For My Own Monument Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDED FGFB HIHI JKLK MNON PQIQ BRBR| As doctors give physic by way of prevention | A |
| Mat alive and in health of his tombstone took care | B |
| For delays are unsafe and his pious intention | A |
| May haply be never fulfill'd by his heir | B |
| - | |
| Then take Mat's word for it the sculptor is paid | C |
| That the figure is fine pray believe your own eye | D |
| Yet credit but lightly what more may be said | E |
| For we flatter ourselves and teach marble to lie | D |
| - | |
| Yet counting as far as to fifty his years | F |
| His virtues and vices were as other men's are | G |
| High hopes he conceived and he smother'd great fears | F |
| In a life parti colour'd half pleasure half care | B |
| - | |
| Nor to business a drudge nor to faction a slave | H |
| He strove to make int'rest and freedom agree | I |
| In public employments industrious and grave | H |
| And alone with his friends Lord how merry was he | I |
| - | |
| Now in equipage stately now humbly on foot | J |
| Both fortunes he tried but to neither would trust | K |
| And whirl'd in the round as the wheel turn'd about | L |
| He found riches had wings and knew man was but dust | K |
| - | |
| This verse little polish'd tho' mighty sincere | M |
| Sets neither his titles nor merit to view | N |
| It says that his relics collected lie here | O |
| And no mortal yet knows too if this may be true | N |
| - | |
| Fierce robbers there are that infest the highway | P |
| So Mat may be kill'd and his bones never found | Q |
| False witness at court and fierce tempests at sea | I |
| So Mat may yet chance to be hang'd or be drown'd | Q |
| - | |
| If his bones lie in earth roll in sea fly in air | B |
| To Fate we must yield and the thing is the same | R |
| And if passing thou giv'st him a smile or a tear | B |
| He cares not yet prithee be kind to his fame | R |
Matthew Prior
(1)
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