To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden,[1] Of Chesterton, In The County Of Huntingdon, Esq. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DEFGHIIJJJ AAKKLLMNOO PPCQ RRRSS TUVVWWRR XYNNZZ A2A2B2B2C2C2D2D2E2E2 F2F2G2G2III H2H2I2I2 J2J2OOMMPPK2K2L2M2M2 N2O2P2P2 Q2R2S2S2R2R2R2R2 R2R2AAT2T2R2R2R2U2U2 V2V2R2R2W2W2J2J2RR N2N2R2R2RRR2R2R2R2R2 R2X2X2R2R2Y2Y2 Z2A3B3B3B3YX R2R2R2R2R2R2RR C3C3CQYXTTR2R2R2R2R2 R2 IICD3S2YX E3E3MMR2R2R2R2R2 RTR2R2 R2R2F3Z2R2R2 GHG3R2R2 H3H3R2R2MMA2A2R2R2R2 R2I3I3I3| How bless'd is he who leads a country life | A |
| Unvex'd with anxious cares and void of strife | A |
| Who studying peace and shunning civil rage | B |
| Enjoy'd his youth and now enjoys his age | B |
| All who deserve his love he makes his own | C |
| And to be loved himself needs only to be known | C |
| - | |
| Just good and wise contending neighbours come | D |
| From your award to wait their final doom | E |
| And foes before return in friendship home | F |
| Without their cost you terminate the cause | G |
| And save the expense of long litigious laws | H |
| Where suits are traversed and so little won | I |
| That he who conquers is but last undone | I |
| Such are not your decrees but so design'd | J |
| The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind | J |
| Like your own soul serene a pattern of your mind | J |
| - | |
| Promoting concord and composing strife | A |
| Lord of yourself uncumber'd with a wife | A |
| Where for a year a month perhaps a night | K |
| Long penitence succeeds a short delight | K |
| Minds are so hardly match'd that even the first | L |
| Though pair'd by Heaven in Paradise were cursed | L |
| For man and woman though in one they grow | M |
| Yet first or last return again to two | N |
| He to God's image she to his was made | O |
| So farther from the fount the stream at random stray'd | O |
| - | |
| How could he stand when put to double pain | P |
| He must a weaker than himself sustain | P |
| Each might have stood perhaps but each alone | C |
| Two wrestlers help to pull each other down | Q |
| - | |
| Not that my verse would blemish all the fair | R |
| But yet if some be bad 'tis wisdom to beware | R |
| And better shun the bait than struggle in the snare | R |
| Thus have you shunn'd and shun the married state | S |
| Trusting as little as you can to fate | S |
| - | |
| No porter guards the passage of your door | T |
| To admit the wealthy and exclude the poor | U |
| For God who gave the riches gave the heart | V |
| To sanctify the whole by giving part | V |
| Heaven who foresaw the will the means has wrought | W |
| And to the second son a blessing brought | W |
| The first begotten had his father's share | R |
| But you like Jacob are Rebecca's heir | R |
| - | |
| So may your stores and fruitful fields increase | X |
| And ever be you bless'd who live to bless | Y |
| As Ceres sow'd where'er her chariot flew | N |
| As Heaven in deserts rain'd the bread of dew | N |
| So free to many to relations most | Z |
| You feed with manna your own Israel host | Z |
| - | |
| With crowds attended of your ancient race | A2 |
| You seek the champion sports or sylvan chase | A2 |
| With well breath'd beagles you surround the wood | B2 |
| Even then industrious of the common good | B2 |
| And often have you brought the wily fox | C2 |
| To suffer for the firstlings of the flocks | C2 |
| Chased even amid the folds and made to bleed | D2 |
| Like felons where they did the murderous deed | D2 |
| This fiery game your active youth maintain'd | E2 |
| Not yet by years extinguish'd though restrain'd | E2 |
| You season still with sports your serious hours | F2 |
| For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours | F2 |
| The hare in pastures or in plains is found | G2 |
| Emblem of human life who runs the round | G2 |
| And after all his wandering ways are done | I |
| His circle fills and ends where he begun | I |
| Just as the setting meets the rising sun | I |
