Strephon And Chloe Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIII JJHHKKLLMMNNOPQQRRSS JJTTUUVVWWPPGGAAXXXX YYZZWWXXWWWWXXXXXXWW XXXXNNOOZZXXWWXXA2A2 XXXXB2B2C2C2WWWWXXXX D2D2E2E2F2F2XXXXWWXX XXWWG2G2WWH2H2WWI2I2 J2J2CCXXK2K2L2L2IIXX XXM2M2WWN2N2XXWWXXXX XXJ2J2WL2YYWWWWXXXXX XWWXXXXWWXXWWXXXXB2B 2PPWWO2O2XXXXXXIIM2M 2WWD2D2P2P2IIXXXXXXW WWWXXXXL2L2Q2Q2XXXXN NE2E2XXJJYYXXR2R2WWW WXXPPS2S2WWXXXXWWXXW WWWXXXXT2T2WWB2B2XXT 2T2XXU2U2J2J2WW| Of Chloe all the town has rung | A |
| By ev'ry size of poets sung | A |
| So beautiful a nymph appears | B |
| But once in twenty thousand years | B |
| By Nature form'd with nicest care | C |
| And faultless to a single hair | C |
| Her graceful mien her shape and face | D |
| Confess'd her of no mortal race | D |
| And then so nice and so genteel | E |
| Such cleanliness from head to heel | E |
| No humours gross or frouzy steams | F |
| No noisome whiffs or sweaty streams | F |
| Before behind above below | G |
| Could from her taintless body flow | G |
| Would so discreetly things dispose | H |
| None ever saw her pluck a rose | H |
| Her dearest comrades never caught her | I |
| Squat on her hams to make maid's water | I |
| You'd swear that so divine a creature | I |
| Felt no necessities of nature | I |
| In summer had she walk'd the town | J |
| Her armpits would not stain her gown | J |
| At country dances not a nose | H |
| Could in the dog days smell her toes | H |
| Her milk white hands both palms and backs | K |
| Like ivory dry and soft as wax | K |
| Her hands the softest ever felt | L |
| Though cold would burn though dry would melt | L |
| Dear Venus hide this wond'rous maid | M |
| Nor let her loose to spoil your trade | M |
| While she engrosses ev'ry swain | N |
| You but o'er half the world can reign | N |
| Think what a case all men are now in | O |
| What ogling sighing toasting vowing | P |
| What powder'd wigs what flames and darts | Q |
| What hampers full of bleeding hearts | Q |
| What sword knots what poetic strains | R |
| What billets doux and clouded canes | R |
| But Strephon sigh'd so loud and strong | S |
| He blew a settlement along | S |
| And bravely drove his rivals down | J |
| With coach and six and house in town | J |
| The bashful nymph no more withstands | T |
| Because her dear papa commands | T |
| The charming couple now unites | U |
| Proceed we to the marriage rites | U |
| Imprimis at the Temple porch | V |
| Stood Hymen with a flaming torch | V |
| The smiling Cyprian Goddess brings | W |
| Her infant loves with purple wings | W |
| And pigeons billing sparrows treading | P |
| Fair emblems of a fruitful wedding | P |
| The Muses next in order follow | G |
| Conducted by their squire Apollo | G |
| Then Mercury with silver tongue | A |
| And Hebe goddess ever young | A |
| Behold the bridegroom and his bride | X |
| Walk hand in hand and side by side | X |
| She by the tender Graces drest | X |
| But he by Mars in scarlet vest | X |
| The nymph was cover'd with her flammeum | Y |
| And Phoebus sung th'epithalamium | Y |
| And last to make the matter sure | Z |
| Dame Juno brought a priest demure | Z |
| Luna was absent on pretence | W |
| Her time was not till nine months hence | W |
| The rites perform'd the parson paid | X |
| In state return'd the grand parade | X |
| With loud huzzas from all the boys | W |
| That now the pair must crown their joys | W |
| But still the hardest part remains | W |
| Strephon had long perplex'd his brains | W |
| How with so high a nymph he might | X |
| Demean himself the wedding night | X |
| For as he view'd his person round | X |
| Mere mortal flesh was all he found | X |
| His hand his neck his mouth and feet | X |
| Were duly wash'd to keep them sweet | X |
| With other parts that shall be nameless | W |
| The ladies else might think me shameless | W |
| The weather and his love were hot | X |
| And should he struggle I know what | X |
| Why let it go if I must tell it | X |
| He'll sweat and then the nymph may smell it | X |
| While she a goddess dyed in grain | N |
| Was unsusceptible of stain | N |
| And Venus like her fragrant skin | O |
| Exhaled ambrosia from within | O |
| Can such a deity endure | Z |
| A mortal human touch impure | Z |
| How did the humbled swain detest | X |
| His prickly beard and hairy breast | X |
| His night cap border'd round with lace | W |
| Could give no softness to his face | W |
| Yet if the goddess could be kind | X |
| What endless raptures must he find | X |
| And goddesses have now and then | A2 |
| Come down to visit mortal men | A2 |
| To visit and to court them too | X |
