De Libris Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDD EFEFBB CGCGHHIJIJKK JCJCLL CHCHCC CFCFMM| True there are books and books There s Gray | A |
| For instance and there s Bacon | B |
| There s Longfellow and Monstrelet | C |
| And also Colton s Lacon | B |
| With Laws of Whist and those of Libel | D |
| And Euclid and the Mormon Bible | D |
| - | |
| And some are dear as friends and some | E |
| We keep because we need them | F |
| And some we ward from worm and thumb | E |
| And love too well to read them | F |
| My own are poor and mostly new | B |
| But I ve an Elzevir or two | B |
| - | |
| That as a gift is prized the next | C |
| For trouble in the finding | G |
| This Aldine for its early text | C |
| That Plantin for the binding | G |
| This sorry Herrick hides a flower | H |
| The record of one perfect hour | H |
| But whether it be worth or looks | I |
| We gently love or strongly | J |
| Such virtue doth reside in books | I |
| We scarce can love them wrongly | J |
| To sages an eternal school | K |
| A hobby harmless to the fool | K |
| - | |
| Nor altogether fool is he | J |
| Who orders free from doubt | C |
| Those books which no good library | J |
| Should ever be without | C |
| And blandly locks the well glazed door | L |
| On tomes that issue never more | L |
| - | |
| Less may we scorn his cases grand | C |
| Where safely surely linger | H |
| Fair virgin fields of type unscanned | C |
| And innocent of finger | H |
| There rest preserved from dust accurst | C |
| The first editions and the worst | C |
| - | |
| And least of all should we that write | C |
| With easy jest deride them | F |
| Who hope to leave when lost to sight | C |
| The best of us inside them | F |
| Dear shrines where many a scribbler s name | M |
| Has lasted longer than his fame | M |
William Cosmo Monkhouse
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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