Reciprocal Kindness The Primary Law Of Nature Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHIJJKK LLMMNNOOJJBBPPBB| Androcles from his injured lord in dread | A |
| Of instant death to Lybia's desert fled | A |
| Tired with his toilsome flight and parch'd with heat | B |
| He spied at length a cavern's cool retreat | B |
| But scarce had given to rest his weary frame | C |
| When hugest of his kind a lion came | C |
| He roar'd approaching but the savage din | D |
| To plaintive murmurs changed arrived within | D |
| And with expressive looks his lifted paw | E |
| Presenting and implored from whom he saw | E |
| The fugitive through terror at a stand | F |
| Dared not awhile afford his trembling hand | F |
| But bolder grown at length inherent found | G |
| A pointed thorn and drew it from the wound | G |
| The cure was wrought he wiped the sanious blood | H |
| And firm and free from pain the lion stood | I |
| Again he seeks the wilds and day by day | J |
| Regales his inmate with the parted prey | J |
| Nor he disdains the dole though unprepared | K |
| Spread on the ground and with a lion shared | K |
| But thus to live still lost sequester'd still | L |
| Scarce seem'd his lord's revenge a heavier ill | L |
| Home native home O might he but repair | M |
| He must he will though death attends him there | M |
| He goes and doom'd to perish on the sands | N |
| Of the full theatre unpitied stands | N |
| When lo the selfsame lion from his cage | O |
| Flies to devour him famish'd into rage | O |
| He flies but viewing in his purposed prey | J |
| The man his healer pauses on his way | J |
| And soften'd by remembrance into sweet | B |
| And kind composure crouches at his feet | B |
| Mute with astonishment the assembly gaze | P |
| But why ye Romans Whence your mute amaze | P |
| All this is natural nature bade him rend | B |
| An enemy she bids him spare a friend | B |
William Cowper
(1)
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