The Temple Of Fame Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCAAAAAADDEEAAAA FFGFFBBHHFFFFFFAAFFH IAAJJFFFFAAFFBBKKAAA AFFAAKKLLAAMHFFFFFFN NFFOOPPFFAAFFQQFFFFA AAARSFFAAAATTFFFFFFF FAAFFKKQQAAAAPPFFFFA AAAFFFFAAFFFFHFFFFFF FFFFFQQAAPPAAGGSOFP| In that soft season when descending show'rs | A |
| Call forth the greens and wake the rising flow'rs | A |
| When op'ning buds salute the welcome day | B |
| And earth relenting feels the genial day | B |
| As balmy sleep had charm'd my cares to rest | C |
| And love itself was banish'd from my breast | C |
| What time the morn mysterious visions brings | A |
| While purer slumbers spread their golden wings | A |
| A train of phantoms in wild order rose | A |
| And join'd this intellectual sense compose | A |
| I stood methought betwixt earth seas and skies | A |
| The whole creation open to my eyes | A |
| In air self balanc'd hung the globe below | D |
| Where mountains rise and circling oceans flow | D |
| Here naked rocks and empty wastes were seen | E |
| There tow'ry cities and the forests green | E |
| Here sailing ships delight the wand'ring eyes | A |
| There trees and intermingled temples rise | A |
| Now a clear sun the shining scene displays | A |
| The transient landscape now in clouds decays | A |
| O'er the wide Prospect as I gaz'd around | F |
| Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound | F |
| Like broken thunders that at distance roar | G |
| Then gazing up a glorious pile beheld | F |
| Whose tow'ring summit ambient clouds conceal'd | F |
| High on a rock of Ice the structure lay | B |
| Steep its ascent and slipp'ry was the way | B |
| The wond'rous rock like Parian marble shone | H |
| And seem'd to distant sight of solid stone | H |
| Inscriptions here of various Names I view'd | F |
| The greater part by hostile time subdu'd | F |
| Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past | F |
| And Poets once had promis'd they should last | F |
| Some fresh engrav'd appear'd of Wits renown'd | F |
| I look'd again nor could their trace be found | F |
| Critics I saw that other names deface | A |
| And fix their own with labour in their place | A |
| Their own like others soon their place resign'd | F |
| Or disappear'd and left the first behind | F |
| Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone | H |
| But felt th' approaches of too warm a sun | I |
| For Fame impatient of extremes decays | A |
| Not more by Envy than excess of Praise | A |
| Yet part no injuries of heav'n could feel | J |
| Like crystal faithful to th' graving steel | J |
| The rock's high summit in the temple's shade | F |
| Nor heat could melt nor beating storm invade | F |
| Their names inscrib'd unnumber'd ages past | F |
| From time's first birth with time itself shall last | F |
| These ever new nor subject to decays | A |
| Spread and grow brighter with the length of days | A |
| So Zembla's rocks the beauteous work of frost | F |
| Rise white in air and glitter o'er the coast | F |
| Pale suns unfelt at distance roll away | B |
| And on th' impassive ice the light'nings play | B |
| Eternal snows the growing mass supply | K |
| Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky | K |
| As Atlas fix'd each hoary pile appears | A |
| The gather'd winter of a thousand years | A |
| On this foundation Fame's high temple stands | A |
| Stupendous pile not rear'd by mortal hands | A |
| Whate'er proud Rome or artful Greece beheld | F |
| Or elder Babylon its frame excell'd | F |
| Four faces had the dome and ev'ry face | A |
| Of various structure but of equal grace | A |
| Four brazen gates on columns lifted high | K |
| Salute the diff'rent quarters of the sky | K |
| Here fabled Chiefs in darker ages born | L |
| Or Worthies old whom arms or arts adorn | L |
| Who cities rais'd or tam'd a monstrous race | A |
| The walls in venerable order grace | A |
| Heroes in animated marble frown | M |
| And Legislators seem to think in stone | H |
| Westward a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd | F |
| On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd | F |
| Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold | F |
| And sculpture rising on the roughen'd mold | F |
| In shaggy spoils here Theseus was beheld | F |
| And Perseus dreadful with Minerva's shield | F |
| There great Alcides stooping with his toil | N |
| Rests on his club and holds th' Hesperian spoil | N |
