London - In Imitation Of The Third Satire Of Juvenal Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDAAEFGGAAHHIIHHAAJJ AAKKLLMMAAAANNOOMMPP JJQQHHRRBBAAHHSSTUVV AAMMMMUUWWXYX AAAAHHZA2TTRRAATTHHR RB2B2AARRHHRRAAHHC2C 2AAHHTTRRXXRRMMAARRM MTTRVVAARRTTXXAAAAD2 D2XXXXAAAATTRRRRE2E2 RRAAAAXXMMXXAAAX' Quis ineptae | A |
Tam patiens urbis tam ferreus ut teneat se ' Juv | B |
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Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel | C |
When injured Thales bids the town farewell | D |
Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend | A |
I praise the hermit but regret the friend | A |
Who now resolves from vice and London far | E |
To breathe in distant fields a purer air | F |
And fix'd on Cambria's solitary shore | G |
Give to St David one true Briton more | G |
For who would leave unbribed Hibernia's land | A |
Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand | A |
There none are swept by sudden fate away | H |
But all whom hunger spares with age decay | H |
Here malice rapine accident conspire | I |
And now a rabble rages now a fire | I |
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay | H |
And here the fell attorney prowls for prey | H |
Here falling houses thunder on your head | A |
And here a female atheist talks you dead | A |
While Thales waits the wherry that contains | J |
Of dissipated wealth the small remains | J |
On Thames's banks in silent thought we stood | A |
Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood | A |
Struck with the seat that gave Eliza birth | K |
We kneel and kiss the consecrated earth | K |
In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew | L |
And call Britannia's glories back to view | L |
Behold her cross triumphant on the main | M |
The guard of commerce and the dread of Spain | M |
Ere masquerades debauch'd excise oppress'd | A |
Or English honour grew a standing jest | A |
A transient calm the happy scenes bestow | A |
And for a moment lull the sense of woe | A |
At length awakening with contemptuous frown | N |
Indignant Thales eyes the neighbouring town | N |
'Since worth he cries in these degenerate days | O |
Wants e'en the cheap reward of empty praise | O |
In those curs'd walls devote to vice and gain | M |
Since unrewarded science toils in vain | M |
Since hope but soothes to double my distress | P |
And every moment leaves my little less | P |
While yet my steady steps no staff sustains | J |
And life still vigorous revels in my veins | J |
Grant me kind Heaven to find some happier place | Q |
Where honesty and sense are no disgrace | Q |
Some pleasing bank where verdant osiers play | H |
Some peaceful vale with Nature's painting gay | H |
Where once the harrass'd Briton found repose | R |
And safe in poverty defied his foes | R |
Some secret cell ye powers indulgent give | B |
Let live here for has learn'd to live | B |
Here let those reign whom pensions can incite | A |
To vote a patriot black a courtier white | A |
Explain their country's dear bought rights away | H |
And plead for pirates in the face of day | H |
With slavish tenets taint our poison'd youth | S |
And lend a lie the confidence of truth | S |
Let such raise palaces and manors buy | T |
Collect a tax or farm a lottery | U |
With warbling eunuchs fill a licensed stage | V |
And lull to servitude a thoughtless age | V |
Heroes proceed what bounds your pride shall hold | A |
What check restrain your thirst of power and gold | A |
Behold rebellious Virtue quite o'erthrown | M |
Behold your fame our wealth our lives your own | M |
To such a groaning nation's spoils are given | M |
When public crimes inflame the wrath of Heaven | M |
But what my friend what hope remains for me | U |
Who start at theft and blush at perjury | U |
Who scarce forbear though Britain's court he sing | W |
To pluck a titled poet's borrowed wing | W |
A statesman's logic unconvinc'd can hear | X |
And dare to slumber o'er the | Y |
Gazetteer | X |
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Despise a fool in half his pension dress'd | A |
And strive in vain to laugh at H y's jest | A |
'Others with softer smiles and subtler art | A |
Can sap the principles or taint the heart | A |
With more address a lover's note convey | H |
Or bribe a virgin's innocence away | H |
Well may they rise while I whose rustic tongue | Z |
Ne'er knew to puzzle right or varnish wrong | A2 |
Spurn'd as a beggar dreaded as a spy | T |
Live unregarded unlamented die | T |
'For what but social guilt the friend endears | R |
Who shares Orgilio's crimes his fortune shares | R |
But thou should tempting villainy present | A |
