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 V2THERE was a youth but woe is me | A |
I quite forgot his name and he | A |
Without some label round his neck | B |
Is like one pea among a peck | B |
Go search the country up and down | C |
Port city village parish town | C |
And saving just the face and name | D |
You shall behold the very same | D |
Wherever pleasure's train resorts | E |
From the Land's End to Johnny Groat's | E |
And thousands such have swelled the herd | F |
From William down to George the Third | F |
- | |
To life he started thanks to fate | G |
In contact with a good estate | G |
Provided thus and quite at ease | E |
He takes for granted all he sees | E |
Ne'er sends a thought nor lifts an eye | H |
To ask what am I where and why | H |
All that is no affair of his | E |
Somehow he came and there he is | E |
Without such philosophic stuff | I |
Alive and well and that's enough | I |
- | |
Thoughts why if all that crawl like train | J |
Of caterpillars through his brains | E |
With every syllable let fall | K |
Bon mot and compliment and all | K |
Were melted down in furnace fire | L |
I doubt if shred of golden wire | L |
To make amongst it all would linger | L |
A ring for Tom Thumb's little finger | L |
Yet think not that he comes below | M |
The modern average ratio | M |
The current coin of fashion's mint | N |
The common ball room going stint | N |
Of trifling cost his stock in trade is | E |
Whose business is to please the ladies | E |
Or who to honours may aspire | O |
Of a town beau or country squire | O |
The cant of fashion and of vice | E |
To learn slight effort will suffice | E |
And he was furnished with that knowledge | P |
Even before he went to college | Q |
And thus without the toil of thought | R |
Favour and flattery may be bought | S |
No need to win the laurel now | T |
For lady's smile or vassal's bow | T |
To lie exposed in patriot camp | U |
Or study by the midnight lamp | U |
- | |
Nature and art might vainly strive | V |
To keep his intellect alive | V |
'Twould not have forced an exclamation | W |
Worthy a note of admiration | W |
If he had been on Gibeon's hill | X |
And seen the sun and moon stand still | X |
What prodigy was ever known | Y |
To raise the pitch of fashion's tone | Y |
Or make it yield by any chance | E |
That studied air of nonchalance | E |
Which after all however graced | Z |
Is apathy and want of taste | Z |
- | |
The vulgar every station fill | X |
St Giles' or James's which you will | X |
Spruce drapers in their masters' shops | E |
Rank with right honourable fops | E |
No real distinction marks the kinds | E |
The raw material of their minds | E |
But mind claims rank that cannot yield | A2 |
To blazoned arms and crested shield | A2 |
Above the need and reach it stands | E |
Of diamond stars from royal hands | E |
Nor waits the nod of courtly state | G |
To bid it be or not be great | G |
The regions where it wings its way | B2 |
Are set with brighter stars than they | B2 |
With calm contempt it thence looks down | C |
On fortune's favour or its frown | C |
Looks down on those who vainly try | H |
By strange inversion of the eye | H |
From that poor mole hill where they sit | C2 |
To cast a downward look on it | C2 |
As robin from his pear tree height | D2 |
Looks down upon the eagle's flight | D2 |
- | |
Before our youth had learnt his letters | E |
They taught him to despise his betters | E |
And if some things have been forgot | S |
That lesson certainly has not | S |
The haunts his genius chiefly graces | E |
Are tables stables taverns races | E |
The things of which he most afraid is | E |
Are tradesmen's bills and learned ladies | E |
He deems the first a grievous bore | E2 |
But loathes the latter even more | E2 |
Than solitude or rainy weather | L |
Unless they happen both together | L |
- | |
Soft his existence rolls away | B2 |
To morrow plenteous as to day | B2 |
He lives enjoys and lives anew | F2 |
And when he dies what shall we do | F2 |
- | |
Down a close street whose darksome shops display | B2 |
Old clothes and iron on both sides the way | B2 |
Loathsome and wretched whence the eye in pain | J |
Averted turns nor seeks to view again | G2 |
Where lowest dregs of human nature dwell | H2 |
More loathsome than the rags and rust they sell | H2 |
A pale mechanic rents an attic floor | E2 |
By many a shattered stair you gain the door | E2 |
'Tis one poor room whose blackened wails are hung | I2 |
With dust that settled there when he was young | I2 |
The rusty grate two massy bricks displays | E |
To fill the sides and make a frugal blaze | E |
The door unhinged the window patched and broke | J2 |
The panes obscured by half a century's smoke | J2 |
There stands the bench at which his life is spent | K2 |
Worn grooved and bored and worm devoured and bent | K2 |
Where daily undisturbed by foes or friends | E |
In one unvaried attitude he bends | E |
His tools long practised seem to understand | L2 |
Scarce less their functions than his own right hand | L2 |
With these he drives his craft with patient skill | X |
Year after year would find him at it still | X |
The noisy world around is changing all | K |
War follows peace and kingdoms rise and fall | K |
France rages now and Spain and now the Turk | M2 |
Now victory sounds but there he sits at work | M2 |
A man might see him so then bid adieu | F2 |
Make a long voyage to China or Peru | F2 |
There traffic settle build at length might come | N2 |
Altered and old and weather beaten home | O2 |
And find him on the same square foot of floor | E2 |
On which he left him twenty years before | E2 |
The self same bench and attitude and stool | P2 |
The same quick movement of his cunning tool | P2 |
The very distance 'twixt his knees and chin | Q2 |
As though he had but stepped just out and in | Q2 |
- | |
Such is his fate and yet you might descry | E2 |
A latent spark of meaning in his eye | H |
That crowded shelf beside his bench contains | E |
One old worn volume that employs his brains | E |
With algebraic lore its page is spread | R2 |
Where a and b contend with x and z | E |
Sold by some student from an Oxford hall | K |
Bought by the pound upon a broker's stall | K |
On this it is his sole delight to pore | E2 |
Early and late when working time is o'er | E2 |
But oft he stops bewildered and perplexed | S2 |
At some hard problem in the learned text | S2 |
Pressing his hand upon his puzzled brain | J |
At what the dullest school boy could explain | J |
- | |
From needful sleep the precious hour he saves | E |
To give his thirsty mind the stream it craves | E |
There with his slender rush beside him placed | Z |
He drinks the knowledge in with greedy haste | Z |
At early morning when the frosty air | E2 |
Brightens Orion and the northern Bear | E2 |
His distant window 'mid the dusky row | E2 |
Holds a dim light to passenger below | E2 |
A light more dim is flashing on his mind | T2 |
That shows its darkness and its view confined | T2 |
Had science shone around his early days | E |
How had his soul expanded in the blaze | E |
But penury bound him and his mind in vain | J |
Struggles and writhes beneath her iron chain | J |
- | |
At length the taper fades and distant cry | H |
Of early sweep bespeaks the morning nigh | H |
Slowly it breaks and that rejoicing ray | E2 |
That wakes the healthful country into day | E2 |
Tips the green hills slants o'er the level plain | J |
Reddens the pool and stream and cottage pane | J |
And field and garden park and stately hall | K |
Now darts obliquely on his wretched wall | K |
He knows the wonted signal shuts his book | U2 |
Slowly consigns it to its dusky nook | U2 |
Looks out awhile with fixt and absent stare | E2 |
On crowded roofs seen through the foggy air | E2 |
Stirs up the embers takes his sickly draught | V2 |
Sighs at his fortunes and resumes his craft | V2 |
Jane Taylor
(1)
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