The Unsatisfactory Painter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDE AAFFGGHHFFIICCJJKLMM FNOOFFPP IIQQFFFF| Lest captious men suspect your story | A |
| Speak modestly its history | A |
| The traveller who overleaps the bounds | B |
| Of probability confounds | B |
| But though men hear your deeds with phlegm | C |
| You may with flattery cram them | C |
| Hyperboles though ne'er so great | D |
| Will yet come short of self conceit | E |
| - | |
| A painter drew his portraits truly | A |
| And marked complexion and mien duly | A |
| Really a fellow knew the picture | F |
| There was nor flattery nor delicture | F |
| The eyes and mouth and faulty nose | G |
| Were all showed up in grim repose | G |
| He marked the dates of youth and age | H |
| But so he lost his clientage | H |
| The which determined to recover | F |
| He turned in mind the matter over | F |
| He bought a pair of busts one Venus | I |
| The other was Apollo Phoebus | I |
| Above his subject client placed them | C |
| And for the faulty features traced them | C |
| Chatted the while of Titian's tints | J |
| Of Guido Raphael neither stints | J |
| To raise him to the empyr al | K |
| Whilst he is sketching his ideal | L |
| He sketches utters That will do | M |
| Be pleased my lord to come and view | M |
| I thought my mouth a little wider | F |
| My lord my lord you me deride ah | N |
| Such was my nose when I was young | O |
| My lord you have a witty tongue | O |
| Ah well ah well you artists flatter | F |
| That were my lord no easy matter | F |
| Ah well ah well you artists see best | P |
| My lord I only aside earn my fee best | P |
| - | |
| So with a lady he between us | I |
| Borrowed the face and form of Venus | I |
| There was no fear of its rejection | Q |
| Her lover voted it perfection | Q |
| So on he went to fame and glory | F |
| And raised his price which ends the story | F |
| But not the moral which though fainter | F |
| Bids one to scorn an honest painter | F |
John Gay
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation