Epilogue To "oedipus." Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LLMNOPAAQQRRSS| What Sophocles could undertake alone | A |
| Our poets found a work for more than one | B |
| And therefore two lay tugging at the piece | C |
| With all their force to draw the ponderous mass from Greece | C |
| A weight that bent e'en Seneca's strong Muse | D |
| And which Corneille's shoulders did refuse | D |
| So hard it is the Athenian harp to string | E |
| So much two consuls yield to one just king | E |
| Terror and pity this whole poem sway | F |
| The mightiest machines that can mount a play | F |
| How heavy will those vulgar souls be found | G |
| Whom two such engines cannot move from ground | G |
| When Greece and Rome have smiled upon this birth | H |
| You can but damn for one poor spot of earth | H |
| And when your children find your judgment such | I |
| They'll scorn their sires and wish themselves born Dutch | I |
| Each haughty poet will infer with ease | J |
| How much his wit must underwrite to please | J |
| As some strong churl would brandishing advance | K |
| The monumental sword that conquer'd France | K |
| So you by judging this your judgment teach | L |
| Thus far you like that is thus far you reach | L |
| Since then the vote of full two thousand years | M |
| Has crown'd this plot and all the dead are theirs | N |
| Think it a debt you pay not alms you give | O |
| And in your own defence let this play live | P |
| Think them not vain when Sophocles is shown | A |
| To praise his worth they humbly doubt their own | A |
| Yet as weak states each other's power assure | Q |
| Weak poets by conjunction are secure | Q |
| Their treat is what your palates relish most | R |
| Charm song and show a murder and a ghost | R |
| We know not what you can desire or hope | S |
| To please you more but burning of a Pope | S |
John Dryden
(1)
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