An Ode : On Exodus Iii. 14 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDDCCCCC CCCCCCEF CCCCGGG HHIIIFFJFCCJ KKLLMCLCNOPPOO EDQRQERSSSSSSSTT SSCCBSSUVWXXYBZVN CA2B2CHCHCC2KGD2SSG WWE2SSCCCCCCCC

On Exodus iii 'I am that I am 'A
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Man foolish manB
Scarce know'st thou how thyself beganB
Scarce hadst thou thought enough to prove thou artC
Yet steel'd with studied boldness thou darest tryD
To send thy doubting Reason's dazzled eyeD
Through the mysterious gulf of vast immensityC
Much thou canst there discern much thence impartC
Vain wretch suppress thy knowing prideC
Mortify thy learned lustC
Vain are thy thoughts while thou thyself art dustC
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Let wit her sails her oars let wisdom lendC
The helm let politic experience guideC
Yet cease to hope thy short lived bark shall rideC
Down spreading Fate's unnavigable tideC
What though still it farther tendC
Still 'tis farther from its endC
And in the bosom of that boundless seaE
Still finds its error lengthen with its wayF
-
With daring pride and insolent delightC
Your doubts resolved you boast your labours crown'dC
And EYPHKA your God forsooth is foundC
Incomprehensible and infiniteC
But is he therefore found vain searcher noG
Let your imperfect definition showG
That nothing you the weak definer knowG
-
Say why should the collected mainH
Itself within itself containH
Why to its caverns should it sometimes creepI
And with delighted silence sleepI
On the loved bosom of its parent deepI
Why should its numerous waters stayF
In comely discipline and fair arrayF
Till winds and tides exert their high commandsJ
Then prompt and ready to obeyF
Why do the rising surges spreadC
Their opening ranks o'er earth's submissive headC
Marching through different paths to different landsJ
-
Why does the constant sunK
With measured steps his radiant journeys runK
Why does he order the diurnal hoursL
To leave earth's other part and rise in oursL
Why does he wake the correspondent moonM
And fill her willing lamp with liquid lightC
Commanding her with delegated powersL
To beautify the world and bless the nightC
Why does each animated starN
Love the just limits of its proper sphereO
Why does each consenting signP
With prudent harmony combineP
In turns to move and subsequent appearO
To gird the globe and regulate the yearO
-
Man does with dangerous curiosityE
These unfathom'd wonders tryD
With fancied rules and arbitrary lawsQ
Matter and motion he restrainsR
And studied lines and fictious circles drawsQ
Then with imagined sovereigntyE
Lord of his new hypothesis he reignsR
He reigns how long till some usurper riseS
And he too mighty thoughtful mighty wiseS
Studies new lines and other circles feignsS
From this last toil again what knowledge flowsS
Just as much perhaps as showsS
That all his predecessor's rulesS
Were empty cant all jargon of the schoolsS
That he on t'other's ruin rears his throneT
And shows his friend's mistake and thence confirms his ownT
-
On earth in air amidst the seas and skiesS
Mountainous heaps of wonders riseS
Whose towering strength will ne'er submitC
To Reason's batteries or the mines of WitC
Yet still inquiring still mistaking manB
Each hour repulsed each hour dares onward pressS
And levelling at God his wandering guessS
That feeble engine of his reasoning warU
Which guides his doubts and combats his despairV
Laws to his Maker the learn'd wretch can giveW
Can bound that nature and prescribe that willX
Whose pregnant Word did either ocean fillX
Can tell us whence all beings are and how they move and liveY
Through either ocean foolish manB
That pregnant Word sent forth againZ
Might to a world extend each atom thereV
For every drop call forth a sea a heaven for every starN
-
Let cunning earth her fruitful wonders hideC
And only lift thy staggering reason upA2
To trembling Calvary's astonish'd topB2
Then mock thy knowledge and confound thy prideC
Explaining how Perfection suffer'd painH
Almighty languish'd and Eternal diedC
How by her patient victor Death was slainH
And earth profaned yet bless'd with DeicideC
Then down with all thy boasted volumes downC2
Only reserve the sacred oneK
Low reverently lowG
Make thy stubborn knowledge bowD2
Weep out thy reason's and thy body's eyesS
Deject thyself that thou may'st riseS
To look to heaven to blind to all belowG
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Then Faith for Reason's glimmering light shall giveW
Her immortal perspectiveW
And Grace's presence Nature's loss retrieveE2
Then thy enliven'd soul shall seeS
That all the volumes of philosophyS
With all their comments never could inventC
So politic an instrumentC
To reach the heaven of heavens the high abodeC
Where Moses places his mysterious GodC
As was the ladder which old Jacob rear'dC
When light divine had human darkness clear'dC
And his enlarged ideas found the roadC
Which faith had dictated and angels trodC

Matthew Prior



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