Suum Cuique Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEEFFGGHIFFI IJJFFIIKLIIFFIIMMFFF FFFFFIIIIINODDPQIIFI IIIIRRIIIIOOIISTUVII IIIWWIIII

When lawless men their neighbours dispossessA
The tenants they extirpate or oppressA
And make rude havoc in the fruitful soilB
Which the right owners ploughed with careful toilB
The same proportion does in kingdoms holdC
A new prince breaks the fences of the oldC
And will o'er carcases and deserts reignD
Unless the land its rightful lord regainD
He gripes the faithless owners of the placeE
And buys a foreign army to defaceE
The feared and hated remnant of their raceE
He starves their forces and obstructs their tradeF
Vast sums are given and yet no native paidF
The church itself he labours to assailG
And keeps fit tools to break the sacred paleG
Of those let him the guilty roll commenceH
Who has betrayed a master and a princeI
A man seditious lewd and impudentF
An engine always mischievously bentF
One who from all the bans of duty swervesI
No tie can hold but that which he deservesI
An author dwindled to a pamphleteerJ
Skilful to forge and always insincereJ
Careless exploded practices to mendF
Bold to attack yet feeble to defendF
Fate's blindfold reign the atheist loudly ownsI
And providence blasphemously dethronesI
In vain the leering actor strains his tongueK
To cheat with tears and empty noise the throngL
Since all men know whate'er he says or writesI
Revenge or stronger interest inditesI
And that the wretch employs his venal witF
How to confute what formerly he writF
Next him the grave Socinian claims a placeI
Endowed with reason though bereft of graceI
A preaching pagan of surpassing fameM
No register records his borrowed nameM
O had the child more happily been bredF
A radiant mitre would have graced his headF
But now unfit the most he should expectF
Is to be entered of T wblank F wblank 's sectF
To him succeeds with looks demurely sadF
A gloomy soul with revelation madF
False to his friend and careless of his wordF
A dreaming prophet and a gripping lordF
He sells the livings which he can't possessI
And forms that sinecure his dioceseI
Unthinking man to quit thy barren seeI
And vain endeavours in chronologyI
For the more fruitless care of royal charityI
Thy hoary noddle warns thee to returnN
The treason of old age in Wales to mournO
Nor think the city poor may less sustainD
Thy place may well be vacant in this reignD
I should admit the booted prelate nowP
But he is even for lampoon too lowQ
The scum and outcast of a royal raceI
The nation's grievance and the gown's disgraceI
None so unlearned did e'er at London sitF
This driveller does the sacred chair besh tI
I need not brand the spiritual parricideI
Nor draw the weapon dangling by his sideI
The astonished world remembers that offenceI
And knows he stole the daughter of his princeI
'Tis time enough in some succeeding ageR
To bring this mitred captain on the stageR
These are the leaders in apostasyI
And the blind guides of poor elective majestyI
A thing which commonwealths men did deviseI
Till plots were ripe to catch the people's eyesI
Their king's a monster in a quagmire bornO
Of all the native brutes the grief and scornO
With a big snout cast in a crooked mouldI
Which runs with glanders and an inborn coldI
His substance is of clammy snot and phlegmS
Sleep is his essence and his life a dreamT
To Caprea this Tiberius does retireU
To quench with catamite his feeble fireV
Dear catamite who rules alone the stateI
While monarch dozes on his unpropt heightI
Silent yet thoughtless and secure of fateI
Could you but see the fulsome hero ledI
By loathing vassals to his noble bedI
In flannel robes the coughing ghost does walkW
And his mouth moats like cleaner breech of hawkW
Corruption springing from his cankered breastI
Furs up the channel and disturbs his restI
With head propt up the bolstered engine liesI
If pillow slip aside the monarch diesI

John Dryden



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