Fables For The Holy Alliance. Fable Ii. The Looking-glasses Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCCDEDFGGHHHH CCCGCG I CGCG GCGC CGCG JCJC GHGG GCGC CCCC CKCK HLHL MGMG JGJG HHHH GCGC GGGG NKNK CCCC OCOC ACAC PGPG CLCL CACA GCGC QCQC CLCL| PROEM | A |
| - | |
| Where Kings have been by mob elections | B |
| Raised to the throne 'tis strange to see | C |
| What different and what odd perfections | C |
| Men have required in Royalty | C |
| Some liking monarchs large and plumpy | D |
| Have chosen their Sovereigns by the weight | E |
| Some wisht them tall some thought your Dumpy | D |
| Dutch built the true Legitimate | F |
| The Easterns in a Prince 'tis said | G |
| Prefer what's called a jolterhead | G |
| The Egyptians weren't at all partic'lar | H |
| So that their Kings had not red hair | H |
| This fault not even the greatest stickler | H |
| For the blood royal well could bear | H |
| - | |
| A thousand more such illustrations | C |
| Might be adduced from various nations | C |
| But 'mong the many tales they tell us | C |
| Touching the acquired or natural right | G |
| Which some men have to rule their fellows | C |
| There's one which I shall here recite | G |
| - | |
| FABLE | I |
| - | |
| There was a land to name the place | C |
| Is neither now my wish nor duty | G |
| Where reigned a certain Royal race | C |
| By right of their superior beauty | G |
| - | |
| What was the cut legitimate | G |
| Of these great persons' chins and noses | C |
| By right of which they ruled the state | G |
| No history I have seen discloses | C |
| - | |
| But so it was a settled case | C |
| Some Act of Parliament past snugly | G |
| Had voted them a beauteous race | C |
| And all their faithful subjects ugly | G |
| - | |
| As rank indeed stood high or low | J |
| Some change it made in visual organs | C |
| Your Peers were decent Knights so so | J |
| But all your common people gorgons | C |
| - | |
| Of course if any knave but hinted | G |
| That the King's nose was turned awry | H |
| Or that the Queen God bless her squinted | G |
| The judges doomed that knave to die | G |
| - | |
| But rarely things like this occurred | G |
| The people to their King were duteous | C |
| And took it on his Royal word | G |
| That they were frights and He was beauteous | C |
| - | |
| The cause whereof among all classes | C |
| Was simply this these island elves | C |
| Had never yet seen looking glasses | C |
| And therefore did not know themselves | C |
| - | |
| Sometimes indeed their neighbors' faces | C |
| Might strike them as more full of reason | K |
| More fresh than those in certain places | C |
| But Lord the very thought was treason | K |
| - | |
| Besides howe'er we love our neighbor | H |
| And take his face's part 'tis known | L |
| We ne'er so much in earnest labor | H |
| As when the face attackt's our own | L |
| - | |
| So on they went the crowd believing | M |
| As crowds well governed always do | G |
| Their rulers too themselves deceiving | M |
| So old the joke they thought 'twas true | G |
| - | |
| But jokes we know if they too far go | J |
| Must have an end and so one day | G |
| Upon that coast there was a cargo | J |
| Of looking glasses cast away | G |
| - | |
| 'Twas said some Radicals somewhere | H |
| Had laid their wicked heads together | H |
| And forced that ship to founder there | H |
| While some believe it was the weather | H |
| - | |
| However this might be the freight | G |
| Was landed without fees or duties | C |
| And from that hour historians date | G |
| The downfall of the Race of Beauties | C |
| - | |
| The looking glasses got about | G |
| And grew so common thro' the land | G |
| That scarce a tinker could walk out | G |
| Without a mirror in his hand | G |
| - | |
| Comparing faces morning noon | N |
| And night their constant occupation | K |
| By dint of looking glasses soon | N |
| They grew a most reflecting nation | K |
| - | |
| In vain the Court aware of errors | C |
| In all the old establisht mazards | C |
| Prohibited the use of mirrors | C |
| And tried to break them at all hazards | C |
| - | |
| In vain their laws might just as well | O |
| Have been waste paper on the shelves | C |
| That fatal freight had broke the spell | O |
| People had lookt and knew themselves | C |
| - | |
| If chance a Duke of birth sublime | A |
| Presumed upon his ancient face | C |
| Some calf head ugly from all time | A |
| They popt a mirror to his Grace | C |
| - | |
| Just hinting by that gentle sign | P |
| How little Nature holds it true | G |
| That what is called an ancient line | P |
| Must be the line of Beauty too | G |
| - | |
| From Dukes' they past to regal phizzes | C |
| Compared them proudly with their own | L |
| And cried How could such monstrous quizzes | C |
| In Beauty's name usurp the throne | L |
| - | |
| They then wrote essays pamphlets books | C |
| Upon Cosmetical Oeconomy | A |
| Which made the King try various looks | C |
| But none improved his physiognomy | A |
| - | |
| And satires at the Court were levelled | G |
| And small lampoons so full of slynesses | C |
| That soon in short they quite bedeviled | G |
| Their Majesties and Royal Highnesses | C |
| - | |
| At length but here I drop the veil | Q |
| To spare some royal folks' sensations | C |
| Besides what followed is the tale | Q |
| Of all such late enlightened nations | C |
| - | |
| Of all to whom old Time discloses | C |
| A truth they should have sooner known | L |
| That kings have neither rights nor noses | C |
| A whit diviner than their own | L |
Thomas Moore
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About Fables For The Holy Alliance. Fable Ii. The Looking-glasses
Fables For The Holy Alliance. Fable Ii. The Looking-glasses is a poem by Thomas Moore. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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