The Dean's Reasons For Not Building At Drapier's-hill Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEBBFFGGHIJJ KKLLGGMMNNOOPPQQBBRR SSTTUUVVBBWRXYVVZZRR A2A2B2C2DDD2D2BBSSE2 E2OOF2F2PPSSG2H2RRH2 H2RRH2H2H2H2H2H2GGSS H2H2I2I2RRJ2K2H2H2GG L2L2| I will not build on yonder mount | A |
| And should you call me to account | A |
| Consulting with myself I find | B |
| It was no levity of mind | B |
| Whate'er I promised or intended | C |
| No fault of mine the scheme is ended | C |
| Nor can you tax me as unsteady | D |
| I have a hundred causes ready | D |
| All risen since that flattering time | E |
| When Drapier's Hill appear'd in rhyme | E |
| I am as now too late I find | B |
| The greatest cully of mankind | B |
| The lowest boy in Martin's school | F |
| May turn and wind me like a fool | F |
| How could I form so wild a vision | G |
| To seek in deserts Fields Elysian | G |
| To live in fear suspicion variance | H |
| With thieves fanatics and barbarians | I |
| But here my lady will object | J |
| Your deanship ought to recollect | J |
| That near the knight of Gosford placed | K |
| Whom you allow a man of taste | K |
| Your intervals of time to spend | L |
| With so conversable a friend | L |
| It would not signify a pin | G |
| Whatever climate you were in | G |
| 'Tis true but what advantage comes | M |
| To me from all a usurer's plums | M |
| Though I should see him twice a day | N |
| And am his neighbour 'cross the way | N |
| If all my rhetoric must fail | O |
| To strike him for a pot of ale | O |
| Thus when the learned and the wise | P |
| Conceal their talents from our eyes | P |
| And from deserving friends withhold | Q |
| Their gifts as misers do their gold | Q |
| Their knowledge to themselves confined | B |
| Is the same avarice of mind | B |
| Nor makes their conversation better | R |
| Than if they never knew a letter | R |
| Such is the fate of Gosford's knight | S |
| Who keeps his wisdom out of sight | S |
| Whose uncommunicative heart | T |
| Will scarce one precious word impart | T |
| Still rapt in speculations deep | U |
| His outward senses fast asleep | U |
| Who while I talk a song will hum | V |
| Or with his fingers beat the drum | V |
| Beyond the skies transports his mind | B |
| And leaves a lifeless corpse behind | B |
| But as for me who ne'er could clamber high | W |
| To understand Malebranche or Cambray | R |
| Who send my mind as I believe less | X |
| Than others do on errands sleeveless | Y |
| Can listen to a tale humdrum | V |
| And with attention read Tom Thumb | V |
| My spirits with my body progging | Z |
| Both hand in hand together jogging | Z |
| Sunk over head and ears in matter | R |
| Nor can of metaphysics smatter | R |
| Am more diverted with a quibble | A2 |
| Than dream of words intelligible | A2 |
| And think all notions too abstracted | B2 |
| Are like the ravings of a crackt head | C2 |
| What intercourse of minds can be | D |
| Betwixt the knight sublime and me | D |
| If when I talk as talk I must | D2 |
| It is but prating to a bust | D2 |
| Where friendship is by Fate design'd | B |
| It forms a union in the mind | B |
| But here I differ from the knight | S |
| In every point like black and white | S |
| For none can say that ever yet | E2 |
| We both in one opinion met | E2 |
| Not in philosophy or ale | O |
| In state affairs or planting kale | O |
| In rhetoric or picking straws | F2 |
| In roasting larks or making laws | F2 |
| In public schemes or catching flies | P |
| In parliaments or pudding pies | P |
| The neighbours wonder why the knight | S |
| Should in a country life delight | S |
| Who not one pleasure entertains | G2 |
| To cheer the solitary scenes | H2 |
| His guests are few his visits rare | R |
| Nor uses time nor time will spare | R |
| Nor rides nor walks nor hunts nor fowls | H2 |
| Nor plays at cards or dice or bowls | H2 |
| But seated in an easy chair | R |
| Despises exercise and air | R |
| His rural walks he ne'er adorns | H2 |
| Here poor Pomona sits on thorns | H2 |
| And there neglected Flora settles | H2 |
| Her bum upon a bed of nettles | H2 |
| Those thankless and officious cares | H2 |
| I used to take in friends' affairs | H2 |
| From which I never could refrain | G |
| And have been often chid in vain | G |
| From these I am recover'd quite | S |
| At least in what regards the knight | S |
| Preserve his health his store increase | H2 |
| May nothing interrupt his peace | H2 |
| But now let all his tenants round | I2 |
| First milk his cows and after pound | I2 |
| Let every cottager conspire | R |
| To cut his hedges down for fire | R |
| The naughty boys about the village | J2 |
| His crabs and sloes may freely pillage | K2 |
| He still may keep a pack of knaves | H2 |
| To spoil his work and work by halves | H2 |
| His meadows may be dug by swine | G |
| It shall be no concern of mine | G |
| For why should I continue still | L2 |
| To serve a friend against his will | L2 |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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About The Dean's Reasons For Not Building At Drapier's-hill
The Dean's Reasons For Not Building At Drapier's-hill is a poem by Jonathan Swift. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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