To His Honoured Friend, M. John Weare, Councillor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGHIJKKKK KKLLBBMBNN| Did I or love or could I others draw | A |
| To the indulgence of the rugged law | A |
| The first foundation of that zeal should be | B |
| By reading all her paragraphs in thee | B |
| Who dost so fitly with the laws unite | C |
| As if you two were one hermaphrodite | C |
| Nor courts t thou her because she's well attended | D |
| With wealth but for those ends she was intended | D |
| Which were and still her offices are known | E |
| Law is to give to ev'ry one his own | E |
| To shore the feeble up against the strong | F |
| To shield the stranger and the poor from wrong | F |
| This was the founder's grave and good intent | G |
| To keep the outcast in his tenement | H |
| To free the orphan from that wolf like man | I |
| Who is his butcher more than guardian | J |
| To dry the widow's tears and stop her swoons | K |
| By pouring balm and oil into her wounds | K |
| This was the old way and 'tis yet thy course | K |
| To keep those pious principles in force | K |
| Modest I will be but one word I'll say | K |
| Like to a sound that's vanishing away | K |
| Sooner the inside of thy hand shall grow | L |
| Hisped and hairy ere thy palm shall know | L |
| A postern bribe took or a forked fee | B |
| To fetter Justice when she might be free | B |
| Eggs I'll not shave but yet brave man if I | M |
| Was destin'd forth to golden sovereignty | B |
| A prince I'd be that I might thee prefer | N |
| To be my counsel both and chancellor | N |
Robert Herrick
(1)
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