All Marlborough hoarded or all Villiers spent | A |
Turn from the glittering bribe thy scornful eye | T |
Nor sell for gold what gold could never buy | T |
The peaceful slumber self approving day | H |
Unsullied fame and conscience ever gay | H |
'The cheated nation's happy favourites see | R |
Mark whom the great caress who frown on me | R |
London the needy villain's general home | B2 |
The common sewer of Paris and of Rome | B2 |
With eager thirst by folly or by fate | A |
Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state | A |
Forgive my transports on a theme like this | R |
I cannot bear a French metropolis | R |
'Illustrious Edward from the realms of day | H |
The land of heroes and of saints survey | H |
Nor hope the British lineaments to trace | R |
The rustic grandeur or the surly grace | R |
But lost in thoughtless ease and empty show | A |
Behold the warrior dwindled to a beau | A |
Sense freedom piety refined away | H |
Of France the mimic and of Spain the prey | H |
'All that at home no more can beg or steal | C2 |
Or like a gibbet better than a wheel | C2 |
Hiss'd from the stage or hooted from the court | A |
Their air their dress their politics import | A |
Obsequious artful voluble and gay | H |
On Britain's fond credulity they prey | H |
No gainful trade their industry can 'scape | T |
They sing they dance clean shoes or cure a clap | T |
All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows | R |
And bid him go to hell to hell he goes | R |
'Ah what avails it that from slavery far | X |
I drew the breath of life in English air | X |
Was early taught a Briton's right to prize | R |
And lisp the tale of Henry's victories | R |
If the gull'd conqueror receives the chain | M |
And flattery subdues when arms are vain | M |
'Studious to please and ready to submit | A |
The supple Gaul was born a parasite | A |
Still to his interest true where'er he goes | R |
Wit bravery worth his lavish'd tongue bestows | R |
In every face a thousand graces shine | M |
From every tongue flows harmony divine | M |
These arts in vain our rugged natives try | T |
Strain out with faltering diffidence a lie | T |
And gain a kick for awkward flattery | R |
'Besides with justice this discerning age | V |
Admires their wondrous talents for the stage | V |
Well may they venture on the mimic's art | A |
Who play from morn to night a borrow'd part | A |
Practis'd their master's notions to embrace | R |
Repeat his maxims and reflect his face | R |
With every wild absurdity comply | T |
And view each object with another's eye | T |
To shake with laughter ere the jest they hear | X |
To pour at will the counterfeited tear | X |
And as their patron hints the cold or heat | A |
To shake in dog days in December sweat | A |
How when competitors like these contend | A |
Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend | A |
Slaves that with serious impudence beguile | D2 |
And lie without a blush without a smile | D2 |
Exalt each trifle every vice adore | X |
Your taste in snuff your judgement in a whore | X |
Can Balbo's eloquence applaud and swear | X |
He gropes his breeches with a monarch's air | X |
'For arts like these preferr'd admired caress'd | A |
They first invade your table then your breast | A |
Explore your secrets with insidious art | A |
Watch the weak hour and ransack all the heart | A |
Then soon your ill placed confidence repay | T |
Commence your lords and govern or betray | T |
'By numbers here from shame or censure free | R |
All crimes are safe but hated poverty | R |
This only this the rigid law pursues | R |
This only this provokes the snarling muse | R |
The sober trader at a tatter'd cloak | E2 |
Wakes from his dream and labours for a joke | E2 |
With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze | R |
And turn the varied taunt of a thousand ways | R |
Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd | A |
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest | A |
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart | A |
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart | A |
'Has Heaven reserved in pity to the poor | X |
No pathless waste or undiscover'd shore | X |
No secret island in the boundless main | M |
No peaceful desert yet unclaim'd by Spain | M |
Quick let us rise the happy seats explore | X |
And bear oppression's insolence no more | X |
This mournful truth is everywhere confess'd | A |
Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd | A |
But here more slow where all are slaves to gold | A |
Where looks are | X |
Samuel Johnson
(1)
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