Ape And Poultry Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDEEFFGGHHFFEEEEIIJK FFEEFF LMFFEEFF EENNOOFF PPEEEEQQNNEERRSIEEFF EET CC UUEE O SS VVIILL FFEE WWIIDDEsteem is frequently misplaced | A |
Where she may even stand disgraced | A |
We must allow to wealth and birth | B |
Precedence which is due on earth | B |
But our esteem is only due | C |
Unto the worth of man and virtue | C |
- | |
Around an ancient pedigree | D |
There is a halo fair to see | D |
With unwrung withers we afford | E |
Our salutation to milord | E |
As due unto his ancient house | F |
Albeit his lordship be a chouse | F |
And riches dazzle us we know | G |
How much they might or should bestow | G |
But power is nothing sans the will | H |
Often recalcitrant to ill | H |
And yet the mob will stand and gaze | F |
On each with similar amaze | F |
But worst of all the lot we grant | E |
The parasite or sycophant | E |
Such as can vilely condescend | E |
To dirty jobs and bow and bend | E |
With meanest tropes of adulation | I |
To have and hold on to their station | I |
E'en such a ministry among | J |
Are found amidst the waiting throng | K |
Where'er are misdeeds there are bevies | F |
And wanting never at the levees | F |
Men who have trimmed the stocks been rabbled | E |
In South Seas and in gold mines dabbled | E |
Where sycophants applauded schemes | F |
Madder than the maddest madman's dreams | F |
- | |
When pagans sacrificed to Moloch | L |
They gave the first born of their low stock | M |
But here unless all history lies | F |
Nations are made the sacrifice | F |
For look through courts and you will find | E |
The principle that rules mankind | E |
Worshipped beneath the sundry shapes | F |
Of wolves and lions fox and apes | F |
- | |
Where then can we esteem bestow | E |
To day in place to morrow low | E |
And the winged insects of his power | N |
Gone when they see the tempests lower | N |
Like to the bubble full and fair | O |
With hues prismatic puffed with air | O |
Another puff and down it tends | F |
Earthward one dingy drop descends | F |
- | |
A maiden much misused by Time | P |
All aspirations of her prime | P |
Like the soap bubble puffed and burst | E |
Monkeys and dogs and parrots nurst | E |
A whole menagerie employed | E |
The passing hours which she enjoyed | E |
A monkey big as a gorilla | Q |
Who stalked beneath a big umbrella | Q |
Was her prime minister his finger | N |
Was wont in each man's pie to linger | N |
She liked the monster and assigned | E |
The poultry yard to him to find | E |
The daily rations of the corn | R |
Behold him now with brow of scorn | R |
Amidst his vassals come for picking | S |
Swans turkeys peacocks ducks and chicken | I |
The minister appeared the crowd | E |
Performed the reverence due and bowed | E |
And spoke their compliments and duties | F |
Whilst he revolved in mind his new ties | F |
And thought What is a place of trust | E |
'And first unto thyself be just | E |
And then it follows that you can | T |
Not be unjust to any man ' | - |
That moral motto is most true | C |
As Shakespeare teaches will I do | C |
- | |
There was an applewoman's stall | U |
With plums and nuts beneath a wall | U |
With her he then proposed to trade | E |
In corn full payments to be made | E |
- | |
Madam in mind this dogma bear | O |
'Buy in the cheap sell in the dear ' | - |
And since my barley costs me nothing | S |
My market is as cheap as stuffing | S |
- | |
Away then went the stores of grain | V |
The poultry died and mistress fain | V |
To know the cause named a commission | I |
Which ended in the Pug's dismission | I |
And left our hero in a hash | L |
With Newgate and refunded cash | L |
- | |
A gander met him in disgrace | F |
Who knew him well when high in place | F |
Two days ago said Pug you bowed | E |
The lowest of the cringing crowd | E |
- | |
I always bob my head before | W |
I pass said Goosey a barn door | W |
I always cackle for my grain | I |
And so do all my gosling train | I |
But if I do not know a monkey | D |
Whene'er I see one I'm a donkey | D |
John Gay
(1)
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