A Pair Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFF GGEEHHEEII JEKKLLLLMMNNEEOOEEPQ RSTTUU VVWWXXYYEEZZ XXEEEEA2A2EEGGB2B2CC HHC2C2D2D2 EESSEEEEE2E2LL B2B2F2F2 B2B2JG2H2H2E2E2I2I2E EJ2J2K2K2EEL2L2XXKKM 2M2F2F2N2O2E2E2P2P2Q 2Q2 E2HEER2EKKE2E2S2S2JJ EEZZE2E2E2E2T2T2EEJJ HHE2E2JJKKU2U2E2E2V2 V2

THERE was a youth but woe is meA
I quite forgot his name and heA
Without some label round his neckB
Is like one pea among a peckB
Go search the country up and downC
Port city village parish townC
And saving just the face and nameD
You shall behold the very sameD
Wherever pleasure's train resortsE
From the Land's End to Johnny Groat'sE
And thousands such have swelled the herdF
From William down to George the ThirdF
-
To life he started thanks to fateG
In contact with a good estateG
Provided thus and quite at easeE
He takes for granted all he seesE
Ne'er sends a thought nor lifts an eyeH
To ask what am I where and whyH
All that is no affair of hisE
Somehow he came and there he isE
Without such philosophic stuffI
Alive and well and that's enoughI
-
Thoughts why if all that crawl like trainJ
Of caterpillars through his brainsE
With every syllable let fallK
Bon mot and compliment and allK
Were melted down in furnace fireL
I doubt if shred of golden wireL
To make amongst it all would lingerL
A ring for Tom Thumb's little fingerL
Yet think not that he comes belowM
The modern average ratioM
The current coin of fashion's mintN
The common ball room going stintN
Of trifling cost his stock in trade isE
Whose business is to please the ladiesE
Or who to honours may aspireO
Of a town beau or country squireO
The cant of fashion and of viceE
To learn slight effort will sufficeE
And he was furnished with that knowledgeP
Even before he went to collegeQ
And thus without the toil of thoughtR
Favour and flattery may be boughtS
No need to win the laurel nowT
For lady's smile or vassal's bowT
To lie exposed in patriot campU
Or study by the midnight lampU
-
Nature and art might vainly striveV
To keep his intellect aliveV
'Twould not have forced an exclamationW
Worthy a note of admirationW
If he had been on Gibeon's hillX
And seen the sun and moon stand stillX
What prodigy was ever knownY
To raise the pitch of fashion's toneY
Or make it yield by any chanceE
That studied air of nonchalanceE
Which after all however gracedZ
Is apathy and want of tasteZ
-
The vulgar every station fillX
St Giles' or James's which you willX
Spruce drapers in their masters' shopsE
Rank with right honourable fopsE
No real distinction marks the kindsE
The raw material of their mindsE
But mind claims rank that cannot yieldA2
To blazoned arms and crested shieldA2
Above the need and reach it standsE
Of diamond stars from royal handsE
Nor waits the nod of courtly stateG
To bid it be or not be greatG
The regions where it wings its wayB2
Are set with brighter stars than theyB2
With calm contempt it thence looks downC
On fortune's favour or its frownC
Looks down on those who vainly tryH
By strange inversion of the eyeH
From that poor mole hill where they sitC2
To cast a downward look on itC2
As robin from his pear tree heightD2
Looks down upon the eagle's flightD2
-
Before our youth had learnt his lettersE
They taught him to despise his bettersE
And if some things have been forgotS
That lesson certainly has notS
The haunts his genius chiefly gracesE
Are tables stables taverns racesE
The things of which he most afraid isE
Are tradesmen's bills and learned ladiesE
He deems the first a grievous boreE2
But loathes the latter even moreE2
Than solitude or rainy weatherL
Unless they happen both togetherL
-
Soft his existence rolls awayB2
To morrow plenteous as to dayB2
He lives enjoys and lives anewF2
And when he dies what shall we doF2
-
Down a close street whose darksome shops displayB2
Old clothes and iron on both sides the wayB2
Loathsome and wretched whence the eye in painJ
Averted turns nor seeks to view againG2
Where lowest dregs of human nature dwellH2
More loathsome than the rags and rust they sellH2
A pale mechanic rents an attic floorE2
By many a shattered stair you gain the doorE2
'Tis one poor room whose blackened wails are hungI2
With dust that settled there when he was youngI2
The rusty grate two massy bricks displaysE
To fill the sides and make a frugal blazeE
The door unhinged the window patched and brokeJ2
The panes obscured by half a century's smokeJ2
There stands the bench at which his life is spentK2
Worn grooved and bored and worm devoured and bentK2
Where daily undisturbed by foes or friendsE
In one unvaried attitude he bendsE
His tools long practised seem to understandL2
Scarce less their functions than his own right handL2
With these he drives his craft with patient skillX
Year after year would find him at it stillX
The noisy world around is changing allK
War follows peace and kingdoms rise and fallK
France rages now and Spain and now the TurkM2
Now victory sounds but there he sits at workM2
A man might see him so then bid adieuF2
Make a long voyage to China or PeruF2
There traffic settle build at length might comeN2
Altered and old and weather beaten homeO2
And find him on the same square foot of floorE2
On which he left him twenty years beforeE2
The self same bench and attitude and stoolP2
The same quick movement of his cunning toolP2
The very distance 'twixt his knees and chinQ2
As though he had but stepped just out and inQ2
-
Such is his fate and yet you might descryE2
A latent spark of meaning in his eyeH
That crowded shelf beside his bench containsE
One old worn volume that employs his brainsE
With algebraic lore its page is spreadR2
Where a and b contend with x and zE
Sold by some student from an Oxford hallK
Bought by the pound upon a broker's stallK
On this it is his sole delight to poreE2
Early and late when working time is o'erE2
But oft he stops bewildered and perplexedS2
At some hard problem in the learned textS2
Pressing his hand upon his puzzled brainJ
At what the dullest school boy could explainJ
-
From needful sleep the precious hour he savesE
To give his thirsty mind the stream it cravesE
There with his slender rush beside him placedZ
He drinks the knowledge in with greedy hasteZ
At early morning when the frosty airE2
Brightens Orion and the northern BearE2
His distant window 'mid the dusky rowE2
Holds a dim light to passenger belowE2
A light more dim is flashing on his mindT2
That shows its darkness and its view confinedT2
Had science shone around his early daysE
How had his soul expanded in the blazeE
But penury bound him and his mind in vainJ
Struggles and writhes beneath her iron chainJ
-
At length the taper fades and distant cryH
Of early sweep bespeaks the morning nighH
Slowly it breaks and that rejoicing rayE2
That wakes the healthful country into dayE2
Tips the green hills slants o'er the level plainJ
Reddens the pool and stream and cottage paneJ
And field and garden park and stately hallK
Now darts obliquely on his wretched wallK
He knows the wonted signal shuts his bookU2
Slowly consigns it to its dusky nookU2
Looks out awhile with fixt and absent stareE2
On crowded roofs seen through the foggy airE2
Stirs up the embers takes his sickly draughtV2
Sighs at his fortunes and resumes his craftV2

Jane Taylor



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