Britannia Rediviva Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBCC DDEEFFG HHHEEBB IIJKLL MMNOPPQQRS TUVMWWJK XXYZA2A2B2B2 CCCC2C2D2E2A2DD A2A2F2F2HPG2G2ON DH2I2I2J2J2C2C2C2DDF 2F2 K2K2A2L2DDM2M2N2O2P2 P2Q2Q2DDR2R2R2R2 J2S2T2T2R2R2 U2U2B2B2V2V2DDR2R2DD W2W2V2V2X2X2 R2R2V2V2R2R2 R2R2R2R2Q2Q2R2R2DDV2 V2 V2V2Y2Y2Z2Z2 R2R2MVMR2R2R2R2A3A3D D DDH2H2 R2R2LLV2V2MQ2R2R2R2R 2 EEEDDR2R2 DDR2R2 B3B3V2V2DDR2R2V2V2V2 V2B3B3DD DDR2R2R2R2C3C3DDR2R2 R2R2 V2V2R2R2R2R2R2R2R2R2 DDC2C2H2H2H2DD R2R2T2T2R2R2R2R2 R2R2R2R2Q2Q2R2 V2V2 DDR2R2R2R2BE R2R2EEV2V2R2R2D3E3 R2R2F3F3G3G3H3XR2R2E EBR2R2V2V2I3I3V2V2 V2V2DDR2R2 J3EER2R2R2R2R2R2F3F3 R2R2DDDMVH2H2 Q2Q2DDR2R2Q2Q2Q2 R2R2R2R2K3K3 R2R2R2R2V2V2 R2R2R2R2 R2R2L3L3R2R2R2R2R2R2 Y2Y2Y2

A Poem On The Prince Born June	A
	-
Our vows are heard betimes and Heaven takes care	B
To grant before we can conclude the prayer	B
Preventing angels met it half the way	C
And sent us back to praise who came to pray	C
	-
Just on the day when the high mounted Sun	D
Did furthest in his northern progress run	D
He bended forward and even stretch'd the sphere	E
Beyond the limits of the lengthen'd year	E
To view a brighter sun in Britain born	F
That was the business of his longest morn	F
The glorious object seen 'twas time to turn	G
	-
Departing Spring could only stay to shed	H
Her bloomy beauties on the genial bed	H
But left the manly Summer in her stead	H
With timely fruit the longing land to cheer	E
And to fulfil the promise of the year	E
Betwixt two seasons comes the auspicious heir	B
This age to blossom and the next to bear	B
	-
Last solemn Sabbath saw the Church attend	I
The Paraclete in fiery pomp descend	I
But when his wondrous octave roll'd again	J
He brought a royal infant in his train	K
So great a blessing to so good a king	L
None but the Eternal Comforter could bring	L
	-
Or did the mighty Trinity conspire	M
As once in council to create our sire	M
It seems as if they sent the new born guest	N
To wait on the procession of their feast	O
And on their sacred anniverse decreed	P
To stamp their image on the promised seed	P
Three realms united and on one bestow'd	Q
An emblem of their mystic union show'd	Q
The Mighty Trine the triple empire shared	R
As every person would have one to guard	S
	-
Hail son of prayers by holy violence	T
Drawn down from heaven but long be banish'd thence	U
And late to thy paternal skies retire	V
To mend our crimes whole ages would require	M
To change the inveterate habit of our sins	W
And finish what thy godlike sire begins	W
Kind Heaven to make us Englishmen again	J
No less can give us than a patriarch's reign	K
	-
The sacred cradle to your charge receive	X
Ye seraphs and by turns the guard relieve	X
Thy father's angel and thy father join	Y
To keep possession and secure the line	Z
But long defer the honours of thy fate	A2
Great may they be like his like his be late	A2
That James this running century may view	B2
And give his son an auspice to the new	B2
	-
Our wants exact at least that moderate stay	C
For see the Dragon winged on his way	C
To watch the travail and devour the prey	C
Or if allusions may not rise so high	C2
Thus when Alcides raised his infant cry	C2
The snakes besieged his young divinity	D2
But vainly with their forked tongues they threat	E2
For opposition makes a hero great	A2
To needful succour all the good will run	D
And Jove assert the godhead of his son	D
	-
O still repining at your present state	A2
Grudging yourselves the benefits of fate	A2
Look up and read in characters of light	F2
A blessing sent you in your own despite	F2
The manna falls yet that celestial bread	H
Like Jews you munch and murmur while you feed	P
May not your fortune be like theirs exiled	G2
Yet forty years to wander in the wild	G2
Or if it be may Moses live at least	O
To lead you to the verge of promised rest	N
	-
Though poets are not prophets to foreknow	D
What plants will take the blight and what will grow	H2
By tracing Heaven his footsteps may be found	I2
Behold how awfully he walks the round	I2
God is abroad and wondrous in his ways	J2
The rise of empires and their fall surveys	J2
More might I say than with an usual eye	C2
He sees his bleeding church in ruin lie	C2
And hears the souls of saints beneath his altar cry	C2
Already has he lifted high the Sign	D
