Prologue. Spoken The First Day Of The King's House Acting After The Fire Of London. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGHIIIJJKKB LBMNOODDEE| So shipwreck'd passengers escape to land | A |
| So look they when on the bare beach they stand | A |
| Dropping and cold and their first fear scarce o'er | B |
| Expecting famine on a desert shore | C |
| From that hard climate we must wait for bread | D |
| Whence even the natives forced by hunger fled | D |
| Our stage does human chance present to view | E |
| But ne'er before was seen so sadly true | E |
| You are changed too and your pretence to see | F |
| Is but a nobler name for charity | F |
| Your own provisions furnish out our feasts | G |
| While you the founders make yourselves the guests | H |
| Of all mankind beside fate had some care | I |
| But for poor Wit no portion did prepare | I |
| 'Tis left a rent charge to the brave and fair | I |
| You cherish'd it and now its fall you mourn | J |
| Which blind unmanner'd zealots make their scorn | J |
| Who think that fire a judgment on the stage | K |
| Which spared not temples in its furious rage | K |
| But as our new built city rises higher | B |
| So from old theatres may new aspire | L |
| Since fate contrives magnificence by fire | B |
| Our great metropolis does far surpass | M |
| Whate'er is now and equals all that was | N |
| Our wit as far does foreign wit excel | O |
| And like a king should in a palace dwell | O |
| But we with golden hopes are vainly fed | D |
| Talk high and entertain you in a shed | D |
| Your presence here for which we humbly sue | E |
| Will grace old theatres and build up new | E |
John Dryden
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Heroic Stanzas On The Death Of Oliver Cromwell, Written After His Funeral. Poem
Epilogue, Spoken By The Same. Poem>>
Write your comment about Prologue. Spoken The First Day Of The King's House Acting After The Fire Of London. poem by John Dryden
Best Poems of John Dryden