Everyday Characters I - The Vicar Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCE FGFGHIH JKJKLMLM NONPQMQM RSRTUVUV WMWMUKUK XTXTYZYZ HTHTA2B2A2B2 C2D2C2D2E2D2E2D2 DPDPF2MF2M BTBTG2H2G2C I2F2I2F2J2BJ2B K2CL2CCM2C| Some years ago ere time and taste | A |
| Had turned our parish topsy turvy | B |
| When Darnel Park was Darnel Waste | A |
| And roads as little known as scurvy | B |
| The man who lost his way between | C |
| St Mary's Hill and Sandy Thicket | D |
| Was always shown across the green | C |
| And guided to the Parson's wicket | E |
| - | |
| Back flew the bolt of lissom lath | F |
| Fair Margaret in her tidy kirtle | G |
| Led the lorn traveller up the path | F |
| Through clean clipt rows of box and myrtle | G |
| And Don and Sancho Tramp and Tray | H |
| Upon the parlour steps collected | I |
| Wagged all their tails and seemed to say | H |
| 'Our master knows you you're expected ' | - |
| - | |
| Uprose the Reverend Dr Brown | J |
| Uprose the Doctor's winsome marrow | K |
| The lady laid her knitting down | J |
| Her husband clasped his ponderous Barrow | K |
| Whate'er the strangers caste or creed | L |
| Pundit or Papist saint or sinner | M |
| He found a stable for his steed | L |
| And welcome for himself and dinner | M |
| - | |
| If when he reached his journey's end | N |
| And warmed himself in Court or College | O |
| He had not gained an honest friend | N |
| And twenty curious scraps of knowledge | P |
| If he departed as he came | Q |
| With no new light on love or liquor | M |
| Good sooth the traveller was to blame | Q |
| And not the Vicarage nor the Vicar | M |
| - | |
| His talk was like a stream which runs | R |
| With rapid change from rocks to roses | S |
| It slipped from politics to puns | R |
| It passed from Mahomet to Moses | T |
| Beginning with the laws which keep | U |
| The planets in their radiant courses | V |
| And ending with some precept deep | U |
| For dressing eels or shoeing horses | V |
| - | |
| He was a shrewd and sound Divine | W |
| Of loud Dissent the mortal terror | M |
| And when by dint of page and line | W |
| He 'stablished Truth or startled Error | M |
| The Baptist found him far too deep | U |
| The Deist sighed with saving sorrow | K |
| And the lean Levite went to sleep | U |
| And dreamed of tasting pork to morrow | K |
| - | |
| His sermon never said or showed | X |
| That Earth is foul that Heaven is gracious | T |
| Without refreshment on the road | X |
| From Jerome or from Athanasius | T |
| And sure a righteous zeal inspired | Y |
| The hand and head that penned and planned them | Z |
| For all who understood admired | Y |
| And some who did not understand them | Z |
| - | |
| He wrote too in a quiet way | H |
| Small treatises and smaller verses | T |
| And sage remarks on chalk and clay | H |
| And hints to noble lords and nurses | T |
| True histories of last year's ghost | A2 |
| Lines to a ringlet or a turban | B2 |
| And trifles for the Morning Post | A2 |
| And nothings for Sylvanus Urban | B2 |
| - | |
| He did not think all mischief fair | C2 |
| Although he had a knack of joking | D2 |
| He did not make himself a bear | C2 |
| Although he had a taste for smoking | D2 |
| And when religious sects ran mad | E2 |
| He held in spite of all his learning | D2 |
| That if a man's belief is bad | E2 |
| It will not be improved by burning | D2 |
| - | |
| And he was kind and loved to sit | D |
| In the low hut or garnished cottage | P |
| And praise the farmer's homely wit | D |
| And share the widow's homelier pottage | P |
| At his approach complaint grew mild | F2 |
| And when his hand unbarred the shutter | M |
| The clammy lips of fever smiled | F2 |
| The welcome which they could not utter | M |
| - | |
| He always had a tale for me | B |
| Of Julius C sar or of Venus | T |
| From him I learnt the rule of three | B |
| Cat's cradle leap frog and Quae genus | T |
| I used to singe his powdered wig | G2 |
| To steal the staff he put such trust in | H2 |
| And make the puppy dance a jig | G2 |
| When he began to quote Augustine | C |
| - | |
| Alack the change in vain I look | I2 |
| For haunts in which my boyhood trifled | F2 |
| The level lawn the trickling brook | I2 |
| The trees I climbed the beds I rifled | F2 |
| The church is larger than before | J2 |
| You reach it by a carriage entry | B |
| It holds three hundred people more | J2 |
| And pews are fitted up for gentry | B |
| - | |
| Sit in the Vicar's seat you'll hear | K2 |
| The doctrine of a gentle Johnian | C |
| Whose hand is white whose tone is clear | L2 |
| Whose phrase is very Ciceronian | C |
| Where is the old man laid look down | C |
| And construe on the slab before you | M2 |
| 'Hic jacet GVLIELMVS BROWN | C |
| Vir nulla non donandus lauru ' | - |
Winthrop Mackworth Praed
(1)
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About Everyday Characters I - The Vicar
Everyday Characters I - The Vicar is a poem by Winthrop Mackworth Praed. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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