Ode To Captain Paery[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CCDEED FFGHHG IIJKKJ L MMNAAN A OOPQQP L RRSTTS L UUVWWV L RRHOOH O XXYZZY O A2A2B2C2C2B2 O D2D2YE2E2Y O F2F2G2OOO O H2H2I2EEI2 L OOLJ2J2L L OOOK2K2O L OOPOOL2 L JJM2LLM2 L N2N2OO2O2O O OOOYYO O D2D2G2YYG2 O OOP2YYP2 O Q2Q2R2JJR2 O S2S2OLLO L OOEGGE L H2H2OBBO L HHT2OOT2 L EEOO2O2O L JJM2OOM2 O RN2NYYN O R2R2JU2U2J O XXOV2V2O O W2W2T2X2X2T2By the North Pole I do challenge thee | A |
Love's Labour's Lost | B |
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I | - |
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Parry my man has thy brave leg | C |
Yet struck its foot against the peg | C |
On which the world is spun | D |
Or hast thou found No Thoroughfare | E |
Writ by the hand of Nature there | E |
Where man has never run | D |
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II | - |
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Hast thou yet traced the Great Unknown | F |
Of channels in the Frozen Zone | F |
Or held at Icy Bay | G |
Hast thou still miss'd the proper track | H |
For homeward Indian men that lack | H |
A bracing by the way | G |
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III | - |
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Still hast thou wasted toil and trouble | I |
On nothing but the North Sea Bubble | I |
Of geographic scholar | J |
Or found new ways for ships to shape | K |
Instead of winding round the Cape | K |
A short cut thro' the collar | J |
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IV | L |
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Hast found the way that sighs were sent to | M |
The Pole tho' God knows whom they went to | M |
That track reveal'd to Pope | N |
Or if the Arctic waters sally | A |
Or terminate in some blind alley | A |
A chilly path to grope | N |
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V | A |
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Alas tho' Ross in love with snows | O |
Has painted them couleur de rose | O |
It is a dismal doom | P |
As Clauclio saith to Winter thrice | Q |
In regions of thick ribbed ice | Q |
All bright and yet all gloom | P |
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VI | L |
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'Tis well for Gheber souls that sit | R |
Before the fire and worship it | R |
With pecks of Wallsend coals | S |
With feet upon the fender's front | T |
Roasting their corns like Mr Hunt | T |
To speculate on poles | S |
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VII | L |
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'Tis easy for our Naval Board | U |
'Tis easy for our Civic Lord | U |
Of London and of ease | V |
That lies in ninety feet of down | W |
With fur on his nocturnal gown | W |
To talk of Frozen Seas | V |
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VIII | L |
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'Tis fine for Monsieur Ude to sit | R |
And prate about the mundane spit | R |
And babble of Cook's track | H |
He'd roast the leather off his toes | O |
Ere he would trudge thro' polar snows | O |
To plant a British Jack | H |
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IX | O |
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Oh not the proud licentious great | X |
That travel on a carpet skate | X |
Can value toils like thine | Y |
What 'tis to take a Hecla range | Z |
Through ice unknown to Mrs Grange | Z |
And alpine lumps of brine | Y |
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X | O |
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But we that mount the Hill o' Rhyme | A2 |
Can tell how hard it is to climb | A2 |
The lofty slippery steep | B2 |
Ah there are more Snow Hills than that | C2 |
Which doth black Newgate like a hat | C2 |
Upon its forehead keep | B2 |
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XI | O |
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Perchance thou'rt now while I am writing | D2 |
Feeling a bear's wet grinder biting | D2 |
About thy frozen spine | Y |
Or thou thyself art eating whale | E2 |
Oily and underdone and stale | E2 |
That haply cross'd thy line | Y |
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XII | O |
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But I'll not dream such dreams of ill | F2 |
Rather will I believe thee still | F2 |
Safe cellar'd in the snow | G2 |
Reciting many a gallant story | O |
Of British kings and British glory | O |
To crony Esquimaux | O |
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XIII | O |
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Cheering that dismal game where Night | H2 |
Makes one slow move from black to white | H2 |
Thro' all the tedious year | I2 |
Or smitten by some fond frost fair | E |
That comb'd out crystals from her hair | E |
Wooing a seal skin dear | I2 |
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XIV | L |
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So much a long communion tends | O |
As Byron says to make us friends | O |
With what we daily view | L |
God knows the daintiest taste may come | J2 |
To love a nose that's like a plum | J2 |
In marble cold and blue | L |
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XV | L |
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To dote on hair an oily fleece | O |
As tho' it hung from Helen o' Greece | O |
They say that love prevails | O |
Ev'n in the veriest polar land | K2 |
And surely she may steal thy hand | K2 |
That used to steal thy nails | O |
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XVI | L |
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But ah ere thou art fixed to marry | O |
