Cape Horn | U |
With Waltz compare or after Waltz be born | U |
Ah no from Morier's pages down to Galt's | I |
Each tourist pens a paragraph for Waltz | I |
- | |
Shades of those Belles whose reign began of yore | H |
With George the Third's and ended long before | H |
Though in your daughters' daughters yet you thrive | A2 |
Burst from your lead and be yourselves alive | A2 |
Back to the Ball room speed your spectred host | D |
Fool's Paradise is dull to that you lost | D |
No treacherous powder bids Conjecture quake | B2 |
No stiff starched stays make meddling fingers ache | B2 |
Transferred to those ambiguous things that ape | C2 |
Goats in their visage women in their shape | C2 |
No damsel faints when rather closely pressed | D |
But more caressing seems when most caressed | D |
Superfluous Hartshorn and reviving Salts | I |
Both banished by the sovereign cordial Waltz | I |
- | |
Seductive Waltz though on thy native shore | H |
Even Werter's self proclaimed thee half a whore | H |
Werter to decent vice though much inclined | D |
Yet warm not wanton dazzled but not blind | D |
Though gentle Genlis in her strife with Sta euml l | D2 |
Would even proscribe thee from a Paris ball | E2 |
The fashion hails from Countesses to Queens | I |
And maids and valets waltz behind the scenes | I |
Wide and more wide thy witching circle spreads | I |
And turns if nothing else at least our heads | I |
With thee even clumsy cits attempt to bounce | I |
And cockney's practise what they can't pronounce | I |
Gods how the glorious theme my strain exalts | I |
And Rhyme finds partner Rhyme in praise of Waltz | I |
Blest was the time Waltz chose for her d eacute but | D |
The Court the Regent like herself were new | U |
New face for friends for foes some new rewards | I |
New ornaments for black and royal Guards | I |
New laws to hang the rogues that roared for bread | D |
New coins most new to follow those that fled | D |
New victories nor can we prize them less | I |
Though Jenky wonders at his own success | I |
New wars because the old succeed so well | D2 |
That most survivors envy those who fell | D2 |
New mistresses no old and yet 'tis true | U |
Though they be old the thing is something new | U |
Each new quite new except some ancient tricks | I |
New white sticks gold sticks broom sticks all new sticks | I |
With vests or ribands decked alike in hue | U |
New troopers strut new turncoats blush in blue | U |
So saith the Muse my what say you | U |
Such was the time when Waltz might best maintain | U |
Her new preferments in this novel reign | U |
Such was the time nor ever yet was such | R |
Hoops are more and petticoats not much | R |
Morals and Minuets Virtue and her stays | I |
And tell tale powder all have had their days | I |
The Ball begins the honours of the house | I |
First duly done by daughter or by spouse | I |
Some Potentate or royal or serene | U |
With Kent's gay grace or sapient Gloster's mien | U |
Leads forth the ready dame whose rising flush | R |
Might once have been mistaken for a blush | R |
From where the garb just leaves the bosom free | K |
That spot where hearts were once supposed to be | K |
Round all the confines of the yielded waist | D |
The strangest hand may wander undisplaced | D |
The lady's in return may grasp as much | R |
As princely paunches offer to her touch | R |
Pleased round the chalky floor how well they trip | F2 |
One hand reposing on the royal hip | F2 |
The other to the shoulder no less royal | G2 |
Ascending with affection truly loyal | G2 |
Thus front to front the partners move or stand | D |
The foot may rest but none withdraw the hand | D |
And all in turn may follow in their rank | H2 |
The Earl of Asterisk and Lady Blank | H2 |
Sir Such a one with those of fashion's host | D |
For whose blest surnames vide Morning Post | D |
Or if for that impartial print too late | D |
Search Doctors' Commons six months from my date | D |
Thus all and each in movement swift or slow | M |
The genial contact gently undergo | M |
Till some might marvel with the modest Turk | I2 |
If nothing follows all this palming work | I2 |
True honest Mirza you may trust my rhyme | Y |
Something does follow at a fitter time | Y |
The breast thus publicly resigned to man | U |
In private may resist him if it can | U |
- | |
O ye who loved our Grandmothers of yore | H |
Fitzpatrick Sheridan and many more | H |
And thou my Prince whose sovereign taste and will | J2 |
It is to love the lovely beldames still | J2 |
Thou Ghost of Queensberry whose judging Sprite | D |
Satan may spare to peep a single night | D |
Pronounce if ever in your days of bliss | I |
Asmodeus struck so bright a stroke as this | I |
To teach the young ideas how to rise | I |
Flush in the cheek and languish in the eyes | I |
Rush to the heart and lighten through the frame | Y |
With half told wish and ill dissembled flame | Y |
For prurient Nature still will storm the breast | D |
Who tempted thus can answer for the rest | D |
- | |
But ye who never felt a single thought | D |
For what our Morals are to be or ought | D |
Who wisely wish the charms you view to reap | Q |
Say would you make those beauties quite so cheap | Q |
Hot from the hands promiscuously applied | D |
Round the slight waist or down the glowing side | D |
Where were the rapture then to clasp the form | Y |
From this lewd grasp and lawless contact warm | Y |
At once Love's most endearing thought resign | U |
To press the hand so pressed by none but thine | U |
To gaze upon that eye which never met | D |
Another's ardent look without regret | D |
Approach the lip which all without restraint | D |
Come near enough if not to touch to taint | D |
If such thou lovest love her then no more | H |
Or give like her caresses to a score | H |
Her Mind with these is gone and with it go | M |
The little left behind it to bestow | M |
- | |
Voluptuous Waltz and dare I thus blaspheme | Y |
Thy bard forgot thy praises were his theme | Y |
Terpsichore forgive at every Ball | E2 |
My wife now waltzes and my daughters shall | K2 |
My son or stop 'tis needless to inquire | L2 |
These little accidents should ne'er transpire | G |
Some ages hence our genealogic tree | K |
Will wear as green a bough for him as me | K |
Waltzing shall rear to make our name amends | I |
Grandsons for me in heirs to all his friends | I |
George Gordon Lord Byron
(1)
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