To Mr. Delany,[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFGGHHDDIIJJ KKLLMNOOPPQQRRSSTTUU VVWWDDXXYYZA2JJB2B2C 2C2D2D2E2E2F2F2AAG2G 2H2H2I2I2J2K2K2K2L2L 2D2EM2M2K2K2BBK2K2PP K2K2H2H2H2H2K2K2TTH2 H2K2K2H2H2H2H2H2H2N2 N2OCT NINE IN THE MORNING | A |
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To you whose virtues I must own | B |
With shame I have too lately known | B |
To you by art and nature taught | C |
To be the man I long have sought | C |
Had not ill Fate perverse and blind | D |
Placed you in life too far behind | D |
Or what I should repine at more | E |
Placed me in life too far before | E |
To you the Muse this verse bestows | F |
Which might as well have been in prose | F |
No thought no fancy no sublime | G |
But simple topics told in rhyme | G |
Three gifts for conversation fit | H |
Are humour raillery and wit | H |
The last as boundless as the wind | D |
Is well conceived though not defined | D |
For sure by wit is only meant | I |
Applying what we first invent | I |
What humour is not all the tribe | J |
Of logic mongers can describe | J |
Here only nature acts her part | K |
Unhelp'd by practice books or art | K |
For wit and humour differ quite | L |
That gives surprise and this delight | L |
Humour is odd grotesque and wild | M |
Only by affectation spoil'd | N |
'Tis never by invention got | O |
Men have it when they know it not | O |
Our conversation to refine | P |
True humour must with wit combine | P |
From both we learn to rally well | Q |
Wherein French writers most excel | Q |
Voiture in various lights displays | R |
That irony which turns to praise | R |
His genius first found out the rule | S |
For an obliging ridicule | S |
He flatters with peculiar air | T |
The brave the witty and the fair | T |
And fools would fancy he intends | U |
A satire where he most commends | U |
But as a poor pretending beau | V |
Because he fain would make a show | V |
Nor can afford to buy gold lace | W |
Takes up with copper in the place | W |
So the pert dunces of mankind | D |
Whene'er they would be thought refined | D |
Because the diff'rence lies abstruse | X |
'Twixt raillery and gross abuse | X |
To show their parts will scold and rail | Y |
Like porters o'er a pot of ale | Y |
Such is that clan of boisterous bears | Z |
Always together by the ears | A2 |
Shrewd fellows and arch wags a tribe | J |
That meet for nothing but to gibe | J |
Who first run one another down | B2 |
And then fall foul on all the town | B2 |
Skill'd in the horse laugh and dry rub | C2 |
And call'd by excellence The Club | C2 |
I mean your butler Dawson Car | D2 |
All special friends and always jar | D2 |
The mettled and the vicious steed | E2 |
Do not more differ in their breed | E2 |
Nay Voiture is as like Tom Leigh | F2 |
As rudeness is to repartee | F2 |
If what you said I wish unspoke | A |
'Twill not suffice it was a joke | A |
Reproach not though in jest a friend | G2 |
For those defects he cannot mend | G2 |
His lineage calling shape or sense | H2 |
If named with scorn gives just offence | H2 |
What use in life to make men fret | I2 |
Part in worse humour than they met | I2 |
Thus all society is lost | J2 |
Men laugh at one another's cost | K2 |
And half the company is teazed | K2 |
That came together to be pleased | K2 |
For all buffoons have most in view | L2 |
To please themselves by vexing you | L2 |
When jests are carried on too far | D2 |
And the loud laugh begins the war | E |
You keep your countenance for shame | M2 |
Yet still you think your friend to blame | M2 |
For though men cry they love a jest | K2 |
'Tis but when others stand the test | K2 |
And would you have their meaning known | B |
They love a jest when 'tis their own | B |
You wonder now to see me write | K2 |
So gravely where the subject's light | K2 |
Some part of what I here design | P |
Regards a friend of yours and mine | P |
Who full of humour fire and wit | K2 |
Not always judges what is fit | K2 |
But loves to take prodigious rounds | H2 |
And sometimes walks beyond his bounds | H2 |
You must although the point be nice | H2 |
Venture to give him some advice | H2 |
Few hints from you will set him right | K2 |
And teach him how to be polite | K2 |
Bid him like you observe with care | T |
Whom to be hard on whom to spare | T |
Nor indiscreetly to suppose | H2 |
All subjects like Dan Jackson's nose | H2 |
To study the obliging jest | K2 |
By reading those who teach it best | K2 |
For prose I recommend Voiture's | H2 |
For verse I speak my judgment yours | H2 |
He'll find the secret out from thence | H2 |
To rhyme all day without offence | H2 |
And I no more shall then accuse | H2 |
The flirts of his ill manner'd Muse | H2 |
If he be guilty you must mend him | N2 |
If he be innocent defend him | N2 |
Jonathan Swift
(1)
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