| A certain goddess God knows who | X |
| As in a book he heard it read | X |
| Took Col'nel Peleus to her bed | X |
| But what if he should lose his life | B2 |
| By vent'ring on his heavenly wife | B2 |
| For Strephon could remember well | C2 |
| That once he heard a school boy tell | C2 |
| How Semele of mortal race | W |
| By thunder died in Jove's embrace | W |
| And what if daring Strephon dies | W |
| By lightning shot from Chloe's eyes | W |
| While these reflections fill'd his head | X |
| The bride was put in form to bed | X |
| He follow'd stript and in he crept | X |
| But awfully his distance kept | X |
| Now ponder well ye parents dear | D2 |
| Forbid your daughters guzzling beer | D2 |
| And make them ev'ry afternoon | E2 |
| Forbear their tea or drink it soon | E2 |
| That ere to bed they venture up | F2 |
| They may discharge it ev'ry sup | F2 |
| If not they must in evil plight | X |
| Be often forc'd to rise at night | X |
| Keep them to wholesome food confin'd | X |
| Nor let them taste what causes wind | X |
| 'Tis this the sage of Samos means | W |
| Forbidding his disciples beans | W |
| O think what evils must ensue | X |
| Miss Moll the jade will burn it blue | X |
| And when she once has got the art | X |
| She cannot help it for her heart | X |
| But out it flies even when she meets | W |
| Her bridegroom in the wedding sheets | W |
| Carminative and diuretic | G2 |
| Will damp all passion sympathetic | G2 |
| And Love such nicety requires | W |
| One blast will put out all his fires | W |
| Since husbands get behind the scene | H2 |
| The wife should study to be clean | H2 |
| Nor give the smallest room to guess | W |
| The time when wants of nature press | W |
| But after marriage practise more | I2 |
| Decorum than she did before | I2 |
| To keep her spouse deluded still | J2 |
| And make him fancy what she will | J2 |
| In bed we left the married pair | C |
| 'Tis time to show how things went there | C |
| Strephon who had been often told | X |
| That fortune still assists the bold | X |
| Resolved to make the first attack | K2 |
| But Chloe drove him fiercely back | K2 |
| How could a nymph so chaste as Chloe | L2 |
| With constitution cold and snowy | L2 |
| Permit a brutish man to touch her | I |
| Ev'n lambs by instinct fly the butcher | I |
| Resistance on the wedding night | X |
| Is what our maidens claim by right | X |
| And Chloe 'tis by all agreed | X |
| Was maid in thought in word and deed | X |
| Yet some assign a different reason | M2 |
| That Strephon chose no proper season | M2 |
| Say fair ones must I make a pause | W |
| Or freely tell the secret cause | W |
| Twelve cups of tea with grief I speak | N2 |
| Had now constrain'd the nymph to leak | N2 |
| This point must needs be settled first | X |
| The bride must either void or burst | X |
| Then see the dire effects of pease | W |
| Think what can give the colic ease | W |
| The nymph oppress'd before behind | X |
| As ships are toss'd by waves and wind | X |
| Steals out her hand by nature led | X |
| And brings a vessel into bed | X |
| Fair utensil as smooth and white | X |
| As Chloe's skin almost as bright | X |
| Strephon who heard the fuming rill | J2 |
| As from a mossy cliff distil | J2 |
| Cried out Ye Gods what sound is this | W |
| Can Chloe heavenly Chloe | L2 |
| But when he smelt a noisome steam | Y |
| Which oft attends that lukewarm stream | Y |
| Salerno both together joins | W |
| As sov'reign med'cines for the loins | W |
| And though contriv'd we may suppose | W |
| To slip his ears yet struck his nose | W |
| He found her while the scent increast | X |
| As mortal as himself at least | X |
| But soon with like occasions prest | X |
| He boldly sent his hand in quest | X |
| Inspired with courage from his bride | X |
| To reach the pot on t'other side | X |
| And as he fill'd the reeking vase | W |
| Let fly a rouser in her face | W |
| The little Cupids hov'ring round | X |
| As pictures prove with garlands crown'd | X |
| Abash'd at what they saw and heard | X |
| Flew off nor ever more appear'd | X |
| Adieu to ravishing delights | W |
| High raptures and romantic flights | W |
| To goddesses so heav'nly sweet | X |
| Expiring shepherds at their feet | X |
| To silver meads and shady bowers | W |
| Dress'd up with amaranthine flowers | W |
| How great a change how quickly made | X |
| They learn to call a spade a spade | X |
| They soon from all constraint are freed | X |
| Can see each other do their need | X |
| On box of cedar sits the wife | B2 |
| And makes it warm for dearest life | B2 |
| And by the beastly way of thinking | P |
| Find great society in stinking | P |
