Apollo To The Dean.[1] 1720 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJCC KKFFLLFFMMFFAANNOOPP QQAARRSSTUDDVVWWXXCC YYZZA2A2AAB2B2AAC2C2 D2D2E2E2FFF2F2FFWWAA G2G2H2H2FFI2I2VVLLI2 I2E2E2FFI2I2Right Trusty and so forth we let you know | A |
We are very ill used by you mortals below | A |
For first I have often by chemists been told | B |
Though I know nothing on't it is I that make gold | B |
Which when you have got you so carefully hide it | C |
That since I was born I hardly have spied it | C |
Then it must be allow'd that whenever I shine | D |
I forward the grass and I ripen the vine | D |
To me the good fellows apply for relief | E |
Without whom they could get neither claret nor beef | E |
Yet their wine and their victuals those curmudgeon lubbards | F |
Lock up from my sight in cellars and cupboards | F |
That I have an ill eye they wickedly think | G |
And taint all their meat and sour all their drink | G |
But thirdly and lastly it must be allow'd | H |
I alone can inspire the poetical crowd | H |
This is gratefully own'd by each boy in the College | I |
Whom if I inspire it is not to my knowledge | J |
This every pretender in rhyme will admit | C |
Without troubling his head about judgment or wit | C |
These gentlemen use me with kindness and freedom | K |
And as for their works when I please I may read 'em | K |
They lie open on purpose on counters and stalls | F |
And the titles I view when I shine on the walls | F |
But a comrade of yours that traitor Delany | L |
Whom I for your sake have used better than any | L |
And of my mere motion and special good grace | F |
Intended in time to succeed in your place | F |
On Tuesday the tenth seditiously came | M |
With a certain false trait'ress one Stella by name | M |
To the Deanery house and on the North glass | F |
Where for fear of the cold I never can pass | F |
Then and there vi et armis with a certain utensil | A |
Of value five shillings in English a pencil | A |
Did maliciously falsely and trait'rously write | N |
While Stella aforesaid stood by with a light | N |
My sister hath lately deposed upon oath | O |
That she stopt in her course to look at them both | O |
That Stella was helping abetting and aiding | P |
And still as he writ stood smiling and reading | P |
That her eyes were as bright as myself at noon day | Q |
But her graceful black locks were all mingled with grey | Q |
And by the description I certainly know | A |
'Tis the nymph that I courted some ten years ago | A |
Whom when I with the best of my talents endued | R |
On her promise of yielding she acted the prude | R |
That some verses were writ with felonious intent | S |
Direct to the North where I never once went | S |
That the letters appear'd reversed through the pane | T |
But in Stella's bright eyes were placed right again | U |
Wherein she distinctly could read ev'ry line | D |
And presently guessed the fancy was mine | D |
She can swear to the Parson whom oft she has seen | V |
At night between Cavan Street and College Green | V |
Now you see why his verses so seldom are shown | W |
The reason is plain they are none of his own | W |
And observe while you live that no man is shy | X |
To discover the goods he came honestly by | X |
If I light on a thought he will certainly steal it | C |
And when he has got it find ways to conceal it | C |
Of all the fine things he keeps in the dark | Y |
There's scarce one in ten but what has my mark | Y |
And let them be seen by the world if he dare | Z |
I'll make it appear they are all stolen ware | Z |
But as for the poem he writ on your sash | A2 |
I think I have now got him under my lash | A2 |
My sister transcribed it last night to his sorrow | A |
And the public shall see't if I live till to morrow | A |
Thro' the zodiac around it shall quickly be spread | B2 |
In all parts of the globe where your language is read | B2 |
He knows very well I ne'er gave a refusal | A |
When he ask'd for my aid in the forms that are usual | A |
But the secret is this I did lately intend | C2 |
To write a few verses on you as my friend | C2 |
I studied a fortnight before I could find | D2 |
As I rode in my chariot a thought to my mind | D2 |
And resolved the next winter for that is my time | E2 |
When the days are at shortest to get it in rhyme | E2 |
Till then it was lock'd in my box at Parnassus | F |
When that subtle companion in hopes to surpass us | F |
Conveys out my paper of hints by a trick | F2 |
For I think in my conscience he deals with old Nick | F2 |
And from my own stock provided with topics | F |
He gets to a window beyond both the tropics | F |
There out of my sight just against the north zone | W |
Writes down my conceits and then calls them his own | W |
And you like a cully the bubble can swallow | A |
Now who but Delany that writes like Apollo | A |
High treason by statute yet here you object | G2 |
He only stole hints but the verse is correct | G2 |
Though the thought be Apollo's 'tis finely express'd | H2 |
So a thief steals my horse and has him well dress'd | H2 |
Now whereas the said criminal seems past repentance | F |
We Phoebus think fit to proceed to his sentence | F |
Since Delany hath dared like Prometheus his sire | I2 |
To climb to our region and thence to steal fire | I2 |
We order a vulture in shape of the Spleen | V |
To prey on his liver but not to be seen | V |
And we order our subjects of every degree | L |
To believe all his verses were written by me | L |
And under the pain of our highest displeasure | I2 |
To call nothing his but the rhyme and the measure | I2 |
And lastly for Stella just out of her prime | E2 |
I'm too much revenged already by Time | E2 |
In return of her scorn I sent her diseases | F |
But will now be her friend whenever she pleases | F |
And the gifts I bestow'd her will find her a lover | I2 |
Though she lives till she's grey as a badger all over | I2 |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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