Expostulation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LLMMNOPPQQABGGRSTTUV WWXXYYZZA2A2PPB2B2C2 C2D2E2F2F2G2G2B2B2NN H2H2I2I2J2J2NNK2L2CC M2M2NNN2N2D2D2GGO2O2 P2P2ZZQ2Q2R2R2S2S2T2 T2U2U2V2V2W2W2YYGGI2 I2X2Y2Z2Z2A3A3B3C3XD D3D3E3E3F3F3G3G3BBH3 H3GGUUI3I3J3J3J3J3K3 K3IIB3B3J3J3SSB2B2J3 J3L3L3J3J3M3N3J3J3O3 O3J3J3T2T2J3J3J3J3J3 J3J3J3P3P3J3J3J3Why weeps the muse for England What appears | A |
In England's case to move the muse to tears | B |
From side to side of her delightful isle | C |
Is she not clothed with a perpetual smile | C |
Can Nature add a charm or Art confer | D |
A new found luxury not seen in her | D |
Where under heaven is pleasure more pursued | E |
Or where does cold reflection less intrude | E |
Her fields a rich expanse of wavy corn | F |
Pour'd out from Plenty's overflowing horn | F |
Ambrosial gardens in which art supplies | G |
The fervor and the force of Indian skies | G |
Her peaceful shores where busy Commerce waits | H |
To pour his golden tide through all her gates | H |
Whom fiery suns that scorch the russet spice | I |
Of eastern groves and oceans floor'd with ice | I |
Forbid in vain to push his daring way | J |
To darker climes or climes of brighter day | J |
Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll | K |
From the World's girdle to the frozen pole | K |
The chariots bounding in her wheel worn streets | L |
Her vaults below where every vintage meets | L |
Her theatres her revels and her sports | M |
The scenes to which not youth alone resorts | M |
But age in spite of weakness and of pain | N |
Still haunts in hope to dream of youth again | O |
All speak her happy let the muse look round | P |
From East to West no sorrow can be found | P |
Or only what in cottages confined | Q |
Sighs unregarded to the passing wind | Q |
Then wherefore weep for England What appears | A |
In England's case to move the muse to tears | B |
The prophet wept for Israel wish'd his eyes | G |
Were fountains fed with infinite supplies | G |
For Israel dealt in robbery and wrong | R |
There were the scorner's and the slanderer's tongue | S |
Oaths used as playthings or convenient tools | T |
As interest biass'd knaves or fashion fools | T |
Adultery neighing at his neighbor's door | U |
Oppression laboring hard to grind the poor | V |
The partial balance and deceitful weight | W |
The treacherous smile a mask for secret hate | W |
Hypocrisy formality in prayer | X |
And the dull service of the lip were there | X |
Her women insolent and self caress'd | Y |
By Vanity's unwearied finger dress'd | Y |
Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart | Z |
To modest cheeks and borrow'd one from art | Z |
Were just trifles without worth or use | A2 |
As silly pride and idleness produce | A2 |
Curl'd scented furbelow'd and flounced around | P |
With feet too delicate to touch the ground | P |
They stretch'd the neck and roll'd the wanton eye | B2 |
And sigh'd for every fool that flutter'd by | B2 |
He saw his people slaves to every lust | C2 |
Lewd avaricious arrogant unjust | C2 |
He heard the wheels of an avenging God | D2 |
Groan heavily along the distant road | E2 |
Saw Babylon set wide her two leaved brass | F2 |
To let the military deluge pass | F2 |
Jerusalem a prey her glory soil'd | G2 |
Her princes captive and her treasures spoil'd | G2 |
Wept till all Israel heard his bitter cry | B2 |
Stamp'd with his foot and smote upon his thigh | B2 |
But wept and stamp'd and smote his thigh in vain | N |
Pleasure is deaf when told of future pain | N |
And sounds prophetic are too rough to suit | H2 |
Ears long accustom'd to the pleasing lute | H2 |
They scorn'd his inspiration and his theme | I2 |
Pronounc'd him frantic and his fears a dream | I2 |
With self indulgence wing'd the fleeting hours | J2 |
Till the foe found them and down fell the towers | J2 |
Long time Assyria bound them in her chain | N |
Till penitence had purged the public stain | N |
And Cyrus with relenting pity moved | K2 |
Return'd them happy to the land they loved | L2 |
There proof against prosperity awhile | C |
They stood the test of her ensnaring smile | C |
And had the grace in scenes of peace to show | M2 |
The virtue they had learn'd in scenes of woe | M2 |
But man is frail and can but ill sustain | N |
A long immunity from grief and pain | N |
And after all the joys that Plenty leads | N2 |
With tiptoe step Vice silently succeeds | N2 |
When he that ruled them with a shepherd's rod | D2 |
In form a man in dignity a God | D2 |
Came not expected in that humble guise | G |
To sift and search them with unerring eyes | G |
He found conceal'd beneath a fair outside | O2 |
The filth of rottenness and worm of pride | O2 |