| Now Strephon daily entertains | W |
| His Chloe in the homeliest strains | W |
| And Chloe more experienc'd grown | O2 |
| With int'rest pays him back his own | O2 |
| No maid at court is less asham'd | X |
| Howe'er for selling bargains fam'd | X |
| Than she to name her parts behind | X |
| Or when a bed to let out wind | X |
| Fair Decency celestial maid | X |
| Descend from Heaven to Beauty's aid | X |
| Though Beauty may beget desire | I |
| 'Tis thou must fan the Lover's fire | I |
| For Beauty like supreme dominion | M2 |
| Is best supported by Opinion | M2 |
| If Decency bring no supplies | W |
| Opinion falls and Beauty dies | W |
| To see some radiant nymph appear | D2 |
| In all her glitt'ring birth day gear | D2 |
| You think some goddess from the sky | P2 |
| Descended ready cut and dry | P2 |
| But ere you sell yourself to laughter | I |
| Consider well what may come after | I |
| For fine ideas vanish fast | X |
| While all the gross and filthy last | X |
| O Strephon ere that fatal day | X |
| When Chloe stole your heart away | X |
| Had you but through a cranny spy'd | X |
| On house of ease your future bride | X |
| In all the postures of her face | W |
| Which nature gives in such a case | W |
| Distortions groanings strainings heavings | W |
| 'Twere better you had lick'd her leavings | W |
| Than from experience find too late | X |
| Your goddess grown a filthy mate | X |
| Your fancy then had always dwelt | X |
| On what you saw and what you smelt | X |
| Would still the same ideas give ye | L2 |
| As when you spy'd her on the privy | L2 |
| And spite of Chloe's charms divine | Q2 |
| Your heart had been as whole as mine | Q2 |
| Authorities both old and recent | X |
| Direct that women must be decent | X |
| And from the spouse each blemish hide | X |
| More than from all the world beside | X |
| Unjustly all our nymphs complain | N |
| Their empire holds so short a reign | N |
| Is after marriage lost so soon | E2 |
| It hardly lasts the honey moon | E2 |
| For if they keep not what they caught | X |
| It is entirely their own fault | X |
| They take possession of the crown | J |
| And then throw all their weapons down | J |
| Though by the politician's scheme | Y |
| Whoe'er arrives at power supreme | Y |
| Those arts by which at first they gain it | X |
| They still must practise to maintain it | X |
| What various ways our females take | R2 |
| To pass for wits before a rake | R2 |
| And in the fruitless search pursue | W |
| All other methods but the true | W |
| Some try to learn polite behaviour | W |
| By reading books against their Saviour | W |
| Some call it witty to reflect | X |
| On ev'ry natural defect | X |
| Some shew they never want explaining | P |
| To comprehend a double meaning | P |
| But sure a tell tale out of school | S2 |
| Is of all wits the greatest fool | S2 |
| Whose rank imagination fills | W |
| Her heart and from her lips distils | W |
| You'd think she utter'd from behind | X |
| Or at her mouth was breaking wind | X |
| Why is a handsome wife ador'd | X |
| By every coxcomb but her lord | X |
| From yonder puppet man inquire | W |
| Who wisely hides his wood and wire | W |
| Shows Sheba's queen completely drest | X |
| And Solomon in royal vest | X |
| But view them litter'd on the floor | W |
| Or strung on pegs behind the door | W |
| Punch is exactly of a piece | W |
| With Lorrain's duke and prince of Greece | W |
| A prudent builder should forecast | X |
| How long the stuff is like to last | X |
| And carefully observe the ground | X |
| To build on some foundation sound | X |
| What house when its materials crumble | T2 |
| Must not inevitably tumble | T2 |
| What edifice can long endure | W |
| Raised on a basis unsecure | W |
| Rash mortals ere you take a wife | B2 |
| Contrive your pile to last for life | B2 |
| Since beauty scarce endures a day | X |
| And youth so swiftly glides away | X |
| Why will you make yourself a bubble | T2 |
| To build on sand with hay and stubble | T2 |
| On sense and wit your passion found | X |
| By decency cemented round | X |
| Let prudence with good nature strive | U2 |
| To keep esteem and love alive | U2 |
| Then come old age whene'er it will | J2 |
| Your friendship shall continue still | J2 |
| And thus a mutual gentle fire | W |
| Shall never but with life expire | W |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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About Strephon And Chloe
Strephon And Chloe is a poem by Jonathan Swift. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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