Nature's Labels. A Fragment Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFDDDDDDGGDD EEHHIJ D DDKKDD EEKK D LLKKMMDDIn vain we fondly strive to trace | A |
The soul's reflection in the face | A |
In vain we dwell on lines and crosses | B |
Crooked mouth or short proboscis | C |
Boobies have looked as wise and bright | D |
As Plato or the Stagirite | D |
And many a sage and learned skull | E |
Has peeped through windows dark and dull | E |
Since then though art do all it can | F |
We ne'er can reach the inward man | F |
Nor howsoe'er learned Thebans doubt | D |
The inward woman from without | D |
Methinks 'twere well if nature could | D |
And Nature could if Nature would | D |
Some pithy short descriptions write | D |
On tablets large in black and white | D |
Which she might hang about our throttles | G |
Like labels upon physic bottles | G |
And where all men might read but stay | D |
As dialectic sages say | D |
The argument most apt and ample | E |
For common use is the example | E |
For instance then if Nature's care | H |
Had not portrayed in lines so fair | H |
The inward soul of Lucy Lindon | I |
This is the label she'd have pinned on | J |
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LABEL FIRST | D |
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Within this form there lies enshrined | D |
The purest brightest gem of mind | D |
Though Feeling's hand may sometimes throw | K |
Upon its charms the shade of woe | K |
The lustre of the gem when veiled | D |
Shall be but mellowed not concealed | D |
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Now sirs imagine if you're able | E |
That Nature wrote a second label | E |
They're her own words at least suppose so | K |
And boldly pin it on Pomposo | K |
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LABEL SECOND | D |
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When I composed the fustian brain | L |
Of this redoubted Captain Vain | L |
I had at hand but few ingredients | K |
And so was forced to use expedients | K |
I put therein some small discerning | M |
A grain of sense a grain of learning | M |
And when I saw the void behind | D |
I filled it up with froth and wind | D |
Thomas Moore
(1)
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