Which crown'd the conquering arms of Constantine	D
The Moon grows pale at that presaging sight	F2
And half her train of stars have lost their light	F2
	-
Behold another Sylvester to bless	K2
The sacred standard and secure success	K2
Large of his treasures of a soul so great	A2
As fills and crowds his universal seat	L2
Now view at home a second Constantine	D
The former too was of the British line	D
Has not his healing balm your breaches closed	M2
Whose exile many sought and few opposed	M2
Or did not Heaven by its eternal doom	N2
Permit those evils that this good might come	O2
So manifest that even the moon eyed sects	P2
See whom and what this Providence protects	P2
Methinks had we within our minds no more	Q2
Than that one shipwreck on the fatal Ore	Q2
That only thought may make us think again	D
What wonders God reserves for such a reign	D
To dream that Chance his preservation wrought	R2
Were to think Noah was preserved for nought	R2
Or the surviving eight were not design'd	R2
To people Earth and to restore their kind	R2
	-
When humbly on the royal babe we gaze	J2
The manly lines of a majestic face	S2
Give awful joy 'tis Paradise to look	T2
On the fair frontispiece of Nature's book	T2
If the first opening page so charms the sight	R2
Think how the unfolded volume will delight	R2
	-
See how the venerable infant lies	U2
In early pomp how through the mother's eyes	U2
The father's soul with an undaunted view	B2
Looks out and takes our homage as his due	B2
See on his future subjects how he smiles	V2
Nor meanly flatters nor with craft beguiles	V2
But with an open face as on his throne	D
Assures our birthrights and assumes his own	D
Born in broad day light that the ungrateful rout	R2
May find no room for a remaining doubt	R2
Truth which itself is light does darkness shun	D
And the true eaglet safely dares the sun	D
	-
Fain would the fiends have made a dubious birth	W2
Loath to confess the Godhead clothed in earth	W2
But sicken'd after all their baffled lies	V2
To find an heir apparent of the skies	V2
Abandon'd to despair still may they grudge	X2
And owning not the Saviour prove the judge	X2
	-
Not great neas stood in plainer day	R2
When the dark mantling mist dissolved away	R2
He to the Tyrians show'd his sudden face	V2
Shining with all his goddess mother's grace	V2
For she herself had made his countenance bright	R2
Breathed honour on his eyes and her own purple light	R2
	-
If our victorious Edward as they say	R2
Gave Wales a prince on that propitious day	R2
Why may not years revolving with his fate	R2
Produce his like but with a longer date	R2
One who may carry to a distant shore	Q2
The terror that his famed forefather bore	Q2
But why should James or his young hero stay	R2
For slight presages of a name or day	R2
We need no Edward's fortune to adorn	D
That happy moment when our prince was born	D
Our prince adorns his day and ages hence	V2
Shall wish his birth day for some future prince	V2
	-
Great Michael prince of all the ethereal hosts	V2
And whate'er inborn saints our Britain boasts	V2
And thou the adopted patron of our isle	Y2
With cheerful aspects on this infant smile	Y2
The pledge of Heaven which dropping from above	Z2
Secures our bliss and reconciles his love	Z2
	-
Enough of ills our dire rebellion wrought	R2
When to the dregs we drank the bitter draught	R2
Then airy atoms did in plagues conspire	M
Nor did the avenging angel yet retire	V
But purged our still increasing crimes with fire	M
Then perjured plots the still impending Test	R2
And worse but charity conceals the rest	R2
Here stop the current of the sanguine flood	R2
Require not gracious God thy martyrs' blood	R2
But let their dying pangs their living toil	A3
Spread a rich harvest through their native soil	A3
A harvest ripening for another reign	D
Of which this royal babe may reap the grain	D
	-
Enough of early saints one womb has given	D
Enough increased the family of Heaven	D
Let them for his and our atonement go	H2
And reigning blest above leave him to rule below	H2
	-
Enough already has the year foreshow'd	R2
His wonted course the sea has overflow'd	R2
The meads were floated with a weeping spring	L
And frighten'd birds in woods forgot to sing	L
The strong limb'd steed beneath his harness faints	V2
