Epistle From Esopus To Maria Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDDEEBB FGHHBBGGDDIIJJKKLDMN OOBBPPOOBBQRSSTTUUBB BB OOVVDD DWXXOOYY OOOOBBBB ZA2JJJ| h sad Repentance dwells | A |
| Where turnkeys make the jealous portal fast | B |
| And deal from iron hands the spare repast | B |
| Where truant 'prentices yet young in sin | C |
| Blush at the curious stranger peeping in | C |
| Where strumpets relics of the drunken roar | D |
| Resolve to drink nay half to whore no more | D |
| Where tiny thieves not destin'd yet to swing | E |
| Beat hemp for others riper for the string | E |
| From these dire scenes my wretched lines I date | B |
| To tell Maria her Esopus' fate | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| Alas I feel I am no actor here | F |
| 'Tis real hangmen real scourges bear | G |
| Prepare Maria for a horrid tale | H |
| Will turn thy very rouge to deadly pale | H |
| Will make thy hair tho' erst from gipsy poll'd | B |
| By barber woven and by barber sold | B |
| Though twisted smooth with Harry's nicest care | G |
| Like hoary bristles to erect and stare | G |
| The hero of the mimic scene no more | D |
| I start in Hamlet in Othello roar | D |
| Or haughty Chieftain 'mid the din of arms | I |
| In Highland Bonnet woo Malvina's charms | I |
| While sans culottes stoop up the mountain high | J |
| And steal from me Maria's prying eye | J |
| Blest Highland bonnet once my proudest dress | K |
| Now prouder still Maria's temples press | K |
| I see her wave thy towering plumes afar | L |
| And call each coxcomb to the wordy war | D |
| I see her face the first of Ireland's sons | M |
| And even out Irish his Hibernian bronze | N |
| The crafty Colonel leaves the tartan'd lines | O |
| For other wars where he a hero shines | O |
| The hopeful youth in Scottish senate bred | B |
| Who owns a Bushby's heart without the head | B |
| Comes 'mid a string of coxcombs to display | P |
| That veni vidi vici is his way | P |
| The shrinking Bard adown the alley skulks | O |
| And dreads a meeting worse than Woolwich hulks | O |
| Though there his heresies in Church and State | B |
| Might well award him Muir and Palmer's fate | B |
| Still she undaunted reels and rattles on | Q |
| And dares the public like a noontide sun | R |
| What scandal called Maria's jaunty stagger | S |
| The ricket reeling of a crooked swagger | S |
| Whose spleen e'en worse than Burns' venom when | T |
| He dips in gall unmix'd his eager pen | T |
| And pours his vengeance in the burning line | U |
| Who christen'd thus Maria's lyre divine | U |
| The idiot strum of Vanity bemus'd | B |
| And even the abuse of Poesy abus'd | B |
| Who called her verse a Parish Workhouse made | B |
| For motley foundling Fancies stolen or strayed | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| A Workhouse ah that sound awakes my woes | O |
| And pillows on the thorn my rack'd repose | O |
| In durance vile here must I wake and weep | V |
| And all my frowsy couch in sorrow steep | V |
| That straw where many a rogue has lain of yore | D |
| And vermin'd gipsies litter'd heretofore | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| Why Lonsdale thus thy wrath on vagrants pour | D |
| Must earth no rascal save thyself endure | W |
| Must thou alone in guilt immortal swell | X |
| And make a vast monopoly of hell | X |
| Thou know'st the Virtues cannot hate thee worse | O |
| The Vices also must they club their curse | O |
| Or must no tiny sin to others fall | Y |
| Because thy guilt's supreme enough for all | Y |
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| - | |
| Maria send me too thy griefs and cares | O |
| In all of thee sure thy Esopus shares | O |
| As thou at all mankind the flag unfurls | O |
| Who on my fair one Satire's vengeance hurls | O |
| Who calls thee pert affected vain coquette | B |
| A wit in folly and a fool in wit | B |
| Who says that fool alone is not thy due | B |
| And quotes thy treacheries to prove it true | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| Our force united on thy foes we'll turn | Z |
| And dare the war with all of woman born | A2 |
| For who can write and speak as thou and I | J |
| My periods that deciphering defy | J |
| And thy still matchless tongue that conquers all reply | J |
Robert Burns
(1)
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About Epistle From Esopus To Maria
Epistle From Esopus To Maria is a poem by Robert Burns. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
