Pride: Skeltonics

I have not closely read John Skelton but should because there is much more to him than the disorganized rhymester we tend to think him. Obviously the poem below plays with that caricature. It is an exercise on one rhyme. I did the same thing with "At Seventy," posted on 15 August 2022 and linked here and "Admonished," posted on 26 September 2019 and linked here. I think I have now worked out that particular vein!

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That which damns a man is pride;
All sins lead from and to its side:
The one who spryed,
The one who shied,
And he who spied,
And who was snide;
With self’s glamour plied,
All scale and context fied,
Surely all such to date have fried,
Joining Satan in his fiery bide.
They screech, they screech, “I tried
“All rules and guidings to abide;
“But, oh, I lusted after another’s bride,
“And easily I lied,
“With a practised sidestepped slide
“I pocketed what I descried,

“And when wants and wills collide
“Is it too much to ensure my foeman died?”
Ho! now they know that Justice, wide,
May glide,
May stride,
And then condignly chide.
Elide
Who will the facts of pride,
By it good will is dried,
Is mummified,
And each bon that’s cried
Is blackened, dyed,
Suborned to hide
Or on its heels has hied,
An absconded guide.
A man’s left pied,
Black-white, his sins unpryed,
And the Tempter’s streetcar required to ride;
And if he sighed
For Truth that’s skied,
But did so in pride,
It’s trumps he’ll drown in God’s wrath’s tide.

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© July 2021