And the same shivering sweat his lord attaints	V2
When will the minister of wrath give o'er	M
Behold him at Araunah's threshing floor	Q2
He stops and seems to sheathe his flaming brand	R2
Pleased with burnt incense from our David's hand	R2
David has bought the Jebusite's abode	R2
And raised an altar to the living God	R2
	-
Heaven to reward him makes his joys sincere	E
No future ills nor accidents appear	E
To sully and pollute the sacred infant's year	E
Five months to discord and debate were given	D
He sanctifies the yet remaining seven	D
Sabbath of months henceforth in him be blest	R2
And prelude to the realm's perpetual rest	R2
	-
Let his baptismal drops for us atone	D
Lustrations for offences not his own	D
Let Conscience which is Interest ill disguised	R2
In the same font be cleansed and all the land baptized	R2
	-
Unnamed as yet at least unknown to fame	B3
Is there a strife in Heaven about his name	B3
Where every famous predecessor vies	V2
And makes a faction for it in the skies	V2
Or must it be reserved to thought alone	D
Such was the sacred Tetragrammaton	D
Things worthy silence must not be reveal'd	R2
Thus the true name of Rome was kept conceal'd	R2
To shun the spells and sorceries of those	V2
Who durst her infant majesty oppose	V2
But when his tender strength in time shall rise	V2
To dare ill tongues and fascinating eyes	V2
This isle which hides the little Thunderer's fame	B3
Shall be too narrow to contain his name	B3
The artillery of heaven shall make him known	D
Crete could not hold the god when Jove was grown	D
	-
As Jove's increase who from his brain was born	D
Whom arms and arts did equally adorn	D
Free of the breast was bred whose milky taste	R2
Minerva's name to Venus had debased	R2
So this imperial babe rejects the food	R2
That mixes monarch's with plebeian blood	R2
Food that his inborn courage might control	C3
Extinguish all the father in his soul	C3
And for his Estian race and Saxon strain	D
Might reproduce some second Richard's reign	D
Mildness he shares from both his parents' blood	R2
But kings too tame are despicably good	R2
Be this the mixture of this regal child	R2
By nature manly but by virtue mild	R2
	-
Thus far the furious transport of the news	V2
Had to prophetic madness fired the Muse	V2
Madness ungovernable uninspired	R2
Swift to foretell whatever she desired	R2
Was it for me the dark abyss to tread	R2
And read the book which angels cannot read	R2
How was I punish'd when the sudden blast	R2
The face of heaven and our young sun o'ercast	R2
Fame the swift ill increasing as she roll'd	R2
Disease despair and death at three reprises told	R2
At three insulting strides she stalk'd the town	D
And like contagion struck the loyal down	D
Down fell the winnow'd wheat but mounted high	C2
The whirlwind bore the chaff and hid the sky	C2
Here black rebellion shooting from below	H2
As earth's gigantic brood by moments grow	H2
And here the sons of God are petrified with woe	H2
An apoplex of grief so low were driven	D
The saints as hardly to defend their heaven	D
	-
As when pent vapours run their hollow round	R2
Earthquakes which are convulsions of the ground	R2
Break bellowing forth and no confinement brook	T2
Till the third settles what the former shook	T2
Such heavings had our souls till slow and late	R2
Our life with his return'd and Faith prevail'd on Fate	R2
By prayers the mighty blessing was implored	R2
To prayers was granted and by prayers restored	R2
	-
So ere the Shunamite a son conceived	R2
The prophet promised and the wife believed	R2
A son was sent the son so much desired	R2
But soon upon the mother's knees expired	R2
The troubled seer approach'd the mournful door	Q2
Ran pray'd and sent his pastoral staff before	Q2
Then stretch'd his limbs upon the child and mourn'd	R2
	-
Thus Mercy stretches out her hand and saves	V2
Desponding Peter sinking in the waves	V2
	-
As when a sudden storm of hail and rain	D
Beats to the ground the yet unbearded grain	D
Think not the hopes of harvest are destroy'd	R2
On the flat field and on the naked void	R2
The light unloaded stem from tempest freed	R2
Will raise the youthful honours of his head	R2
And soon restored by native vigour bear	B
The timely product of the bounteous year	E
	-
Nor yet conclude all fiery trials past	R2
