The Countryman And Jupiter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCCCDDCCEEFFGHCCII JJAAJJ KLJJMMNN OOJJJJPPJJFF QQLKRR SSCCTT JJ UUGG VV JJ WWXXYY ZZZZ JJ ZZOOLLZZ ZZZZA2A2 ZZ OOZZZZ CCTo myself | A |
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NOSCE TEIPSUM look and spy | B |
Have you a friend so fond as I | B |
Have you a fault to mankind known | C |
Not hidden unto eyes your own | C |
When airy castles you importune | C |
Down falling by the breath of Fortune | C |
Did I e'er doubt you should inherit | D |
If Fortune's wheel devolved on merit | D |
It was not so for Fortune's frown | C |
Still perseveres to hold you down | C |
Then let us seek the cause and view | E |
What others say and others do | E |
Have we like those in place resigned | F |
Our independency of mind | F |
Have we had scruples and therefore | G |
Practising morals are we poor | H |
If such be our forlorn position | C |
Would Fortune mend the lorn condition | C |
On wealth if happiness were built | I |
Villains would compass it by guilt | I |
No CRESCIT AMOR NUMMI misers | J |
Are not so heartwhole as are sizars | J |
Think O John Gay and that's myself | A |
Should Fortune make you her own elf | A |
Would that augment your happiness | J |
Or haply might she make it less | J |
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Suppose yourself a wealthy heir | K |
Of houses lands and income clear | L |
Your luxury might break all bounds | J |
Of plate and table steeds and hounds | J |
Debts debts of honour lust of play | M |
Will waste a county's wealth away | M |
And so your income clear may fail | N |
And end in exile or in jail | N |
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Or were you raised to height of power | O |
Would that ameliorate an hour | O |
Would avarice and false applause | J |
Weigh in the balance as two straws | J |
Defrauded nations blinded kings | J |
Would they not think you leave their stings | J |
If happiness then be your aim | P |
I mean the true not false of fame | P |
She nor in courts nor camps resides | J |
Nor in the lowly cottage bides | J |
Nor on the soil nor on the wind | F |
She tenants only in the mind | F |
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Wearied by toil beneath the shade | Q |
A rustic rested on his spade | Q |
This load of life from year to year | L |
He said is very hard to bear | K |
The dawning morning bids me up | R |
To toil and labour till I sup | R |
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Jove heard and answered him My friend | S |
Complaints that are unjust offend | S |
Speak out your griefs if you repine | C |
At any act or deed of mine | C |
If you can mend your state instruct me | T |
I wish but knowledge to conduct me | T |
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So saying from the mundane crowds | J |
He raised the rustic to the clouds | J |
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He showed a miser said Behold | U |
His bulky bags that burst with gold | U |
He counts it over and the store | G |
Is every day increased by more | G |
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O happiness the rustic cried | V |
What can a fellow wish beside | V |
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Ah wait until I charm your eyes | J |
Said Jupiter from fallacies | J |
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He looked again and saw the breast | W |
Like a rough ocean ne'er at rest | W |
Fear guilt and conscience gnawed the heart | X |
Extortion ever made it smart | X |
It seemed as if no sunlit gleam | Y |
Could brighten it in thought or dream | Y |
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Ah may the gods he cried reject | Z |
My prayer for gold and comfort wreckt | Z |
But see yon minister of state | Z |
And the gay crowd who proudly wait | Z |
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A second time I charm your eyes | J |
Said Jove from mortal fallacies | J |
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He looked again and saw a breast | Z |
Gnawed by corruption wanting rest | Z |
He saw him one time drunk with power | O |
Tottering upon Ambition's tower | O |
Then seized with giddiness and fear | L |
Seeing his downfall in his rear | L |
O Jupiter the rustic said | Z |
Give me again my plough and spade | Z |
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But Jupiter was not contented | Z |
The rustic's griefs he still resented | Z |
So he deployed before his sight | Z |
The lawyer's and the soldier's plight | Z |
The miseries of war and law | A2 |
The battle field and legal flaw | A2 |
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O Jupiter the rustic said | Z |
Restore me to the plough and spade | Z |
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Then Jupiter You mortals blunder | O |
There is no happiness in thunder | O |
For happiness to nought confined | Z |
Is found in the contented mind | Z |
Go home again and be contented | Z |
Nor grumble more like one demented | Z |
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Then Jupiter to aid the clown | C |
Where he had found him put him down | C |
John Gay
(1)
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