An Epistle To Robert Lloyd, Esq. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDCDEEFFCCGGHHII CCCCJKLLMMCCDDCCCCNO PPQQRRSTUNFFFFCCCCFF PCCCCCFFVCFFFFWWCCXX YYCCCCCCJJ'Tis not that I design to rob | A |
Thee of thy birthright gentle Bob | A |
For thou art born sole heir and single | B |
Of dear Mat Prior's easy jingle | B |
Nor that I mean while thus I knit | C |
My threadbare sentiments together | D |
To show my genius or my wit | C |
When God and you know I have neither | D |
Or such as might be better shown | E |
By letting poetry alone | E |
'Tis not with either of these views | F |
That I presume to address the Muse | F |
But to divert a fierce banditti | C |
Sworn foes to everything that's witty | C |
That with a black infernal train | G |
Make cruel inroads in my brain | G |
And daily threaten to drive thence | H |
My little garrison of sense | H |
The fierce banditti which I mean | I |
Are gloomy thoughts led on by spleen | I |
Then there's another reason yet | C |
Which is that I may fairly quit | C |
The debt which justly became due | C |
The moment when I heard from you | C |
And you might grumble crony mine | J |
If paid in any other coin | K |
Since twenty sheets of lead God knows | L |
I would say twenty sheets of prose | L |
Can ne'er be deemed worth half so much | M |
As one of gold and yours was such | M |
Thus the preliminaries settled | C |
I fairly find myself pitch kettled | C |
And cannot see though few see better | D |
How I shall hammer out a letter | D |
First for a thought since all agree | C |
A thought I have it let me see | C |
'Tis gone again plague on't I thought | C |
I had it but I have it not | C |
Dame Gurton thus and Hodge her son | N |
That useful thing her needle gone | O |
Rake well the cinders sweep the floor | P |
And sift the dust behind the door | P |
While eager Hodge beholds the prize | Q |
In old grimalkin's glaring eyes | Q |
And Gammar finds it on her knees | R |
In every shining straw she sees | R |
This simile were apt enough | S |
But I've another critic proof | T |
The virtuoso thus at noon | U |
Broiling beneath a July sun | N |
The gilded butterfly pursues | F |
O'er hedge and ditch through gaps and mews | F |
And after many a vain essay | F |
To captivate the tempting prey | F |
Gives him at length the lucky pat | C |
And has him safe beneath his hat | C |
Then lifts it gently from the ground | C |
But ah 'tis lost as soon as found | C |
Culprit his liberty regains | F |
Flits out of sight and mocks his pains | F |
The sense was dark 'twas therefore | P |
With simile to illustrate it | C |
But as too much obscures the sight | C |
As often as too little light | C |
We have our similes cut short | C |
For matters of more grave import | C |
That Matthew's numbers run with ease | F |
Each man of common sense agrees | F |
All men of common sense allow | V |
That Robert's lines are easy too | C |
Where then the preference shall we place | F |
Or how do justice in this case | F |
Matthew says Fame with endless pains | F |
Smoothed and refined the meanest strains | F |
Nor suffered one ill chosen rhyme | W |
To escape him at the idlest time | W |
And thus o'er all a lustre cast | C |
That while the language lives shall last | C |
An't please your ladyship quoth I | X |
For 'tis my business to reply | X |
Sure so much labour so much toil | Y |
Bespeak at least a stubborn soil | Y |
Theirs be the laurel wreath decreed | C |
Who both write well and write full speed | C |
Who throw their Helicon about | C |
As freely as a conduit spout | C |
Friend Robert thus like chien scavant | C |
Lets fall a poem en passant | C |
Nor needs his genuine ore refine | J |
'Tis ready polished from the mine | J |
William Cowper
(1)
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