And take a polar Mrs Parry | O |
Think of a six months' gloom | P |
Think of the wintry waste and hers | O |
Each furnish'd with a dozen furs | O |
Think of thine icy dome | L2 |
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XVII | L |
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Think of the children born to blubber | J |
Ah me hast thou an Indian rubber | J |
Inside to hold a meal | M2 |
For months about a stone and half | L |
Of whale and part of a sea calf | L |
A fillet of salt veal | M2 |
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XVIII | L |
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Some walrus ham no trifle but | N2 |
A decent steak a solid cut | N2 |
Of seal no wafer slice | O |
A reindeer's tongue and drink beside | O2 |
Gallons of sperm not rectified | O2 |
And pails of water ice | O |
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XIX | O |
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Oh canst thou fast and then feast thus | O |
Still come away and teach to us | O |
Those blessed alternations | O |
To day to run our dinners fine | Y |
To feed on air and then to dine | Y |
With Civic Corporations | O |
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XX | O |
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To save th' Old Bailey daily shilling | D2 |
And then to take a half year's filling | D2 |
In P N 's pious Row | G2 |
When ask'd to Hock and haunch o' ven'son | Y |
Thro' something we have worn our pens on | Y |
For Longman and his Co | G2 |
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XXI | O |
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O come and tell us what the Pole is | O |
Whether it singular and sole is | O |
Or straight or crooked bent | P2 |
If very thick or very thin | Y |
Made of what wood and if akin | Y |
To those there be in Kent | P2 |
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XXII | O |
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There's Combe there's Spurzheim and there's Gall | Q2 |
Have talk'd of poles yet after all | Q2 |
What has the public learn'd | R2 |
And Hunt's account must still defer | J |
He sought the poll at Westminster | J |
And is not yet return'd | R2 |
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XXIII | O |
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Alvanly asks if whist dear soul | S2 |
Is play'd in snow towns near the Pole | S2 |
And how the fur man deals | O |
And Eldon doubts if it be true | L |
That icy Chancellors really do | L |
Exist upon the seals | O |
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XXIV | L |
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Barrow by well fed office grates | O |
Talks of his own bechristen'd Straits | O |
And longs that he were there | E |
And Croker in his cabriolet | G |
Sighs o'er his brown horse at his Bay | G |
And pants to cross the mer | E |
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XXV | L |
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O come away and set us right | H2 |
And haply throw a northern light | H2 |
On questions such as these | O |
Whether when this drown'd world was lost | B |
The surflux waves were lock'd in frost | B |
And turned to Icy Seas | O |
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XXVI | L |
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Is Ursa Major white or black | H |
Or do the Polar tribes attack | H |
Their neighbors and what for | T2 |
Whether they ever play at cuffs | O |
And then if they take off their muffs | O |
In pugilistic war | T2 |
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XXVII | L |
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Tells us is Winter champion there | E |
As in our milder fighting air | E |
Say what are Chilly loans | O |
What cures they have for rheums beside | O2 |
And if their hearts get ossified | O2 |
From eating bread of bones | O |
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XXVIII | L |
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Whether they are such dwarfs the quicker | J |
To circulate the vital liquor | J |
And then from head to heel | M2 |
How short the Methodists must choose | O |
Their dumpy envoys not to lose | O |
Their toes in spite of zeal | M2 |
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XXIX | O |
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Whether 'twill soften or sublime it | R |
To preach of Hell in such a climate | N2 |
Whether may Wesley hope | N |
To win their souls or that old function | Y |
Of seals with the extreme of unction | Y |
Bespeaks them for the Pope | N |
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XXX | O |
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Whether the lamps will e'er be learn'd | R2 |
Where six months' midnight oil is burn'd | R2 |
Or Letters must confer | J |
With people that have never conn'd | U2 |
An A B C but live beyond | U2 |
The Sound of Lancaster | J |
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XXXI | O |
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O come away at any rate | X |
Well hast thou earn'd a downier state | X |
With all thy hardy peers | O |
Good lack thou must be glad to smell dock | V2 |
And rub thy feet with opodeldock | V2 |
After such frosty years | O |
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XXXII | O |
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Mayhap some gentle dame at last | W2 |
Smit by the perils thou hast pass'd | W2 |
However coy before | T2 |
Shall bid thee now set up thy rest | X2 |
In that Brest Harbor woman's breast | X2 |
And tempt the Fates no more | T2 |
Thomas Hood
(1)
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