A New Simile Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFGHII JJKKCCLL FFEEFFMM NOFFPQRRSSII TTBBFFUUVVWW VVXXYYFFFFIN THE MANNER OF SWIFT | A |
- | |
LONG had I sought in vain to find | B |
A likeness for the scribbling kind | B |
The modern scribbling kind who write | C |
In wit and sense and nature's spite | C |
Till reading I forget what day on | D |
A chapter out of Tooke's Pantheon | D |
I think I met with something there | E |
To suit my purpose to a hair | E |
But let us not proceed too furious | F |
First please to turn to god Mercurius | F |
You'll find him pictur'd at full length | G |
In book the second page the tenth | H |
The stress of all my proofs on him I lay | I |
And now proceed we to our simile | I |
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Imprimis pray observe his hat | J |
Wings upon either side mark that | J |
Well what is it from thence we gather | K |
Why these denote a brain of feather | K |
A brain of feather very right | C |
With wit that's flighty learning light | C |
Such as to modern bard's decreed | L |
A just comparison proceed | L |
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In the next place his feet peruse | F |
Wings grow again from both his shoes | F |
Design'd no doubt their part to bear | E |
And waft his godship through the air | E |
And here my simile unites | F |
For in a modern poet's flights | F |
I'm sure it may be justly said | M |
His feet are useful as his head | M |
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Lastly vouchsafe t'observe his hand | N |
Filled with a snake encircl'd wand | O |
By classic authors term'd caduceus | F |
And highly fam'd for several uses | F |
To wit most wond'rously endu'd | P |
No poppy water half so good | Q |
For let folks only get a touch | R |
Its soporific virtue's such | R |
Though ne'er so much awake before | S |
That quickly they begin to snore | S |
Add too what certain writers tell | I |
With this he drives men's souls to hell | I |
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Now to apply begin we then | T |
His wand's a modern author's pen | T |
The serpents round about it twin'd | B |
Denote him of the reptile kind | B |
Denote the rage with which he writes | F |
His frothy slaver venom'd bites | F |
An equal semblance still to keep | U |
Alike too both conduce to sleep | U |
This diff'rence only as the god | V |
Drove souls to Tart'rus with his rod | V |
With his goosequill the scribbling elf | W |
Instead of others damns himself | W |
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And here my simile almost tript | V |
Yet grant a word by way of postscript | V |
Moreover Merc'ry had a failing | X |
Well what of that out with it stealing | X |
In which all modern bards agree | Y |
Being each as great a thief as he | Y |
But ev'n this deity's existence | F |
Shall lend my simile assistance | F |
Our modern bards why what a pox | F |
Are they but senseless stones and blocks | F |
Oliver Goldsmith
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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