A Character, Panegyric, And Description Of The Legion Club Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMM NNOOPPLLGGQQRRSSTTUU VVLLWKWWXXYYCCZZA2A2 A2A2A2A2A2A2A2A2B2B2 C2C2D2D2LLD2D2C2C2CC D2D2LLLLA2A2JJ A2D2D2A2A2E2E2A2A2F2 F2A2A2CCA2A2A2A2G2G2 A2A2D2D2A2A2H2H2LLLL A2A2NNI2I2J2J2ZZK2G2 I2I2A2A2I2I2NNA2A2G2 G2I2I2A2A2I2I2CCL2L2 M2M2G2G2N2N2CCD2D2A2 A2D2D2G2G2B2B2I2I2I2 I2O2O2I2I2LLA2A2A2A2 G2G2CCG2G2G2G2LLI2I2 CCA2A2G2G2A2A2A2A2A2 A2I2I2A2A2A2A2P2CCCA 2A2L2L2LI2A2A2I2I2CC CCI2I2Q2Q2L2L2The immediate provocation to this fierce satire upon the Irish Parliament was the introduction of a Bill to put an end to the tithe on pasturage called agistment and thus to free the landlords from a legal payment with severe loss to the Church | A |
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As I stroll the city oft I | B |
See a building large and lofty | C |
Not a bow shot from the college | D |
Half the globe from sense and knowledge | E |
By the prudent architect | F |
Placed against the church direct | F |
Making good my grandam's jest | G |
Near the church you know the rest | G |
Tell us what the pile contains | H |
Many a head that has no brains | H |
These demoniacs let me dub | I |
With the name of Legion Club | I |
Such assemblies you might swear | J |
Meet when butchers bait a bear | J |
Such a noise and such haranguing | K |
When a brother thief's a hanging | K |
Such a rout and such a rabble | L |
Run to hear Jackpudding gabble | L |
Such a crowd their ordure throws | M |
On a far less villain's nose | M |
Could I from the building's top | N |
Hear the rattling thunder drop | N |
While the devil upon the roof | O |
If the devil be thunder proof | O |
Should with poker fiery red | P |
Crack the stones and melt the lead | P |
Drive them down on every skull | L |
When the den of thieves is full | L |
Quite destroy that harpies' nest | G |
How might then our isle be blest | G |
For divines allow that God | Q |
Sometimes makes the devil his rod | Q |
And the gospel will inform us | R |
He can punish sins enormous | R |
Yet should Swift endow the schools | S |
For his lunatics and fools | S |
With a rood or two of land | T |
I allow the pile may stand | T |
You perhaps will ask me Why so | U |
But it is with this proviso | U |
Since the house is like to last | V |
Let the royal grant be pass'd | V |
That the club have right to dwell | L |
Each within his proper cell | L |
With a passage left to creep in | W |
And a hole above for peeping | K |
Let them when they once get in | W |
Sell the nation for a pin | W |
While they sit a picking straws | X |
Let them rave of making laws | X |
While they never hold their tongue | Y |
Let them dabble in their dung | Y |
Let them form a grand committee | C |
How to plague and starve the city | C |
Let them stare and storm and frown | Z |
When they see a clergy gown | Z |
Let them ere they crack a louse | A2 |
Call for th'orders of the house | A2 |
Let them with their gosling quills | A2 |
Scribble senseless heads of bills | A2 |
We may while they strain their throats | A2 |
Wipe our a s with their votes | A2 |
Let Sir Tom that rampant ass | A2 |
Stuff his guts with flax and grass | A2 |
But before the priest he fleeces | A2 |
Tear the Bible all to pieces | A2 |
At the parsons Tom halloo boy | B2 |
Worthy offspring of a shoeboy | B2 |
Footman traitor vile seducer | C2 |
Perjured rebel bribed accuser | C2 |
Lay thy privilege aside | D2 |
From Papist sprung and regicide | D2 |
Fall a working like a mole | L |
Raise the dirt about thy hole | L |
Come assist me Muse obedient | D2 |
Let us try some new expedient | D2 |
Shift the scene for half an hour | C2 |
Time and place are in thy power | C2 |
Thither gentle Muse conduct me | C |
I shall ask and you instruct me | C |
See the Muse unbars the gate | D2 |
Hark the monkeys how they prate | D2 |
All ye gods who rule the soul | L |
Styx through Hell whose waters roll | L |
Let me be allow'd to tell | L |
What I heard in yonder Hell | L |
Near the door an entrance gapes | A2 |
Crowded round with antic shapes | A2 |
Poverty and Grief and Care | J |
Causeless Joy and true Despair | J |
Discord periwigg'd with snakes ' | - |
See the dreadful strides she takes | A2 |
By this odious crew beset | D2 |
I began to rage and fret | D2 |
And resolved to break their pates | A2 |
Ere we enter'd at the gates | A2 |
Had not Clio in the nick | E2 |
Whisper'd me Lay down your stick | E2 |
What said I is this a mad house | A2 |
These she answer'd are but shadows | A2 |
Phantoms bodiless and vain | F2 |
Empty visions of the brain | F2 |
In the porch Briareus stands | A2 |
Shows a bribe in all his hands | A2 |
Briareus the secretary | C |
But we mortals call him Carey | C |
When the rogues their country fleece | A2 |
They may hope for pence a piece | A2 |
Clio who had been so wise | A2 |
To put on a fool's disguise | A2 |
To bespeak some approbation | G2 |
And be thought a near relation | G2 |
When she saw three hundred brutes | A2 |
All involved in wild disputes | A2 |
