Gnothi Seauton Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEE F GGHHIIJJKLMMNN OOPPQQRREESSBBTTUUVV WIXXGGYYXXDDTTZZA2A2 GGXXXXHHB2B2C2C2GGHH A2A2D2D2TT| When Scaliger whole years of labour past | A |
| Beheld his lexicon complete at last | A |
| And weary of his task with wond'ring eyes | B |
| Saw from words pil'd on words a fabric rise | B |
| He curs'd the industry inertly strong | C |
| In creeping toil that could persist so long | C |
| And if enrag'd he cried heav'n meant to shed | D |
| Its keenest vengeance on the guilty head | D |
| The drudgery of words the damn'd would know | E |
| Doom'd to write lexicons in endless woe | E |
| - | |
| Yes you had cause great genius to repent | F |
| 'You lost good days that might be better spent ' | - |
| You well might grudge the hours of ling'ring pain | G |
| And view your learned labours with disdain | G |
| To you were given the large expanded mind | H |
| The flame of genius and the taste refin'd | H |
| 'Twas yours on eagle wings aloft to soar | I |
| And amidst rolling worlds the great first cause explore | I |
| To fix the aeras of recorded time | J |
| And live in ev'ry age and ev'ry clime | J |
| Record the chiefs who propt their country's cause | K |
| Who founded empires and establish'd laws | L |
| To learn whate'er the sage with virtue fraught | M |
| Whate'er the muse of moral wisdom taught | M |
| These were your quarry these to you were known | N |
| And the world's ample volume was your own | N |
| - | |
| Yet warn'd by me ye pigmy wits beware | O |
| Nor with immortal Scaliger compare | O |
| For me though his example strike my view | P |
| Oh not for me his footsteps to pursue | P |
| Whether first nature unpropitious cold | Q |
| This clay compounded in a ruder mould | Q |
| Or the slow current loit'ring at my heart | R |
| No gleam of wit or fancy can impart | R |
| Whate'er the cause from me no numbers flow | E |
| No visions warm me and no raptures glow | E |
| A mind like Scaliger's superior still | S |
| No grief could conquer no misfortune chill | S |
| Though for the maze of words his native skies | B |
| He seem'd to quit 'twas but again to rise | B |
| To mount once more to the bright source of day | T |
| And view the wonders of th' ethereal way | T |
| The love of fame his gen'rous bosom fir'd | U |
| Each science hail'd him and each muse inspir'd | U |
| For him the sons of learning trimm'd the bays | V |
| And nations grew harmonious in his praise | V |
| - | |
| My task perform'd and all my labours o'er | W |
| For me what lot has fortune now in store | I |
| The listless will succeeds that worst disease | X |
| The rack of indolence the sluggish ease | X |
| Care grows on care and o'er my aching brain | G |
| Black melancholy pours her morbid train | G |
| No kind relief no lenitive at hand | Y |
| I seek at midnight clubs the social band | Y |
| But midnight clubs where wit with noise conspires | X |
| Where Comus revels and where wine inspires | X |
| Delight no more I seek my lonely bed | D |
| And call on sleep to sooth my languid head | D |
| But sleep from these sad lids flies far away | T |
| I mourn all night and dread the coming day | T |
| Exhausted tir'd I throw my eyes around | Z |
| To find some vacant spot on classic ground | Z |
| And soon vain hope I form a grand design | A2 |
| Languor succeeds and all my pow'rs decline | A2 |
| If science open not her richest vein | G |
| Without materials all our toil is vain | G |
| A form to rugged stone when Phidias gives | X |
| Beneath his touch a new creation lives | X |
| Remove his marble and his genius dies | X |
| With nature then no breathing statue vies | X |
| Whate'er I plan I feel my pow'rs confin'd | H |
| By fortune's frown and penury of mind | H |
| I boast no knowledge glean'd with toil and strife | B2 |
| That bright reward of a well acted life | B2 |
| I view myself while reason's feeble light | C2 |
| Shoots a pale glimmer through the gloom of night | C2 |
| While passions error phantoms of the brain | G |
| And vain opinions fill the dark domain | G |
| A dreary void where fears with grief combin'd | H |
| Waste all within and desolate the mind | H |
| - | |
| What then remains Must I in slow decline | A2 |
| To mute inglorious ease old age resign | A2 |
| Or bold ambition kindling in my breast | D2 |
| Attempt some arduous task Or were it best | D2 |
| Brooding o'er lexicons to pass the day | T |
| And in that labour drudge my life away | T |
Samuel Johnson
(1)
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