The Pheasant And The Lark; A Fable By Dr. Delany Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BC DDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMM NOPPQQMCMMRRSSTTUUVW XXYYZZA2A2B2C2D2D2E2 E2IIMMHHF2YMMCCG2G2H 2H2HHI2J2K2ZF2F2L2L2 HHM2M2CCN2N2HHTTM2M2 BBO2O2CCHHHHHHBBP2P2 Q2Q2P2P2HHZZR2S2BBQ2 Q2P2P2T2T2YYU2U2HHZV 2YYK2ZBBP2P2W2W2P2P2 DDM2M2HHA | |
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quis iniquae | B |
Tam patiens urbis tam ferreus ut teneat se Juv i | C |
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In ancient times as bards indite | D |
If clerks have conn'd the records right | D |
A peacock reign'd whose glorious sway | E |
His subjects with delight obey | E |
His tail was beauteous to behold | F |
Replete with goodly eyes and gold | F |
Fair emblem of that monarch's guise | G |
Whose train at once is rich and wise | G |
And princely ruled he many regions | H |
And statesmen wise and valiant legions | H |
A pheasant lord above the rest | I |
With every grace and talent blest | I |
Was sent to sway with all his skill | J |
The sceptre of a neighbouring hill | J |
No science was to him unknown | K |
For all the arts were all his own | K |
In all the living learned read | L |
Though more delighted with the dead | L |
For birds if ancient tales say true | M |
Had then their Popes and Homers too | M |
Could read and write in prose and verse | N |
And speak like and build like Pearce | O |
He knew their voices and their wings | P |
Who smoothest soars who sweetest sings | P |
Who toils with ill fledged pens to climb | Q |
And who attain'd the true sublime | Q |
Their merits he could well descry | M |
He had so exquisite an eye | C |
And when that fail'd to show them clear | M |
He had as exquisite an ear | M |
It chanced as on a day he stray'd | R |
Beneath an academic shade | R |
He liked amidst a thousand throats | S |
The wildness of a Woodlark's notes | S |
And search'd and spied and seized his game | T |
And took him home and made him tame | T |
Found him on trial true and able | U |
So cheer'd and fed him at his table | U |
Here some shrewd critic finds I'm caught | V |
And cries out Better fed than taught Then | W |
jests on game and tame and reads | X |
And jests and so my tale proceeds | X |
Long had he studied in the wood | Y |
Conversing with the wise and good | Y |
His soul with harmony inspired | Z |
With love of truth and virtue fired | Z |
His brethren's good and Maker's praise | A2 |
Were all the study of his lays | A2 |
Were all his study in retreat | B2 |
And now employ'd him with the great | C2 |
His friendship was the sure resort | D2 |
Of all the wretched at the court | D2 |
But chiefly merit in distress | E2 |
His greatest blessing was to bless | E2 |
This fix'd him in his patron's breast | I |
But fired with envy all the rest | I |
I mean that noisy craving crew | M |
Who round the court incessant flew | M |
And prey'd like rooks by pairs and dozens | H |
To fill the maws of sons and cousins | H |
Unmoved their heart and chill'd their blood | F2 |
To every thought of common good | Y |
Confining every hope and care | M |
To their own low contracted sphere | M |
These ran him down with ceaseless cry | C |
But found it hard to tell you why | C |
Till his own worth and wit supplied | G2 |
Sufficient matter to deride | G2 |
'Tis envy's safest surest rule | H2 |
To hide her rage in ridicule | H2 |
The vulgar eye she best beguiles | H |
When all her snakes are deck'd with smiles | H |
Sardonic smiles by rancour raised | I2 |
Tormented most when seeming pleased | J2 |
Their spite had more than half expired | K2 |
Had he not wrote what all admired | Z |
What morsels had their malice wanted | F2 |
But that he built and plann'd and planted | F2 |
How had his sense and learning grieved them | L2 |
But that his charity relieved them | L2 |
At highest worth dull malice reaches | H |
As slugs pollute the fairest peaches | H |
Envy defames as harpies vile | M2 |
Devour the food they first defile | M2 |
Now ask the fruit of all his favour | C |
He was not hitherto a saver | C |
What then could make their rage run mad | N2 |
Why what he hoped not what he had | N2 |
What tyrant e'er invented ropes | H |
Or racks or rods to punish hopes | H |
Th' inheritance of hope and fame | T |
Is seldom Earthly Wisdom's aim | T |
Or if it were is not so small | M2 |
But there is room enough for all | M2 |
If he but chance to breathe a song | B |
He seldom sang and never long | B |
The noisy rude malignant crowd | O2 |
Where it was high pronounced it loud | O2 |
Plain Truth was Pride and what was sillier | C |
Easy and Friendly was Familiar | C |
Or if he tuned his lofty lays | H |
With solemn air to Virtue's praise | H |
Alike abusive and erroneous | H |
They call'd it hoarse and inharmonious | H |
Yet so it was to souls like theirs | H |
Tuneless as Abel to the bears | H |
A Rook with harsh malignant caw | B |
Began was follow'd by a Daw | B |
Though some who would be thought to know | P2 |
Are positive it was a crow | P2 |
Jack Daw was seconded by Tit | Q2 |
Tom Tit could write and so he writ | Q2 |
A tribe of tuneless praters follow | P2 |
The Jay the Magpie and the Swallow | P2 |
And twenty more their throats let loose | H |
Down to the witless waddling Goose | H |
Some peck'd at him some flew some flutter'd | Z |
Some hiss'd some scream'd and others mutter'd | Z |
The Crow on carrion wont to feast | R2 |
The Carrion Crow condemn'd his taste | S2 |
The Rook in earnest too not joking | B |
Swore all his singing was but croaking | B |
Some thought they meant to show their wit | Q2 |
Might think so still but that they writ | Q2 |
Could it be spite or envy No | P2 |
Who did no ill could have no foe | P2 |
So wise Simplicity esteem'd | T2 |
Quite otherwise True Wisdom deem'd | T2 |
This question rightly understood | Y |
What more provokes than doing good | Y |
A soul ennobled and refined | U2 |
Reproaches every baser mind | U2 |
As strains exalted and melodious | H |
Make every meaner music odious | H |
At length the Nightingale was heard | Z |
For voice and wisdom long revered | V2 |
Esteem'd of all the wise and good | Y |
The Guardian Genius of the wood | Y |
He long in discontent retired | K2 |
Yet not obscured but more admired | Z |
His brethren's servile souls disdaining | B |
He lived indignant and complaining | B |
They now afresh provoke his choler | P2 |
It seems the Lark had been his scholar | P2 |
A favourite scholar always near him | W2 |
And oft had waked whole nights to hear him | W2 |
Enraged he canvasses the matter | P2 |
Exposes all their senseless chatter | P2 |
Shows him and them in such a light | D |
As more inflames yet quells their spite | D |
They hear his voice and frighted fly | M2 |
For rage had raised it very high | M2 |
Shamed by the wisdom of his notes | H |
They hide their heads and hush their throats | H |
Jonathan Swift
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