| - | |
| Thus princes ease their cares but happier he | H2 |
| Who seeks not pleasure through necessity | H2 |
| Than such as once on slippery thrones were placed | I2 |
| And chasing sigh to think themselves are chased | I2 |
| - | |
| So lived our sires ere doctors learn'd to kill | J2 |
| And multiplied with theirs the weekly bill | J2 |
| The first physicians by debauch were made | O |
| Excess began and sloth sustains the trade | O |
| Pity the generous kind their cares bestow | M |
| To search forbidden truths a sin to know | M |
| To which if human science could attain | P |
| The doom of death pronounced by God were vain | P |
| In vain the leech would interpose delay | K2 |
| Fate fastens first and vindicates the prey | K2 |
| What help from art's endeavours can we have | L2 |
| Gibbons but guesses nor is sure to save | M2 |
| But Maurus sweeps whole parishes and peoples every grave | M2 |
| And no more mercy to mankind will use | N2 |
| Than when he robb'd and murder'd Maro's Muse | O2 |
| Wouldst thou be soon despatch'd and perish whole | P2 |
| Trust Maurus with thy life and Milbourn with thy soul | P2 |
| - | |
| By chase our long lived fathers earn'd their food | Q2 |
| Toil strung the nerves and purified the blood | R2 |
| But we their sons a pamper'd race of men | S2 |
| Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten | S2 |
| Better to hunt in fields for health unbought | R2 |
| Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught | R2 |
| The wise for cure on exercise depend | R2 |
| God never made his work for man to mend | R2 |
| - | |
| The tree of knowledge once in Eden placed | R2 |
| Was easy found but was forbid the taste | R2 |
| Oh had our grandsire walk'd without his wife | A |
| He first had sought the better plant of life | A |
| Now both are lost yet wandering in the dark | T2 |
| Physicians for the tree have found the bark | T2 |
| They labouring for relief of human kind | R2 |
| With sharpen'd sight some remedies may find | R2 |
| The apothecary train is wholly blind | R2 |
| From files a random recipe they take | U2 |
| And many deaths of one prescription make | U2 |
| Garth generous as his Muse prescribes and gives | V2 |
| The shopman sells and by destruction lives | V2 |
| Ungrateful tribe who like the viper's brood | R2 |
| From medicine issuing suck their mother's blood | R2 |
| Let these obey and let the learn'd prescribe | W2 |
| That men may die without a double bribe | W2 |
| Let them but under their superiors kill | J2 |
| When doctors first have sign'd the bloody bill | J2 |
| He 'scapes the best who nature to repair | R |
| Draws physic from the fields in draughts of vital air | R |
| - | |
| You hoard not health for your own private use | N2 |
| But on the public spend the rich produce | N2 |
| When often urged unwilling to be great | R2 |
| Your country calls you from your loved retreat | R2 |
| And sends to senates charged with common care | R |
| Which none more shuns and none can better bear | R |
| Where could they find another form'd so fit | R2 |
| To poise with solid sense a sprightly wit | R2 |
| Were these both wanting as they both abound | R2 |
| Where could so firm integrity be found | R2 |
| Well born and wealthy wanting no support | R2 |
| You steer betwixt the country and the court | R2 |
| Nor gratify whate'er the great desire | X2 |
| Nor grudging give what public needs require | X2 |
| Part must be left a fund when foes invade | R2 |
| And part employ'd to roll the watery trade | R2 |
| Even Canaan's happy land when worn with toil | Y2 |
| Required a sabbath year to mend the meagre soil | Y2 |
| - | |
| Good senators and such as you so give | Z2 |
| That kings may be supplied the people thrive | A3 |
| And he when want requires is truly wise | B3 |
| Who slights not foreign aids nor over buys | B3 |
| But on our native strength in time of need relies | B3 |
| Munster was bought we boast not the success | Y |
