Ode To The Hon. Sir William Temple Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Jonathan Swift

Ode To The Hon. Sir William Temple Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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WRITTEN AT MOOR PARK IN JUNE	A
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I	-
	-
Virtue the greatest of all monarchies	B
Till its first emperor rebellious man	C
Deposed from off his seat	D
It fell and broke with its own weight	E
Into small states and principalities	B
By many a petty lord possess'd	F
But ne'er since seated in one single breast	F
'Tis you who must this land subdue	G
The mighty conquest's left for you	G
The conquest and discovery too	G
Search out this Utopian ground	H
Virtue's Terra Incognita	H
Where none ever led the way	I
Nor ever since but in descriptions found	H
Like the philosopher's stone	J
With rules to search it yet obtain'd by none	K
	-
	-
II	-
	-
We have too long been led astray	I
Too long have our misguided souls been taught	H
With rules from musty morals brought	H
'Tis you must put us in the way	I
Let us for shame no more be fed	H
With antique relics of the dead	H
The gleanings of philosophy	L
Philosophy the lumber of the schools	M
The roguery of alchymy	N
And we the bubbled fools	M
Spend all our present life in hopes of golden rules	M
	-
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III	-
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But what does our proud ignorance Learning call	O
We oddly Plato's paradox make good	H
Our knowledge is but mere remembrance all	O
Remembrance is our treasure and our food	H
Nature's fair table book our tender souls	P
We scrawl all o'er with old and empty rules	M
Stale memorandums of the schools	M
For learning's mighty treasures look	Q
Into that deep grave a book	Q
Think that she there does all her treasures hide	H
And that her troubled ghost still haunts there since she died	H
Confine her walks to colleges and schools	M
Her priests her train and followers show	R
As if they all were spectres too	H
They purchase knowledge at th'expense	S
Of common breeding common sense	S
And grow at once scholars and fools	M
Affect ill manner'd pedantry	L
Rudeness ill nature incivility	L
And sick with dregs and knowledge grown	J
Which greedily they swallow down	T
Still cast it up and nauseate company	L
	-
	-
IV	L
	-
Curst be the wretch nay doubly curst	L
If it may lawful be	L
To curse our greatest enemy	L
Who learn'd himself that heresy first	L
Which since has seized on all the rest	L
That knowledge forfeits all humanity	L
Taught us like Spaniards to be proud and poor	U
And fling our scraps before our door	V
Thrice happy you have 'scaped this general pest	L
Those mighty epithets learned good and great	L
Which we ne'er join'd before but in romances meet	L
We find in you at last united grown	J
You cannot be compared to one	K
I must like him that painted Venus' face	W
Borrow from every one a grace	W
Virgil and Epicurus will not do	L
Their courting a retreat like you	L
Unless I put in Caesar's learning too	L
Your happy frame at once controls	P
This great triumvirate of souls	P
	-
	-
V	L
	-
Let not old Rome boast Fabius' fate	L
He sav'd his country by delays	X
But you by peace	Y
You bought it at a cheaper rate	L
Nor has it left the usual bloody scar	Z
To show it cost its price in war	V
War that mad game the world so loves to play	I
And for it does so dearly pay	I
For though with loss or victory a while	A2
Fortune the gamesters does beguile	A2
Yet at the last the box sweeps all away	I
	-
	-
VI	L
	-
Only the laurel got by peace	Y
No thunder e'er can blast	L
Th'artillery of the skies	B2
Shoots to the earth and dies	B2
And ever green and flourishing 'twill last	L
Nor dipt in blood nor widows' tears nor orphans' cries	B2
About the head crown'd with these bays	X
Like lambent fire the lightning plays	X
Nor its triumphal cavalcade to grace	W
Makes up its solemn train with death	C2
It melts the sword of war yet keeps it in the sheath	D2
	-
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VII	L
	-
The wily shafts of state those jugglers' tricks	E2
Which we call deep designs and politics	E2
As in a theatre the ignorant fry	L
Because the cords escape their eye	L
Wonder to see the motions fly	L
Methinks when you expose the scene	F2
Down the ill organ'd engines fall	O
Off fly the vizards and discover all	O
How plain I see through the deceit	L
How shallow and how gross the cheat	L
Look where the pulley's tied above	L
