Desire And Possession 1727 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEBBFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLMMNOKKPPFFQQQQQQ RRSSTTUUQQQQLLQQVV'Tis strange what different thoughts inspire | A |
In men Possession and Desire | B |
Think what they wish so great a blessing | C |
So disappointed when possessing | C |
A moralist profoundly sage | D |
I know not in what book or page | D |
Or whether o'er a pot of ale | E |
Related thus the following tale | E |
Possession and Desire his brother | B |
But still at variance with each other | B |
Were seen contending in a race | F |
And kept at first an equal pace | F |
'Tis said their course continued long | G |
For this was active that was strong | G |
Till Envy Slander Sloth and Doubt | H |
Misled them many a league about | H |
Seduced by some deceiving light | I |
They take the wrong way for the right | I |
Through slippery by roads dark and deep | J |
They often climb and often creep | J |
Desire the swifter of the two | K |
Along the plain like lightning flew | K |
Till entering on a broad highway | L |
Where power and titles scatter'd lay | L |
He strove to pick up all he found | M |
And by excursions lost his ground | M |
No sooner got than with disdain | N |
He threw them on the ground again | O |
And hasted forward to pursue | K |
Fresh objects fairer to his view | K |
In hope to spring some nobler game | P |
But all he took was just the same | P |
Too scornful now to stop his pace | F |
He spurn'd them in his rival's face | F |
Possession kept the beaten road | Q |
And gather'd all his brother strew'd | Q |
But overcharged and out of wind | Q |
Though strong in limbs he lagg'd behind | Q |
Desire had now the goal in sight | Q |
It was a tower of monstrous height | Q |
Where on the summit Fortune stands | R |
A crown and sceptre in her hands | R |
Beneath a chasm as deep as Hell | S |
Where many a bold adventurer fell | S |
Desire in rapture gazed awhile | T |
And saw the treacherous goddess smile | T |
But as he climb'd to grasp the crown | U |
She knock'd him with the sceptre down | U |
He tumbled in the gulf profound | Q |
There doom'd to whirl an endless round | Q |
Possession's load was grown so great | Q |
He sunk beneath the cumbrous weight | Q |
And as he now expiring lay | L |
Flocks every ominous bird of prey | L |
The raven vulture owl and kite | Q |
At once upon his carcass light | Q |
And strip his hide and pick his bones | V |
Regardless of his dying groans | V |
Jonathan Swift
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