An Epistle To Mr. Gay[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGGHHGGIIJJ FFKKLLMMNNOOBBPPQQRR SSBBTTUUVVWWXXYYZZA2 A2VVB2B2C2C2D2D2GGE2 E2DDBBF2F2G2G2H2H2I2 I2DDJ2J2K2K2L2L2GGNN K2K2K2K2MML2L2BBM2M2 K2K2OOBBN2N2O2P2K2K2 K2K2K2K2P2P2Q2Q2K2K2 LLR2R2FFFFK2K2HHFFS2 S2FFFFQQFFK2K2K2K2T2 T2J2J2How could you Gay disgrace the Muse's train | A |
To serve a tasteless court twelve years in vain | A |
Fain would I think our female friend sincere | B |
Till Bob the poet's foe possess'd her ear | C |
Did female virtue e'er so high ascend | D |
To lose an inch of favour for a friend | D |
Say had the court no better place to choose | E |
For triee than make a dry nurse of thy Muse | E |
How cheaply had thy liberty been sold | F |
To squire a royal girl of two years old | F |
In leading strings her infant steps to guide | G |
Or with her go cart amble side by side | G |
But princely Douglas and his glorious dame | H |
Advanced thy fortune and preserved thy fame | H |
Nor will your nobler gifts be misapplied | G |
When o'er your patron's treasure you preside | G |
The world shall own his choice was wise and just | I |
For sons of Phoebus never break their trust | I |
Not love of beauty less the heart inflames | J |
Of guardian eunuchs to the sultan's dames | J |
Their passions not more impotent and cold | F |
Than those of poets to the lust of gold | F |
With P an's purest fire his favourites glow | K |
The dregs will serve to ripen ore below | K |
His meanest work for had he thought it fit | L |
That wealth should be the appanage of wit | L |
The god of light could ne'er have been so blind | M |
To deal it to the worst of human kind | M |
But let me now for I can do it well | N |
Your conduct in this new employ foretell | N |
And first to make my observation right | O |
I place a statesman full before my sight | O |
A bloated minister in all his gear | B |
With shameless visage and perfidious leer | B |
Two rows of teeth arm each devouring jaw | P |
And ostrich like his all digesting maw | P |
My fancy drags this monster to my view | Q |
To shew the world his chief reverse in you | Q |
Of loud unmeaning sounds a rapid flood | R |
Rolls from his mouth in plenteous streams of mud | R |
With these the court and senate house he plies | S |
Made up of noise and impudence and lies | S |
Now let me show how Bob and you agree | B |
You serve a potent prince as well as he | B |
The ducal coffers trusted to your charge | T |
Your honest care may fill perhaps enlarge | T |
His vassals easy and the owner blest | U |
They pay a trifle and enjoy the rest | U |
Not so a nation's revenues are paid | V |
The servant's faults are on the master laid | V |
The people with a sigh their taxes bring | W |
And cursing Bob forget to bless the king | W |
Next hearken Gay to what thy charge requires | X |
With servants tenants and the neighbouring squires | X |
Let all domestics feel your gentle sway | Y |
Nor bribe insult nor flatter nor betray | Y |
Let due reward to merit be allow'd | Z |
Nor with your kindred half the palace crowd | Z |
Nor think yourself secure in doing wrong | A2 |
By telling noses with a party strong | A2 |
Be rich but of your wealth make no parade | V |
At least before your master's debts are paid | V |
Nor in a palace built with charge immense | B2 |
Presume to treat him at his own expense | B2 |
Each farmer in the neighbourhood can count | C2 |
To what your lawful perquisites amount | C2 |
The tenants poor the hardness of the times | D2 |
Are ill excuses for a servant's crimes | D2 |
With interest and a premium paid beside | G |
The master's pressing wants must be supplied | G |
With hasty zeal behold the steward come | E2 |
By his own credit to advance the sum | E2 |
Who while th'unrighteous Mammon is his friend | D |
May well conclude his power will never end | D |
A faithful treasurer what could he do more | B |
He lends my lord what was my lord's before | B |
The law so strictly guards the monarch's health | F2 |
That no physician dares prescribe by stealth | F2 |
The council sit approve the doctor's skill | G2 |