Roaring till their lungs were spent | D2 |
PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT | D2 |
Now a new misfortune feels | A2 |
Dreading to be laid by th' heels | A2 |
Never durst a Muse before | H2 |
Enter that infernal door | H2 |
Clio stifled with the smell | L |
Into spleen and vapours fell | L |
By the Stygian steams that flew | L |
From the dire infectious crew | L |
Not the stench of Lake Avernus | A2 |
Could have more offended her nose | A2 |
Had she flown but o'er the top | N |
She had felt her pinions drop | N |
And by exhalations dire | I2 |
Though a goddess must expire | I2 |
In a fright she crept away | J2 |
Bravely I resolved to stay | J2 |
When I saw the keeper frown | Z |
Tipping him with half a crown | Z |
Now said I we are alone | K2 |
Name your heroes one by one | G2 |
Who is that hell featured brawler | I2 |
Is it Satan No 'tis Waller | I2 |
In what figure can a bard dress | A2 |
Jack the grandson of Sir Hardress | A2 |
Honest keeper drive him further | I2 |
In his looks are Hell and murther | I2 |
See the scowling visage drop | N |
Just as when he murder'd Throp | N |
Keeper show me where to fix | A2 |
On the puppy pair of Dicks | A2 |
By their lantern jaws and leathern | G2 |
You might swear they both are brethren | G2 |
Dick Fitzbaker Dick the player | I2 |
Old acquaintance are you there | I2 |
Dear companions hug and kiss | A2 |
Toast Old Glorious in your piss | A2 |
Tie them keeper in a tether | I2 |
Let them starve and stink together | I2 |
Both are apt to be unruly | C |
Lash them daily lash them duly | C |
Though 'tis hopeless to reclaim them | L2 |
Scorpion's rods perhaps may tame them | L2 |
Keeper yon old dotard smoke | M2 |
Sweetly snoring in his cloak | M2 |
Who is he 'Tis humdrum Wynne | G2 |
Half encompass'd by his kin | G2 |
There observe the tribe of Bingham | N2 |
For he never fails to bring 'em | N2 |
And that base apostate Vesey | C |
With Bishop's scraps grown fat and greasy | C |
While Wynne sleeps the whole debate | D2 |
They submissive round him wait | D2 |
Yet would gladly see the hunks | A2 |
In his grave and search his trunks | A2 |
See they gently twitch his coat | D2 |
Just to yawn and give his vote | D2 |
Always firm in his vocation | G2 |
For the court against the nation | G2 |
Those are Allens Jack and Bob | B2 |
First in every wicked job | B2 |
Son and brother to a queer | I2 |
Brain sick brute they call a peer | I2 |
We must give them better quarter | I2 |
For their ancestor trod mortar | I2 |
And at Hoath to boast his fame | O2 |
On a chimney cut his name | O2 |
There sit Clements Dilks and Carter | I2 |
Who for Hell would die a martyr | I2 |
Such a triplet could you tell | L |
Where to find on this side Hell | L |
Gallows Carter Dilks and Clements | A2 |
Souse them in their own excrements | A2 |
Every mischief's in their hearts | A2 |
If they fail 'tis want of parts | A2 |
Bless us Morgan art thou there man | G2 |
Bless mine eyes art thou the chairman | G2 |
Chairman to yon damn'd committee | C |
Yet I look on thee with pity | C |
Dreadful sight what learned Morgan | G2 |
Metamorphosed to a Gorgon | G2 |
For thy horrid looks I own | G2 |
Half convert me to a stone | G2 |
Hast thou been so long at school | L |
Now to turn a factious tool | L |
Alma Mater was thy mother | I2 |
Every young divine thy brother | I2 |
Thou a disobedient varlet | C |
Treat thy mother like a harlot | C |
Thou ungrateful to thy teachers | A2 |
Who are all grown reverend preachers | A2 |
Morgan would it not surprise one | G2 |
To turn thy nourishment to poison | G2 |
When you walk among your books | A2 |
They reproach you with their looks | A2 |
Bind them fast or from their shelves | A2 |
They'll come down to right themselves | A2 |
Homer Plutarch Virgil Flaccus | A2 |
All in arms prepare to back us | A2 |
Soon repent or put to slaughter | I2 |
Every Greek and Roman author | I2 |
Will you in your faction's phrase | A2 |
Send the clergy all to graze | A2 |
And to make your project pass | A2 |
Leave them not a blade of grass | A2 |
How I want thee humorous Hogarth | P2 |
Thou I hear a pleasant rogue art | C |
Were but you and I acquainted | C |
Every monster should be painted | C |
You should try your graving tools | A2 |
On this odious group of fools | A2 |
Draw the beasts as I describe them | L2 |
Form their features while I gibe them | L2 |
Draw them like for I assure you | L |
You will need no car'catura | I2 |
Draw them so that we may trace | A2 |
All the soul in every face | A2 |
Keeper I must now retire | I2 |
You have done what I desire | I2 |
But I feel my spirits spent | C |
With the noise the sight the scent | C |
Pray be patient you shall find | C |
Half the best are still behind | C |
You have hardly seen a score | I2 |
I can show two hundred more | I2 |
Keeper I have seen enough | Q2 |
Taking then a pinch of snuff | Q2 |
I concluded looking round them | L2 |
May their god the devil confound them | L2 |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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