Prologue To The University Of Oxford, 1674. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGHAAEEBB IIJKLLLMMNNBBOOPQRR| Poets your subjects have their parts assign'd | A |
| To unbend and to divert their sovereign's mind | A |
| When tired with following nature you think fit | B |
| To seek repose in the cool shades of wit | B |
| And from the sweet retreat with joy survey | C |
| What rests and what is conquer'd of the way | C |
| Here free yourselves from envy care and strife | D |
| You view the various turns of human life | D |
| Safe in our scene through dangerous courts you go | E |
| And undebauch'd the vice of cities know | E |
| Your theories are here to practice brought | F |
| As in mechanic operations wrought | F |
| And man the little world before you set | G |
| As once the sphere of crystal show'd the great | H |
| Blest sure are you above all mortal kind | A |
| If to your fortunes you can suit your mind | A |
| Content to see and shun those ills we show | E |
| And crimes on theatres alone to know | E |
| With joy we bring what our dead authors writ | B |
| And beg from you the value of their wit | B |
| That Shakspeare's Fletcher's and great Jonson's claim | I |
| May be renew'd from those who gave them fame | I |
| None of our living poets dare appear | J |
| For Muses so severe are worshipp'd here | K |
| That conscious of their faults they shun the eye | L |
| And as profane from sacred places fly | L |
| Rather than see the offended God and die | L |
| We bring no imperfections but our own | M |
| Such faults as made are by the makers shown | M |
| And you have been so kind that we may boast | N |
| The greatest judges still can pardon most | N |
| Poets must stoop when they would please our pit | B |
| Debased even to the level of their wit | B |
| Disdaining that which yet they know will take | O |
| Hating themselves what their applause must make | O |
| But when to praise from you they would aspire | P |
| Though they like eagles mount your Jove is higher | Q |
| So far your knowledge all their power transcends | R |
| As what should be beyond what is extends | R |
John Dryden
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