Death And Daphne Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLMMNNOOPQRRSSTTUU UUUVWWUUXXYYZZUUA2A2 UUB2B2C2C2UUUUWWD2D2 JJUUE2E2UUF2F2E2E2UU UUUUEEHHG2G2H2H2UUDeath went upon a solemn day | A |
At Pluto's hall his court to pay | A |
The phantom having humbly kiss'd | B |
His grisly monarch's sooty fist | B |
Presented him the weekly bills | C |
Of doctors fevers plagues and pills | C |
Pluto observing since the peace | D |
The burial article decrease | D |
And vex'd to see affairs miscarry | E |
Declared in council Death must marry | E |
Vow'd he no longer could support | F |
Old bachelors about his court | F |
The interest of his realm had need | G |
That Death should get a numerous breed | G |
Young deathlings who by practice made | H |
Proficient in their father's trade | H |
With colonies might stock around | I |
His large dominions under ground | I |
A consult of coquettes below | J |
Was call'd to rig him out a beau | J |
From her own head Megaera takes | K |
A periwig of twisted snakes | K |
Which in the nicest fashion curl'd | L |
Like toupees of this upper world | L |
With flower of sulphur powder'd well | M |
That graceful on his shoulders fell | M |
An adder of the sable kind | N |
In line direct hung down behind | N |
The owl the raven and the bat | O |
Clubb'd for a feather to his hat | O |
His coat a usurer's velvet pall | P |
Bequeath'd to Pluto corpse and all | Q |
But loath his person to expose | R |
Bare like a carcass pick'd by crows | R |
A lawyer o'er his hands and face | S |
Stuck artfully a parchment case | S |
No new flux'd rake show'd fairer skin | T |
Nor Phyllis after lying in | T |
With snuff was fill'd his ebon box | U |
Of shin bones rotted by the pox | U |
Nine spirits of blaspheming fops | U |
With aconite anoint his chops | U |
And give him words of dreadful sounds | U |
G d d n his blood and b d and w ds ' | V |
Thus furnish'd out he sent his train | W |
To take a house in Warwick lane | W |
The faculty his humble friends | U |
A complimental message sends | U |
Their president in scarlet gown | X |
Harangued and welcomed him to town | X |
But Death had business to dispatch | Y |
His mind was running on his match | Y |
And hearing much of Daphne's fame | Z |
His majesty of terrors came | Z |
Fine as a colonel of the guards | U |
To visit where she sat at cards | U |
She as he came into the room | A2 |
Thought him Adonis in his bloom | A2 |
And now her heart with pleasure jumps | U |
She scarce remembers what is trumps | U |
For such a shape of skin and bone | B2 |
Was never seen except her own | B2 |
Charm'd with his eyes and chin and snout | C2 |
Her pocket glass drew slily out | C2 |
And grew enamour'd with her phiz | U |
As just the counterpart of his | U |
She darted many a private glance | U |
And freely made the first advance | U |
Was of her beauty grown so vain | W |
She doubted not to win the swain | W |
Nothing she thought could sooner gain him | D2 |
Than with her wit to entertain him | D2 |
She ask'd about her friends below | J |
This meagre fop that batter'd beau | J |
Whether some late departed toasts | U |
Had got gallants among the ghosts | U |
If Chloe were a sharper still | E2 |
As great as ever at quadrille | E2 |
The ladies there must needs be rooks | U |
For cards we know are Pluto's books | U |
If Florimel had found her love | F2 |
For whom she hang'd herself above | F2 |
How oft a week was kept a ball | E2 |
By Proserpine at Pluto's hall | E2 |
She fancied those Elysian shades | U |
The sweetest place for masquerades | U |
How pleasant on the banks of Styx | U |
To troll it in a coach and six | U |
What pride a female heart inflames | U |
How endless are ambition's aims | U |
Cease haughty nymph the Fates decree | E |
Death must not be a spouse for thee | E |
For when by chance the meagre shade | H |
Upon thy hand his finger laid | H |
Thy hand as dry and cold as lead | G2 |
His matrimonial spirit fled | G2 |
He felt about his heart a damp | H2 |
That quite extinguished Cupid's lamp | H2 |
Away the frighted spectre scuds | U |
And leaves my lady in the suds | U |
Jonathan Swift
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