On The Death Of Lord Hastings.[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCBBDDEFGGBBHHIJBB KKLLMMBBNOPPQQRSBBTT BBUVWQXXYYZZA2A2BBB2 B2C2C2D2D2E2E2F2G2D2 D2H2H2I2I2BBJ2J2K2K2 L2L2K2K2BBM2N2K2K2LL I2I2 UO2BK2K2K2P2KN2M2K2K 2K2K2K2K2| Must noble Hastings immaturely die | A |
| The honour of his ancient family | B |
| Beauty and learning thus together meet | C |
| To bring a winding for a wedding sheet | C |
| Must Virtue prove Death's harbinger must she | B |
| With him expiring feel mortality | B |
| Is death Sin's wages Grace's now shall Art | D |
| Make us more learned only to depart | D |
| If merit be disease if virtue death | E |
| To be good not to be who'd then bequeath | F |
| Himself to discipline who'd not esteem | G |
| Labour a crime study self murder deem | G |
| Our noble youth now have pretence to be | B |
| Dunces securely ignorant healthfully | B |
| Rare linguist whose worth speaks itself whose praise | H |
| Though not his own all tongues besides do raise | H |
| Than whom great Alexander may seem less | I |
| Who conquer'd men but not their languages | J |
| In his mouth nations spake his tongue might be | B |
| Interpreter to Greece France Italy | B |
| His native soil was the four parts o' the Earth | K |
| All Europe was too narrow for his birth | K |
| A young apostle and with reverence may | L |
| I speak it inspired with gift of tongues as they | L |
| Nature gave him a child what men in vain | M |
| Oft strive by art though further'd to obtain | M |
| His body was an orb his sublime soul | B |
| Did move on Virtue's and on Learning's pole | B |
| Whose regular motions better to our view | N |
| Than Archimedes sphere the Heavens did show | O |
| Graces and virtues languages and arts | P |
| Beauty and learning fill'd up all the parts | P |
| Heaven's gifts which do like falling stars appear | Q |
| Scatter'd in others all as in their sphere | Q |
| Were fix'd conglobate in his soul and thence | R |
| Shone through his body with sweet influence | S |
| Letting their glories so on each limb fall | B |
| The whole frame render'd was celestial | B |
| Come learned Ptolemy and trial make | T |
| If thou this hero's altitude canst take | T |
| But that transcends thy skill thrice happy all | B |
| Could we but prove thus astronomical | B |
| Lived Tycho now struck with this ray which shone | U |
| More bright i' the morn than others' beam at noon | V |
| He'd take his astrolabe and seek out here | W |
| What new star 'twas did gild our hemisphere | Q |
| Replenish'd then with such rare gifts as these | X |
| Where was room left for such a foul disease | X |
| The nation's sin hath drawn that veil which shrouds | Y |
| Our day spring in so sad benighting clouds | Y |
| Heaven would no longer trust its pledge but thus | Z |
| Recall'd it rapt its Ganymede from us | Z |
| Was there no milder way but the small pox | A2 |
| The very filthiness of Pandora's box | A2 |
| So many spots like n ves on Venus' soil | B |
| One jewel set off with so many a foil | B |
| Blisters with pride swell'd which through's flesh did sprout | B2 |
| Like rose buds stuck i' th' lily skin about | B2 |
| Each little pimple had a tear in it | C2 |
| To wail the fault its rising did commit | C2 |
| Which rebel like with its own lord at strife | D2 |
| Thus made an insurrection 'gainst his life | D2 |
| Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin | E2 |
| The cabinet of a richer soul within | E2 |
| No comet need foretell his change drew on | F2 |
| Whose corpse might seem a constellation | G2 |
| Oh had he died of old how great a strife | D2 |
| Had been who from his death should draw their life | D2 |
| Who should by one rich draught become whate'er | H2 |
| Seneca Cato Numa C sar were | H2 |
| Learn'd virtuous pious great and have by this | I2 |
| An universal metempsychosis | I2 |
| Must all these aged sires in one funeral | B |
| Expire all die in one so young so small | B |
| Who had he lived his life out his great fame | J2 |
| Had swoln 'bove any Greek or Roman name | J2 |
| But hasty Winter with one blast hath brought | K2 |
| The hopes of Autumn Summer Spring to nought | K2 |
| Thus fades the oak i' the sprig i' the blade the corn | L2 |
| Thus without young this Phoenix dies new born | L2 |
| Must then old three legg'd graybeards with their gout | K2 |
| Catarrhs rheums aches live three long ages out | K2 |
| Time's offals only fit for the hospital | B |
| Or to hang antiquaries' rooms withal | B |
| Must drunkards lechers spent with sinning live | M2 |
| With such helps as broths possets physic give | N2 |
| None live but such as should die shall we meet | K2 |
| With none but ghostly fathers in the street | K2 |
| Grief makes me rail sorrow will force its way | L |
| And showers of tears tempestuous sighs best lay | L |
| The tongue may fail but overflowing eyes | I2 |
| Will weep out lasting streams of elegies | I2 |
| - | |
| But thou O virgin widow left alone | U |
| Now thy beloved heaven ravish'd spouse is gone | O2 |
| Whose skilful sire in vain strove to apply | B |
| Medicines when thy balm was no remedy | K2 |
| With greater than Platonic love O wed | K2 |
| His soul though not his body to thy bed | K2 |
| Let that make thee a mother bring thou forth | P2 |
| The ideas of his virtue knowledge worth | K |
| Transcribe the original in new copies give | N2 |
| Hastings o' the better part so shall he live | M2 |
| In's nobler half and the great grandsire be | K2 |
| Of an heroic divine progeny | K2 |
| An issue which to eternity shall last | K2 |
| Yet but the irradiations which he cast | K2 |
| Erect no mausoleums for his best | K2 |
| Monument is his spouse's marble breast | K2 |
John Dryden
(1)
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