The Quidnunckis Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEFGGHHIIAAAAJJ KKLLMMNODDAAAAPQOORR IISSTTUU| How vain are mortal man's endeavours | A |
| Said at dame Elleot's master Travers | A |
| Good Orleans dead in truth 'tis hard | B |
| Oh may all statesmen die prepar'd | C |
| I do foresee and for foreseeing | D |
| He equals any man in being | D |
| The army ne'er can be disbanded | E |
| I with the king was safely landed | F |
| Ah friends great changes threat the land | G |
| All France and England at a stand | G |
| There's Meroweis mark strange work | H |
| And there's the Czar and there's the Turk | H |
| The Pope An India merchant by | I |
| Cut short the speech with this reply | I |
| All at a stand you see great changes | A |
| Ah sir you never saw the Ganges | A |
| There dwells the nation of Quidnunckis | A |
| So Monomotapa calls monkeys | A |
| On either bank from bough to bough | J |
| They meet and chat as we may now | J |
| Whispers go round they grin they shrug | K |
| They bow they snarl they scratch they hug | K |
| And just as chance or whim provoke them | L |
| They either bite their friends or stroke them | L |
| There have I seen some active prig | M |
| To show his parts bestride a twig | M |
| Lord how the chatt'ring tribe admire | N |
| Not that he's wiser but he's higher | O |
| All long to try the vent'rous thing | D |
| For power is but to have one's swing | D |
| From side to side he springs he spurns | A |
| And bangs his foes and friends by turns | A |
| Thus as in giddy freaks he bounces | A |
| Crack goes the twig and in he flounces | A |
| Down the swift stream the wretch is borne | P |
| Never ah never to return | Q |
| Zounds what a fall had our dear brother | O |
| Morbleu cries one and damme t'other | O |
| The nation gives a general screech | R |
| None cocks his tail none claws his breech | R |
| Each trembles for the public weal | I |
| And for a while forgets to steal | I |
| Awhile all eyes intent and steady | S |
| Pursue him whirling down the eddy | S |
| But out of mind when out of view | T |
| Some other mounts the twig anew | T |
| And business on each monkey shore | U |
| Runs the same track it ran before | U |
John Gay
(1)
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