Vulture, Sparrow, And Birds Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCC DDEFGGHH IIJJHHKK HHHHLLMMHHNNOOPPQLHH RSTTHHTTUUHHVVWWHH XXYYZA2HHB2B2HHHHHHC 2C2C2C2D2MTT HHBBHHEre I begin I must premise | A |
Our ministers are good and wise | B |
Therefore if tongues malicious fly | C |
Or what care they or what care I | C |
- | |
If I am free with courts and skittish | D |
I ne'er presume to mean the British | D |
I meddle with no state affairs | E |
But spare my jest and save my ears | F |
And our court schemes are too profound | G |
For Machiavel himself to sound | G |
A captious fool may feel offended | H |
They are by me uncomprehended | H |
- | |
Your younger brother wants a place | I |
That's many a younger brother's case | I |
You likewise tell me he intends | J |
To try the court and beat up friends | J |
I trust he may a patriot find | H |
True to his king and to mankind | H |
And true to merit to your brother's | K |
And then he need not teaze us others | K |
- | |
You praise his probity and wit | H |
No doubt I doubt them not a whit | H |
Ah may our patriot have them too | H |
And if both clash why things may do | H |
For I have heard oh Heaven defend us | L |
For I'll not hold it might not mend us | L |
That ministers high as yon steeple | M |
Have trodden low law king and people | M |
When virtue from preferment barred | H |
Gets nothing save its own regard | H |
Courtiers a set of knaves attend them | N |
And arrogance well recommends them | N |
Who flatter them defame their foes | O |
To lull the ministerial woes | O |
And if projectors fire a brain | P |
South Sea or silver mines in Spain | P |
The broker's ready in a trice | Q |
To satisfy e'en avarice | L |
A courtier's conscience must be pliant | H |
He must go on nor be defiant | H |
Through thick and thin o'er stock and stone | R |
Or else bye bye the post is gone | S |
Since plagues like these as storms may lower | T |
And favourites fall as falls the flower | T |
Good principles should not be steady | H |
That is at court but ever ready | H |
To veer as veers the vane each hour | T |
Around the ministry in power | T |
For they you know they must have tools | U |
And if they can't get knaves get fools | U |
Ah let me shun the public hate | H |
And flee the guilt of guilty state | H |
Give me kind Heaven a private station | V |
A mind serene for contemplation | V |
And if bright honour may be mine | W |
Profit and title I resign | W |
Now read my fable and in short | H |
Go if you will then go to court | H |
- | |
In days of yore for cautious rhymes | X |
Should aye eschew the present times | X |
A greedy vulture skilled in preying | Y |
Approached the throne his wings displaying | Y |
And at the royal eagle's ear | Z |
Burthens of state proposed to bear | A2 |
Behold him minister of state | H |
Behold his feathered throng await | H |
Behold them granting posts and places | B2 |
Concordant with their worth and races | B2 |
The nightingales were all turned out | H |
And daws put in These birds no doubt | H |
The vulture said are the most fit | H |
Both for capacity and wit | H |
And very docile they will do | H |
My business as I wish them to | H |
And hawk the hawk is a good fellow | C2 |
And chanticleer with cockscomb yellow | C2 |
But all the ravens they must go | C2 |
Pry in futurities you know | C2 |
That will not do to baffle all | D2 |
With truth for the apocryphal | M |
No jays and pies will do far better | T |
They talk by rote nor know a letter | T |
- | |
A sparrow on the housetop heard | H |
The sparrow is a knowing bird | H |
If rogues unto preferments rise | B |
I ask nor place nor seignories | B |
To the thatched cottage I to find | H |
From courts afar my peace of mind | H |
John Gay
(1)
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