Great God said I what have I seen	F2
On what poor engines move	L
The thoughts of monarchs and designs of states	G2
What petty motives rule their fates	G2
How the mouse makes the mighty mountains shake	H2
The mighty mountain labours with its birth	I2
Away the frighten'd peasants fly	L
Scared at the unheard of prodigy	L
Expect some great gigantic son of earth	I2
Lo it appears	J2
See how they tremble how they quake	H2
Out starts the little beast and mocks their idle fears	J2
	-
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VIII	L
	-
Then tell dear favourite Muse	K2
What serpent's that which still resorts	L2
Still lurks in palaces and courts	L2
Take thy unwonted flight	L
And on the terrace light	L
See where she lies	B2
See how she rears her head	L
And rolls about her dreadful eyes	B2
To drive all virtue out or look it dead	L
'Twas sure this basilisk sent Temple thence	S
And though as some 'tis said for their defence	S
Have worn a casement o'er their skin	M2
So wore he his within	M2
Made up of virtue and transparent innocence	N2
And though he oft renew'd the fight	L
And almost got priority of sight	L
He ne'er could overcome her quite	L
In pieces cut the viper still did reunite	L
Till at last tired with loss of time and ease	B
Resolved to give himself as well as country peace	Y
	-
	-
IX	Y
	-
Sing beloved Muse the pleasures of retreat	L
And in some untouch'd virgin strain	O2
Show the delights thy sister Nature yields	Y
Sing of thy vales sing of thy woods sing of thy fields	Y
Go publish o'er the plain	O2
How mighty a proselyte you gain	O2
How noble a reprisal on the great	L
How is the Muse luxuriant grown	J
Whene'er she takes this flight	L
She soars clear out of sight	L
These are the paradises of her own	J
Thy Pegasus like an unruly horse	Y
Though ne'er so gently led	L
To the loved pastures where he used to feed	L
Runs violent o'er his usual course	Y
Wake from thy wanton dreams	Y
Come from thy dear loved streams	Y
The crooked paths of wandering Thames	Y
Fain the fair nymph would stay	I
Oft she looks back in vain	O2
Oft 'gainst her fountain does complain	O2
And softly steals in many windings down	T
As loth to see the hated court and town	T
And murmurs as she glides away	I
	-
	-
X	Y
	-
In this new happy scene	F2
Are nobler subjects for your learned pen	P2
Here we expect from you	L
More than your predecessor Adam knew	L
Whatever moves our wonder or our sport	L
Whatever serves for innocent emblems of the court	L
How that which we a kernel see	Y
Whose well compacted forms escape the light	L
Unpierced by the blunt rays of sight	L
Shall ere long grow into a tree	Y
Whence takes it its increase and whence its birth	I2
Or from the sun or from the air or from the earth	I2
Where all the fruitful atoms lie	L
How some go downward to the root	L
Some more ambitious upwards fly	L
And form the leaves the branches and the fruit	L
You strove to cultivate a barren court in vain	O2
Your garden's better worth your nobler pain	O2
Here mankind fell and hence must rise again	P2
	-
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XI	Y
	-
Shall I believe a spirit so divine	Q2
Was cast in the same mould with mine	Q2
Why then does Nature so unjustly share	R2
Among her elder sons the whole estate	L
And all her jewels and her plate	L
Poor we cadets of Heaven not worth her care	R2
Take up at best with lumber and the leavings of a fare	R2
Some she binds 'prentice to the spade	L
Some to the drudgery of a trade	L
Some she does to Egyptian bondage draw	S2
Bids us make bricks yet sends us to look out for straw	S2
Some she condemns for life to try	L
To dig the leaden mines of deep philosophy	Y
Me she has to the Muse's galleys tied	L
In vain I strive to cross the spacious main	O2
In vain I tug and pull the oar	V
And when I almost reach the shore	V
Straight the Muse turns the helm and I launch out again	P2
And yet to feed my pride	L
Whene'er I mourn stops my complaining breath	C2
With promise of a mad reversion after death	C2
	-
	-
XII	Y
	-
Then Sir accept this worthless verse	Y
The tribute of an humble Muse	Y
'Tis all the portion of my niggard stars	Y
Nature the hidden spark did at my birth infuse	Y
And kindled first with indolence and ease	Y
And since too oft debauch'd by praise	Y
'Tis now grown an incurable disease	Y
In vain to quench this foolish fire I try	L
In wisdom and philosophy	Y
In vain all wholesome herbs I sow	Y
Where nought but weeds will grow	R
Whate'er I plant like corn on barren earth	I2
By an equivocal birth	I2
Seeds and runs up to poetry	Y