Their piety a system of deceit | P2 |
Scripture employ'd to sanctify the cheat | P2 |
The Pharisee the dupe of his own art | Z |
Self idolized and yet a knave at heart | Z |
When nations are to perish in their sins | Q2 |
'Tis in the Church the leprosy begins | Q2 |
The priest whose office is with zeal sincere | R2 |
To watch the fountain and preserve it clear | R2 |
Carelessly nods and sleeps upon the brink | S2 |
While other poison what the flock must drink | S2 |
Or waking at the call of lust alone | T2 |
Infuses lies and errors of his own | T2 |
His unsuspecting sheep believe it pure | U2 |
And tainted by the very means of cure | U2 |
Catch from each other a contagious spot | V2 |
The foul forerunner of a general rot | V2 |
Then truth is hush'd that Heresy may preach | W2 |
And all is trash that reason cannot reach | W2 |
Then God's own image on the soul impress'd | Y |
Becomes a mockery and a standing jest | Y |
And faith the root whence only can arise | G |
The graces of a life that wins the skies | G |
Loses at once all value and esteem | I2 |
Pronounced by graybeards a pernicious dream | I2 |
Then Ceremony leads her bigots forth | X2 |
Prepared to fight for shadows of no worth | Y2 |
While truths on which eternal things depend | Z2 |
Find not or hardly find a single friend | Z2 |
As soldiers watch the signal of command | A3 |
They learn to bow to kneel to sit to stand | A3 |
Happy to fill religion's vacant place | B3 |
With hollow form and gesture and grimace | C3 |
Such when the Teacher of his church was there | X |
People and priest the sons of Israel were | D |
Stiff in the letter lax in the design | D3 |
And import of their oracles divine | D3 |
Their learning legendary false absurd | E3 |
And yet exalted above God's own word | E3 |
They drew a curse from an intended good | F3 |
Puff'd up with gifts they never understood | F3 |
He judg'd them with as terrible a frown | G3 |
As if not love but wrath had brought him down | G3 |
Yet he was gentle as soft summer airs | B |
Had grace for others' sins but none for theirs | B |
Through all he spoke a noble plainness ran | H3 |
Rhetoric is artifice the work of man | H3 |
And tricks and turns that fancy may devise | G |
Are far too mean for Him that rules the skies | G |
The astonish'd vulgar trembled while he tore | U |
The mask from faces never seen before | U |
He stripp'd the impostors in the noonday sun | I3 |
Show'd that they follow'd all they seem'd to shun | I3 |
Their prayers made public their excesses kept | J3 |
As private as the chambers where they slept | J3 |
The temple and its holy rites profaned | J3 |
By mummeries He that dwelt in it disdain'd | J3 |
Uplifted hands that at convenient times | K3 |
Could act extortion and the worst of crimes | K3 |
Wash'd with a neatness scrupulously nice | I |
And free from every taint but that of vice | I |
Judgement however tardy mends her pace | B3 |
When obstinacy once has conquered grace | B3 |
They saw distemper heal'd and life restor'd | J3 |
In answer to the fiat of his word | J3 |
Confessed the wonder and with daring tongue | S |
Blasphemed the authority from which it sprung | S |
They knew by sure prognostics seen on high | B2 |
The future tone and temper of the sky | B2 |
But grave dissemblers could not understand | J3 |
That sin let loose speaks punishment at hand | J3 |
Ask now of history's authentic page | L3 |
And call up evidence from every age | L3 |
Display with busy and laborious hand | J3 |
The blessings of the most indebted land | J3 |
What nation will you find whose annals prove | M3 |
So rich an interest in Almighty love | N3 |
Where dwell they now where dwelt in ancient day | J3 |
A people planted water'd blest as they | J3 |
Let Egypt's plagues and Canaan's woes proclaim | O3 |
The favors pour'd upon the Jewish name | O3 |
Their freedom purchased for them at the cost | J3 |
Of all their hard oppressors valued most | J3 |
Their title to a country not their own | T2 |
Made sure by prodigies till then unknown | T2 |
For them the states they left made waste and void | J3 |
For them the states to which they went destroy'd | J3 |
A cloud to measure out their march by day | J3 |
By night a fire to cheer the gloomy way | J3 |
That moving signal summoning when best | J3 |
Their host to move and when it stay'd to rest | J3 |
For them the rocks dissolved into a flood | J3 |
The dews condensed into angelic food | J3 |
Their very garments sacred old yet new | P3 |
And Time forbid to touch them as he flew | P3 |
Streams swell'd above the bank enjoin'd to stand | J3 |
While they pass'd through to their appointed land | J3 |
Their leader arm'd wi | J3 |
William Cowper
(1)
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