The Vicar Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCE FGFGHIHI JKJKLMLM NONPQMQM RSRTUVUV WMWMUKUK BTXTBYBY HTHTZA2ZA2 B2C2B2C2D2C2D2C2 DPDPE2MBM BTBTF2G2F2C H2BH2BI2BI2B J2CK2CCL2CKSOME years ago ere time and taste | A |
Had turn d 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 clipp d rows of box and myrtle | G |
And Don and Sancho Tramp and Tray | H |
Upon the parlor steps collected | I |
Wagg d all their tails and seem d to say | H |
Our master knows you you re expected | I |
- | |
Up rose the reverend Doctor Brown | J |
Up rose the doctor s winsome marrow | K |
The lady laid her knitting down | J |
Her husband clasp d his ponderous Barrow | K |
Whate er the stranger s 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 reach d his journey s end | N |
And warm d himself in court or college | O |
He had not gain d 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 slipp d from politics to puns | R |
It pass d 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 stablish d truth or startled error | M |
The Baptist found him far too deep | U |
The Deist sigh d with saving sorrow | K |
And the lean Levite went to sleep | U |
And dream d of tasting pork to morrow | K |
- | |
His sermon never said or show d | B |
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 inspir d | B |
The hand and head that penn d and plann d them | Y |
For all who understood admir d | B |
And some who did not understand them | Y |
- | |
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 | Z |
Lines to a ringlet or a turban | A2 |
And trifles to the Morning Post | Z |
And nothings for Sylvanus Urban | A2 |
- | |
He did not think all mischief fair | B2 |
Although he had a knack of joking | C2 |
He did not make himself a bear | B2 |
Although he had a taste for smoking | C2 |
And when religious sects ran mad | D2 |
He held in spite of all his learning | C2 |
That if a man s belief is bad | D2 |
It will not be improv d by burning | C2 |
- | |
And he was king and lov d to sit | D |
In the low hut or garnish d cottage | P |
And praise the farmer s homely wit | D |
And share the widow s homelier pottage | P |
At his approach complaint grew mild | E2 |
And when his hand unbarr d the shutter | M |
The clammy lips of fever smil d | B |
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 learn d the rule of three | B |
Cat s cradle leap frog and Qu genus | T |
I used to singe his powder d wig | F2 |
To steal the staff he put such trust in | G2 |
And make the puppy dance a jig | F2 |
When he began to quote Augustine | C |
- | |
Alack the change In vain I look | H2 |
For haunts in which my boyhood trifled | B |
The level lawn the trickling brook | H2 |
The trees I climb d the beds I rifled | B |
The church is larger than before | I2 |
You reach it by a carriage entry | B |
It holds three hundred people more | I2 |
And pews are fitted for the gentry | B |
- | |
Sit in the vicar s seat you ll hear | J2 |
The doctrine of a gentle Johnian | C |
Whose hand is white whose voice is clear | K2 |
Whose tone is very Ciceronian | C |
Where is the old man laid Look down | C |
And construe on the slab before you | L2 |
Hic jacet Gulielmus Brown | C |
Vir null non donandus lauro | K |
Winthrop Mackworth Praed
(1)
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