A Receipt To Restore Stella-s Youth. 1724-5 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKL MMNOPPQQRROOSSTOGGUU VVUUWWUUUUCCUUXX| The Scottish hinds too poor to house | A |
| In frosty nights their starving cows | B |
| While not a blade of grass or hay | C |
| Appears from Michaelmas to May | C |
| Must let their cattle range in vain | D |
| For food along the barren plain | D |
| Meagre and lank with fasting grown | E |
| And nothing left but skin and bone | E |
| Exposed to want and wind and weather | F |
| They just keep life and soul together | F |
| Till summer showers and evening's dew | G |
| Again the verdant glebe renew | G |
| And as the vegetables rise | H |
| The famish'd cow her want supplies | H |
| Without an ounce of last year's flesh | I |
| Whate'er she gains is young and fresh | I |
| Grows plump and round and full of mettle | J |
| As rising from Medea's kettle | J |
| With youth and beauty to enchant | K |
| Europa's counterfeit gallant | L |
| Why Stella should you knit your brow | M |
| If I compare you to a cow | M |
| 'Tis just the case for you have fasted | N |
| So long till all your flesh is wasted | O |
| And must against the warmer days | P |
| Be sent to Quilca down to graze | P |
| Where mirth and exercise and air | Q |
| Will soon your appetite repair | Q |
| The nutriment will from within | R |
| Round all your body plump your skin | R |
| Will agitate the lazy flood | O |
| And fill your veins with sprightly blood | O |
| Nor flesh nor blood will be the same | S |
| Nor aught of Stella but the name | S |
| For what was ever understood | T |
| By human kind but flesh and blood | O |
| And if your flesh and blood be new | G |
| You'll be no more the former you | G |
| But for a blooming nymph will pass | U |
| Just fifteen coming summer's grass | U |
| Your jetty locks with garlands crown'd | V |
| While all the squires for nine miles round | V |
| Attended by a brace of curs | U |
| With jockey boots and silver spurs | U |
| No less than justices o' quorum | W |
| Their cow boys bearing cloaks before 'em | W |
| Shall leave deciding broken pates | U |
| To kiss your steps at Quilca gates | U |
| But lest you should my skill disgrace | U |
| Come back before you're out of case | U |
| For if to Michaelmas you stay | C |
| The new born flesh will melt away | C |
| The 'squires in scorn will fly the house | U |
| For better game and look for grouse | U |
| But here before the frost can mar it | X |
| We'll make it firm with beef and claret | X |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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