| Who fights for gain for greater makes his peace | X |
| - | |
| Our foes compell'd by need have peace embraced | R2 |
| The peace both parties want is like to last | R2 |
| Which if secure securely we may trade | R2 |
| Or not secure should never have been made | R2 |
| Safe in ourselves while on ourselves we stand | R2 |
| The sea is ours and that defends the land | R2 |
| Be then the naval stores the nation's care | R |
| New ships to build and batter'd to repair | R |
| - | |
| Observe the war in every annual course | C3 |
| What has been done was done with British force | C3 |
| Namur subdued is England's palm alone | C |
| The rest besieged but we constrain'd the town | Q |
| We saw the event that follow'd our success | Y |
| France though pretending arms pursued the peace | X |
| Obliged by one sole treaty to restore | T |
| What twenty years of war had won before | T |
| Enough for Europe has our Albion fought | R2 |
| Let us enjoy the peace our blood has bought | R2 |
| When once the Persian king was put to flight | R2 |
| The weary Macedons refused to fight | R2 |
| Themselves their own mortality confess'd | R2 |
| And left the son of Jove to quarrel for the rest | R2 |
| - | |
| Even victors are by victories undone | I |
| Thus Hannibal with foreign laurels won | I |
| To Carthage was recall'd too late to keep his own | C |
| While sore of battle while our wounds are green | D3 |
| Why should we tempt the doubtful die again | S2 |
| In wars renew'd uncertain of success | Y |
| Sure of a share as umpires of the peace | X |
| - | |
| A patriot both the king and country serves | E3 |
| Prerogative and privilege preserves | E3 |
| Of each our laws the certain limit show | M |
| One must not ebb nor the other overflow | M |
| Betwixt the prince and parliament we stand | R2 |
| The barriers of the state on either hand | R2 |
| May neither overflow for then they drown the land | R2 |
| When both are full they feed our bless'd abode | R2 |
| Like those that water'd once the paradise of God | R2 |
| - | |
| Some overpoise of sway by turns they share | R |
| In peace the people and the prince in war | T |
| Consuls of moderate power in calms were made | R2 |
| When the Gauls came one sole dictator sway'd | R2 |
| - | |
| Patriots in peace assert the people's right | R2 |
| With noble stubbornness resisting might | R2 |
| No lawless mandates from the court receive | F3 |
| Nor lend by force but in a body give | Z2 |
| Such was your generous grandsire free to grant | R2 |
| In parliaments that weigh'd their prince's want | R2 |
| - | |
| But so tenacious of the common cause | G |
| As not to lend the king against his laws | H |
| And in a loathsome dungeon doom'd to lie | G3 |
| In bonds retain'd his birthright liberty | R2 |
| And shamed oppression till it set him free | R2 |
| - | |
| O true descendant of a patriot line | H3 |
| Who while thou shar'st their lustre lend'st them thine | H3 |
| Vouchsafe this picture of thy soul to see | R2 |
| 'Tis so far good as it resembles thee | R2 |
| The beauties to the original I owe | M |
| Which when I miss my own defects I show | M |
| Nor think the kindred Muses thy disgrace | A2 |
| A poet is not born in every race | A2 |
| Two of a house few ages can afford | R2 |
| One to perform another to record | R2 |
| Praiseworthy actions are by thee embraced | R2 |
| And 'tis my praise to make thy praises last | R2 |
| For even when death dissolves our human frame | I3 |
| The soul returns to heaven from whence it came | I3 |
| Earth keeps the body verse preserves the fame | I3 |
John Dryden
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About To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden,[1] Of Chesterton, In The County Of Huntingdon, Esq.
To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden,[1] Of Chesterton, In The County Of Huntingdon, Esq. is a poem by John Dryden. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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