Charms Of Precedence - A Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABACDAEFGGHIJJKKLL BBBBMNOOPPLLQQRSLTLL UVBBWWXXBBLLYYZZBBMN A2B2DDOOBBZZC2C2B2B2 D2D2BBOOE2E2B2B2BBSD F2F2XXOOBBG2G2B2B2BB DDDDDBBH2H2DDDDBBBBI 2I2J2J2B2B2I2I2DDDDL LK2K2L2L2M2M2N2N2LLB 2B2B2B2DDK2K2O2O2DDB 2B2P2P2OODDB2B2B2B2K 2K2OODDLLLLQ2Q2B2B2D DB2B2ZZLLGGDDB2B2JJH 2H2ZZDAL2L2DDLL'Sir will you please to walk before ' | A |
'No pray Sir you are next the door ' | A |
'Upon mine honour I'll not stir ' | A |
'Sir I'm at home consider Sir' | B |
'Excuse me Sir I'll not go first ' | A |
'Well if I must be rude I must | C |
But yet I wish I could evade it | D |
'Tis strangely clownish be persuaded ' | A |
Go forward Cits go forward Squires | E |
Nor scruple each what each admires | F |
Life squares not Friends with your proceeding | G |
It flies while you display your breeding | G |
Such breeding as one's grannum preaches | H |
Or some old dancing master teaches | I |
Oh for some rude tumultuous fellow | J |
Half crazy or at least half mellow | J |
To come behind you unawares | K |
And fairly push you both down stairs | K |
But Death's at hand let me advise ye | L |
Go forward Friends or he'll surprise ye | L |
Besides how insincere you are | B |
Do ye not flatter lie forswear | B |
And daily cheat and weekly pray | B |
And all for this to lead the way | B |
Such is my theme which means to prove | M |
That though we drink or game or love | N |
As that or this is most in fashion | O |
Precedence is our ruling passion | O |
When college students take degrees | P |
And pay the beadle's endless fees | P |
What moves that scientific body | L |
But the first cutting at a gaudy | L |
And whence such shoals in bare conditions | Q |
That starve and languish as physicians | Q |
Content to trudge the streets and stare at | R |
The fat apothecary's chariot | S |
But that in Charlotte's chamber see | L |
Moli re's M decin malgr lui | T |
The leech howe'er his fortunes vary | L |
Still walks before the apothecary | L |
Flavia in vain has wit and charms | U |
And all that shines and all that warms | V |
In vain all human race adore her | B |
For Lady Mary ranks before her | B |
O Celia gentle Celia tell us | W |
You who are neither vain nor jealous | W |
The softest breast the mildest mien | X |
Would you not feel some little spleen | X |
Nor bite your lip nor furl your brow | B |
If Florimel your equal now | B |
Should one day gain precedence of ye | L |
First served though in a dish of coffee | L |
Placed first although where you are found | Y |
You gain the eyes of all around | Y |
Named first though not with half the fame | Z |
That waits my charming Celia's name | Z |
Hard fortune barely to inspire | B |
Our fix'd esteem and fond desire | B |
Barely where'er you go to prove | M |
The source of universal love | N |
Yet be content observing this | A2 |
Honour's the offspring of caprice | B2 |
And worth howe'er you have pursued it | D |
Has now no power but to exclude it | D |
You'll find your general reputation | O |
A kind of supplemental station | O |
Poor Swift with all his worth could ne'er | B |
He tells us hope to rise a peer | B |
So to supply it wrote for fame | Z |
And well the wit secured his aim | Z |
A common patriot has a drift | C2 |
Not quite so innocent as Swift | C2 |
In Britain's cause he rants he labours | B2 |
'He's honest faith ' have patience Neighbours | B2 |
For patriots may sometimes deceive | D2 |
May beg their friends' reluctant leave | D2 |
To serve them in a higher sphere | B |
And drop their virtue to get there | B |
As Lucian tells us in his fashion | O |
How souls put off each earthly passion | O |
Ere on Elysium's flowery strand | E2 |
Old Charon suffer'd them to land | E2 |
So ere we meet a court's caresses | B2 |
No doubt our souls must change their dresses | B2 |
And souls there be who bound that way | B |
Attire themselves ten times a day | B |
If then 'tis rank which all men covet | S |
And saints alike and sinners love it | D |
If place for which our courtiers throng | F2 |
So thick that few can get along | F2 |
For which such servile toils are seen | X |
Who's happier than a king a queen | X |
Howe'er men aim at elevation | O |
'Tis properly a female passion | O |
Women and beaus beyond all measure | B |
Are charm'd with rank's ecstatic pleasure | B |
Sir if your drift I rightly scan | G2 |
You'd hint a beau was not a man | G2 |
Say women then are fond of places | B2 |
I waive all disputable cases | B2 |
A man perhaps would something linger | B |
Were his loved rank to cost a finger | B |
Or were an ear or toe the price on 't | D |