For Heaven will exercise us to the last	R2
Sometimes will check us in our full career	E
With doubtful blessings and with mingled fear	E
That still depending on his daily grace	V2
His every mercy for an alms may pass	V2
With sparing hands will diet us to good	R2
Preventing surfeits of our pamper'd blood	R2
So feeds the mother bird her craving young	D3
With little morsels and delays them long	E3
	-
True this last blessing was a royal feast	R2
But where's the wedding garment on the guest	R2
Our manners as religion were a dream	F3
Are such as teach the nations to blaspheme	F3
In lusts we wallow and with pride we swell	G3
And injuries with injuries repel	G3
Prompt to revenge not daring to forgive	H3
Our lives unteach the doctrine we believe	X
Thus Israel sinn'd impenitently hard	R2
And vainly thought the present ark their guard	R2
But when the haughty Philistines appear	E
They fled abandon'd to their foes and fear	E
Their God was absent though his ark was there	B
Ah lest our crimes should snatch this pledge away	R2
And make our joys the blessings of a day	R2
For we have sinn'd him hence and that he lives	V2
God to his promise not our practice gives	V2
Our crimes would soon weigh down the guilty scale	I3
But James and Mary and the Church prevail	I3
Nor Amalek can rout the chosen bands	V2
While Hur and Aaron hold up Moses' hands	V2
	-
By living well let us secure his days	V2
Moderate in hopes and humble in our ways	V2
No force the free born spirit can constrain	D
But charity and great examples gain	D
Forgiveness is our thanks for such a day	R2
'Tis god like God in his own coin to pay	R2
	-
But you propitious queen translated here	J3
From your mild heaven to rule our rugged sphere	E
Beyond the sunny walks and circling year	E
You who your native climate have bereft	R2
Of all the virtues and the vices left	R2
Whom piety and beauty make their boast	R2
Though beautiful is well in pious lost	R2
So lost as star light is dissolved away	R2
And melts into the brightness of the day	R2
Or gold about the regal diadem	F3
Lost to improve the lustre of the gem	F3
What can we add to your triumphant day	R2
Let the great gift the beauteous giver pay	R2
For should our thanks awake the rising sun	D
And lengthen as his latest shadows run	D
That though the longest day would soon too soon be done	D
Let angels' voices with their harps conspire	M
But keep the auspicious infant from the quire	V
Late let him sing above and let us know	H2
No sweeter music than his cries below	H2
	-
Nor can I wish to you great Monarch more	Q2
Than such an annual income to your store	Q2
The day which gave this Unit did not shine	D
For a less omen than to fill the Trine	D
After a prince an admiral beget	R2
The Royal Sovereign wants an anchor yet	R2
Our isle has younger titles still in store	Q2
And when the exhausted land can yield no more	Q2
Your line can force them from a foreign shore	Q2
	-
The name of Great your martial mind will suit	R2
But justice is your darling attribute	R2
Of all the Greeks 'twas but one hero's due	R2
And in him Plutarch prophesied of you	R2
A prince's favours but on few can fall	K3
But justice is a virtue shared by all	K3
	-
Some kings the name of conquerors have assumed	R2
Some to be great some to be gods presumed	R2
But boundless power and arbitrary lust	R2
Made tyrants still abhor the name of just	R2
They shunn'd the praise this godlike virtue gives	V2
And fear'd a title that reproach'd their lives	V2
	-
The Power from which all kings derive their state	R2
Whom they pretend at least to imitate	R2
Is equal both to punish and reward	R2
For few would love their God unless they fear'd	R2
	-
Resistless force and immortality	R2
Make but a lame imperfect deity	R2
Tempests have force unbounded to destroy	L3
And deathless being even the damn'd enjoy	L3
And yet Heaven's attributes both last and first	R2
One without life and one with life accurst	R2
But justice is Heaven's self so strictly he	R2
That could it fail the Godhead could not be	R2
This virtue is your own but life and state	R2
Are one to Fortune subject one to Fate	R2
Equal to all you justly frown or smile	Y2
Nor hopes nor fears your steady hand beguile	Y2
Yourself our balance hold the world's our isle	Y2

John Dryden

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