On Reading Dr. Young's Satire, Called The Universal Passion Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGHIIJJKK LLMNOOPPQQRRSSOOTTUU OOGGPVWW| If there be truth in what you sing | A |
| Such godlike virtues in the king | A |
| A minister so fill'd with zeal | B |
| And wisdom for the commonweal | B |
| If he who in the chair presides | C |
| So steadily the senate guides | C |
| If others whom you make your theme | D |
| Are seconds in the glorious scheme | D |
| If every peer whom you commend | E |
| To worth and learning be a friend | E |
| If this be truth as you attest | F |
| What land was ever half so blest | F |
| No falsehood now among the great | G |
| And tradesmen now no longer cheat | H |
| Now on the bench fair Justice shines | I |
| Her scale to neither side inclines | I |
| Now Pride and Cruelty are flown | J |
| And Mercy here exalts her throne | J |
| For such is good example's power | K |
| It does its office every hour | K |
| Where governors are good and wise | L |
| Or else the truest maxim lies | L |
| For so we find all ancient sages | M |
| Decree that ad exemplum regis | N |
| Through all the realm his virtues run | O |
| Ripening and kindling like the sun | O |
| If this be true then how much more | P |
| When you have named at least a score | P |
| Of courtiers each in their degree | Q |
| If possible as good as he | Q |
| Or take it in a different view | R |
| I ask if what you say be true | R |
| If you affirm the present age | S |
| Deserves your satire's keenest rage | S |
| If that same universal passion | O |
| With every vice has fill'd the nation | O |
| If virtue dares not venture down | T |
| A single step beneath the crown | T |
| If clergymen to show their wit | U |
| Praise classics more than holy writ | U |
| If bankrupts when they are undone | O |
| Into the senate house can run | O |
| And sell their votes at such a rate | G |
| As will retrieve a lost estate | G |
| If law be such a partial whore | P |
| To spare the rich and plague the poor | V |
| If these be of all crimes the worst | W |
| What land was ever half so curst | W |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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