He might deliberate once or twice on 't | D |
Perhaps ask Gataker's advice on 't | D |
And many as their frames grow old | D |
Would hardly purchase it with gold | D |
But women wish precedence ever | B |
'Tis their whole life's supreme endeavour | B |
It fires their youth with jealous rage | H2 |
And strongly animates their age | H2 |
Perhaps they would not sell outright | D |
Or maim a limb that was in sight | D |
Yet on worse terms they sometimes choose it | D |
Nor even in punishment refuse it | D |
Pre eminence in pain you cry | B |
All fierce and pregnant with reply | B |
But lend your patience and your ear | B |
An argument shall make it clear | B |
But hold an argument may fail | I2 |
Beside my title says A Tale | I2 |
Where Avon rolls her winding stream | J2 |
Avon the Muses' favourite theme | J2 |
Avon that fills the farmers' purses | B2 |
And decks with flowers both farms and verses | B2 |
She visits many a fertile vale | I2 |
Such was the scene of this my Tale | I2 |
For 'tis in Evesham's Yale or near it | D |
That folks with laughter tell and hear it | D |
The soil with annual plenty bless'd | D |
Was by young Corydon possess'd | D |
His youth alone I lay before ye | L |
As most material to my story | L |
For strength and vigour too he had them | K2 |
And 'twere not much amiss to add them | K2 |
Thrice happy lout whose wide domain | L2 |
Now green with grass now gilt with grain | L2 |
In russet robes of clover deep | M2 |
Or thinly veil'd and white with sheep | M2 |
Now fragrant with the bean's perfume | N2 |
Now purpled with the pulse's bloom | N2 |
Might well with bright allusion store me | L |
But happier bards have been before me | L |
Amongst the various year's increase | B2 |
The stripling own'd a field of pease | B2 |
Which when at night he ceased his labours | B2 |
Were haunted by some female neighbours | B2 |
Each morn discover'd to his sight | D |
The shameful havoc of the night | D |
Traces of this they left behind them | K2 |
But no instructions where to find them | K2 |
The devil's works are plain and evil | O2 |
But few or none have seen the devil | O2 |
Old Noll indeed if we may credit | D |
The words of Echard who has said it | D |
Contrived with Satan how to fool us | B2 |
And bargain'd face to face to rule us | B2 |
But then Old Noll was one in ten | P2 |
And sought him more than other men | P2 |
Our shepherd too with like attention | O |
May meet the female fiends we mention | O |
He rose one morn at break of day | D |
And near the field in ambush lay | D |
When lo a brace of girls appears | B2 |
The third a matron much in years | B2 |
Smiling amidst the pease the sinners | B2 |
Sat down to cull their future dinners | B2 |
And caring little who might own them | K2 |
Made free as though themselves had sown them | K2 |
'Tis worth a sage's observation | O |
How love can make a jest of passion | O |
Anger had forced the swain from bed | D |
His early dues to love unpaid | D |
And Love a god that keeps a pother | L |
And will be paid one time or other | L |
Now banish'd Anger out of door | L |
And claim'd the debt withheld before | L |
If Anger bid our youth revile | Q2 |
Love form'd his features to a smile | Q2 |
And knowing well 'twas all grimace | B2 |
To threaten with a smiling face | B2 |
He in few words express'd his mind | D |
And none would deem them much unkind | D |
The amorous youth for their offence | B2 |
Demanded instant recompence | B2 |
That recompence from each which shame | Z |
Forbids a bashful Muse to name | Z |
Yet more this sentence to discover | L |
'Tis what Bet grants her lover | L |
When he to make the strumpet willing | G |
Has spent his fortune to a shilling | G |
Each stood awhile as 'twere suspended | D |
And loth to do what each intended | D |
At length with soft pathetic sighs | B2 |
The matron bent with age replies | B2 |
''Tis vain to strive justice I know | J |
And our ill stars will have it so | J |
But let my tears your wrath assuage | H2 |
And show some deference for age | H2 |
I from a distant village came | Z |
Am old God knows and something lame | Z |
And if we yield as yield we must | D |
Despatch my crazy body first ' | A |
Our shepherd like the Phrygian swain | L2 |
When circled round on Ida's plain | L2 |
With goddesses he stood suspended | D |
And Pallas's grave speech was ended | D |
Own'd what she ask'd might be his duty | L |
But paid the compliment to beauty | L |
William Shenstone
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Charms Of Precedence - A Tale poem by William Shenstone
Best Poems of William Shenstone