To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden,[1] Of Chesterton, In The County Of Huntingdon, Esq. Poem Rhyme Scheme

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John Dryden

To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden,[1] Of Chesterton, In The County Of Huntingdon, Esq. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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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