To The Reader Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH II JJ II KK II GG LL II GG MM NN OO PQ DD RR II BB II AA SS TT SS UU VW DD XX YZ A2A2 SS OO B2B2 SS C2C2 SS B2B2 SS SS SS D2D2 SSThe title page will show if there thou look | A |
Who are the proper subjects of this book | A |
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They're boys and girls of all sorts and degrees | B |
From those of age to children on the knees | B |
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Thus comprehensive am I in my notions | C |
They tempt me to it by their childish motions | C |
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We now have boys with beards and girls that be | D |
Big as old women wanting gravity | D |
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Then do not blame me 'cause I thus describe them | E |
Flatter I may not lest thereby I bribe them | E |
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To have a better judgment of themselves | F |
Than wise men have of babies on their shelves | F |
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Their antic tricks fantastic modes and way | G |
Show they like very boys and girls do play | G |
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With all the frantic fopperies of this age | H |
And that in open view as on a stage | H |
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Our bearded men do act like beardless boys | I |
Our women please themselves with childish toys | I |
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Our ministers long time by word and pen | J |
Dealt with them counting them not boys but men | J |
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Thunderbolts they shot at them and their toys | I |
But hit them not 'cause they were girls and boys | I |
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The better charg'd the wider still they shot | K |
Or else so high these dwarfs they touched not | K |
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Instead of men they found them girls and boys | I |
Addict to nothing as to childish toys | I |
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Wherefore good reader that I save them may | G |
I now with them the very dotterel play | G |
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And since at gravity they make a tush | L |
My very beard I cast behind a bush | L |
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And like a fool stand fing'ring of their toys | I |
And all to show them they are girls and boys | I |
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Nor do I blush although I think some may | G |
Call me a baby 'cause I with them play | G |
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I do't to show them how each fingle fangle | M |
On which they doting are their souls entangle | M |
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As with a web a trap a gin or snare | N |
And will destroy them have they not a care | N |
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Paul seemed to play the fool that he might gain | O |
Those that were fools indeed if not in grain | O |
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And did it by their things that they might know | P |
Their emptiness and might be brought unto | Q |
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What would them save from sin and vanity | D |
A noble act and full of honesty | D |
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Yet he nor I would like them be in vice | R |
While by their playthings I would them entice | R |
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To mount their thoughts from what are childish toys | I |
To heaven for that's prepared for girls and boys | I |
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Nor do I so confine myself to these | B |
As to shun graver things I seek to please | B |
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Those more compos'd with better things than toys | I |
Though thus I would be catching girls and boys | I |
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Wherefore if men have now a mind to look | A |
Perhaps their graver fancies may be took | A |
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With what is here though but in homely rhymes | S |
But he who pleases all must rise betimes | S |
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Some I persuade me will be finding fault | T |
Concluding here I trip and there I halt | T |
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No doubt some could those grovelling notions raise | S |
By fine spun terms that challenge might the bays | S |
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But should all men be forc'd to lay aside | U |
Their brains that cannot regulate the tide | U |
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By this or that man's fancy we should have | V |
The wise unto the fool become a slave | W |
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What though my text seems mean my morals be | D |
Grave as if fetch'd from a sublimer tree | D |
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And if some better handle can a fly | X |
Than some a text why should we then deny | X |
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Their making proof or good experiment | Y |
Of smallest things great mischiefs to prevent | Z |
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Wise Solomon did fools to piss ants send | A2 |
To learn true wisdom and their lies to mend | A2 |
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Yea God by swallows cuckoos and the ass | S |
Shows they are fools who let that season pass | S |
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Which he put in their hand that to obtain | O |
Which is both present and eternal gain | O |
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I think the wiser sort my rhymes may slight | B2 |
But what care I the foolish will delight | B2 |
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To read them and the foolish God has chose | S |
And doth by foolish things their minds compose | S |
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And settle upon that which is divine | C2 |
Great things by little ones are made to shine | C2 |
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I could were I so pleas'd use higher strains | S |
And for applause on tenters stretch my brains | S |
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But what needs that the arrow out of sight | B2 |
Does not the sleeper nor the watchman fright | B2 |
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To shoot too high doth but make children gaze | S |
'Tis that which hits the man doth him amaze | S |
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And for the inconsiderableness | S |
Of things by which I do my mind express | S |
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May I by them bring some good thing to pass | S |
As Samson with the jawbone of an ass | S |
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Or as brave Shamgar with his ox's goad | D2 |
Both being things not manly nor for war in mode | D2 |
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I have my end though I myself expose | S |
To scorn God will have glory in the close | S |
John Bunyan
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