And give advice before he gives the pill | G2 |
But the state empiric acts a safer part | H2 |
And while he poisons wins the royal heart | H2 |
But how can I describe the ravenous breed | I2 |
Then let me now by negatives proceed | I2 |
Suppose your lord a trusty servant send | D |
On weighty business to some neighbouring friend | D |
Presume not Gay unless you serve a drone | J2 |
To countermand his orders by your own | J2 |
Should some imperious neighbour sink the boats | K2 |
And drain the fish ponds while your master dotes | K2 |
Shall he upon the ducal rights intrench | L2 |
Because he bribed you with a brace of tench | L2 |
Nor from your lord his bad condition hide | G |
To feed his luxury or soothe his pride | G |
Nor at an under rate his timber sell | N |
And with an oath assure him all is well | N |
Or swear it rotten and with humble airs | K2 |
Request it of him to complete your stairs | K2 |
Nor when a mortgage lies on half his lands | K2 |
Come with a purse of guineas in your hands | K2 |
Have Peter Waters always in your mind | M |
That rogue of genuine ministerial kind | M |
Can half the peerage by his arts bewitch | L2 |
Starve twenty lords to make one scoundrel rich | L2 |
And when he gravely has undone a score | B |
Is humbly pray'd to ruin twenty more | B |
A dext'rous steward when his tricks are found | M2 |
Hush money sends to all the neighbours round | M2 |
His master unsuspicious of his pranks | K2 |
Pays all the cost and gives the villain thanks | K2 |
And should a friend attempt to set him right | O |
His lordship would impute it all to spite | O |
Would love his favourite better than before | B |
And trust his honesty just so much more | B |
Thus families like realms with equal fate | N2 |
Are sunk by premier ministers of state | N2 |
Some when an heir succeeds go bodily on | O2 |
And as they robb'd the father rob the son | P2 |
A knave who deep embroils his lord's affairs | K2 |
Will soon grow necessary to his heirs | K2 |
His policy consists in setting traps | K2 |
In finding ways and means and stopping gaps | K2 |
He knows a thousand tricks whene'er he please | K2 |
Though not to cure yet palliate each disease | K2 |
In either case an equal chance is run | P2 |
For keep or turn him out my lord's undone | P2 |
You want a hand to clear a filthy sink | Q2 |
No cleanly workman can endure the stink | Q2 |
A strong dilemma in a desperate case | K2 |
To act with infamy or quit the place | K2 |
A bungler thus who scarce the nail can hit | L |
With driving wrong will make the panel split | L |
Nor dares an abler workman undertake | R2 |
To drive a second lest the whole should break | R2 |
In every court the parallel will hold | F |
And kings like private folks are bought and sold | F |
The ruling rogue who dreads to be cashler'd | F |
Contrives as he is hated to be fear'd | F |
Confounds accounts perplexes all affairs | K2 |
For vengeance more embroils than skill repairs | K2 |
So robbers and their ends are just the same | H |
To 'scape inquiries leave the house in flame | H |
I knew a brazen minister of state | F |
Who bore for twice ten years the public hate | F |
In every mouth the question most in vogue | S2 |
Was when will they turn out this odious rogue | S2 |
A juncture happen'd in his highest pride | F |
While he went robbing on his master died | F |
We thought there now remain'd no room to doubt | F |
The work is done the minister must out | F |
The court invited more than one or two | Q |
Will you Sir Spencer or will you or you | Q |
But not a soul his office durst accept | F |
The subtle knave had all the plunder swept | F |
And such was then the temper of the times | K2 |
He owed his preservation to his crimes | K2 |
The candidates observed his dirty paws | K2 |
Nor found it difficult to guess the cause | K2 |
But when they smelt such foul corruptions round him | T2 |
Away they fled and left him as they found him | T2 |
Thus when a greedy sloven once has thrown | J2 |
His snot into the mess 'tis all his own | J2 |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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