Virtues That Pay Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDECC FGFGCC FEF CC HIHICC FJFKCC DLDLCC| You argue as sympathy governs your bias | A |
| That Wisdom distributes the capon and crust | B |
| Indulging the sinful and stinting the pious | A |
| Or starving the wicked and fattening the just | B |
| You are wrong to the Evil One hear what I say | C |
| There are ruinous virtues and virtues that pay | C |
| - | |
| If your purpose be saving your soul and your bacon | D |
| Fruition forthwith and a sweet by and bye | E |
| If your definite project stand clear and unshaken | D |
| A fatman on earth and a seraph on high | E |
| In working this out let it still be your lay | C |
| There are ruinous virtues and virtues that pay | C |
| - | |
| Such virtues are not of the workshop or cloister | F |
| They test every act by the way it pans out | G |
| They prompt you to seize on the world as your oyster | F |
| Inserting our knife with a spirit devout | G |
| For strait is the portal and narrow the way | C |
| Representing the route of the virtues that pay | C |
| - | |
| Men as good as yourself or most probably better | F |
| Have gone to the rear after many a try | E |
| A permanent wage slave a usurers' debtor | F |
| Reduced to the motto of 'Root hog or die ' | - |
| But their handicap dates from an earlier day | C |
| When they failed in espousals of virtues that pay | C |
| - | |
| There is nothing outre in the man with the bluey | H |
| He started like you for a goal undisclosed | I |
| But never in life can he come within coo ee | H |
| Though he may reach a goal with the vowels transposed | I |
| And a similar Sheol gapes fair in your way | C |
| If you turn out deficient in virtues that pay | C |
| - | |
| You must race like St Paul you must race for the dollar | F |
| No pause of compunction must ever intrude | J |
| You must watch you must pray never missing a collar | F |
| The course is severe and the company good | K |
| You must reverence the Thrift God and earnestly pray | C |
| To be grounded and built up in virtues that pay | C |
| - | |
| By this means you will serve the Almighty and Mammon | D |
| And die in a state of salvation and wealth | L |
| When the clergy without a suggestion of gammon | D |
| Will furnish your soul with a clean bill of health | L |
| So you'll sweep through the gates in your spotless array | C |
| A shining example of Virtues that pay | C |
Joseph Furphy
(2)
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