| Here Orpheus sings trees moving to the sound | F |
| Start from their roots and form a shade around | F |
| Amphion there the loud creating lyre | O |
| Strikes and beholds a sudden Thebes aspire | O |
| Cithaeron's echoes answer to his call | P |
| And half the mountain rolls into a wall | P |
| There might you see the length'ning spires ascend | F |
| The domes swell up the wid'ning arches bend | F |
| The growing tow'rs like exhalations rise | A |
| And the huge columns heave into the skies | A |
| The Eastern front was glorious to behold | F |
| With di'mond flaming and Barbaric gold | F |
| There Ninus shone who spread th' Assyrian fame | Q |
| And the great founder of the Persian name | Q |
| There in long robes the royal Magi stand | F |
| Grave Zoroaster waves the circling wand | F |
| The sage Chaldaeans rob'd in white appear'd | F |
| And Brahmans deep in desert woods rever'd | F |
| These stop'd the moon and call'd th' unbody'd shades | A |
| To midnight banquets in the glimm'ring glades | A |
| Made visionary fabrics round them rise | A |
| And airy spectres skim before their eyes | A |
| Of Talismans and Sigils knew the pow'r | R |
| And careful watch'd the Planetary hour | S |
| Superior and alone Confucius stood | F |
| Who taught that useful science to be good | F |
| But on the South a long majestic race | A |
| Of AEgypt's Priests the gilded niches grace | A |
| Who measur'd earth describ'd the starry spheres | A |
| And trac'd the long records of lunar years | A |
| High on his car Sesostris struck my view | T |
| Whom scepter'd slaves in golden harness drew | T |
| His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold | F |
| His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold | F |
| Between the statues Obelisks were plac'd | F |
| And the learn'd walls with Hieroglyphics grac'd | F |
| Of Gothic structure was the Northern side | F |
| O'erwrought with ornaments of barb'rous pride | F |
| There huge Colosses rose with trophies crown'd | F |
| And Runic characters were grav'd around | F |
| There sate Zamolxis with erected eyes | A |
| And Odin here in mimic trances dies | A |
| There on rude iron columns smear'd with blood | F |
| The horrid forms of Scythian heroes stood | F |
| Druids and Bards their once loud harps unstrung | K |
| And youths that died to be by Poets sung | K |
| These and a thousand more of doubtful fame | Q |
| To whom old fables gave a lasting name | Q |
| In ranks adorn'd the Temple's outward face | A |
| The wall in lustre and effect like Glass | A |
| Which o'er each object casting various dyes | A |
| Enlarges some and others multiplies | A |
| Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall | P |
| For thus romantic Fame increases all | P |
| The Temple shakes the sounding gates unfold | F |
| Wide vaults appear and roofs of fretted gold | F |
| Rais'd on a thousand pillars wreath'd around | F |
| With laurel foliage and with eagles crown'd | F |
| Of bright transparent beryl were the walls | A |
| The friezes gold an gold the capitals | A |
| As heav'n with stars the roof with jewels glows | A |
| And ever living lamps depend in rows | A |
| Full in the passage of each spacious gate | F |
| The sage Historians in white garments wait | F |
| Grav'd o'er their seats the form of Time was found | F |
| His scythe revers'd and both his pinions bound | F |
| Within stood Heroes who thro' loud alarms | A |
| In bloody fields pursu'd renown in arms | A |
| High on a throne with trophies charg'd I view'd | F |
| The Youth that all things but himself subdu'd | F |
| His feet on sceptres and tiara's trod | F |
| And his horn'd head bely'd the Libyan God | F |
| There Caesar grac'd with both Minerva's shone | H |
| Unmov'd superior still in ev'ry state | F |
| And scarce detested in his Country's fate | F |
| But chief were those who not for empire fought | F |
| But with their toils their people's safety bought | F |
| High o'er the rest Epaminondas stood | F |
| Timoleon glorious in his brother's blood | F |
| Bold Scipio saviour of the Roman state | F |
| Great in his triumphs in retirement great | F |
| And wise Aurelius in whose well taught mind | F |
| With boundless pow'r unbounded virtue join'd | F |
| His own strict judge and patron of mankind | F |
| Much suff'ring heroes next their honours claim | Q |
| Those of less noisy and less guilty fame | Q |
| Fair Virtue's silent train supreme of these | A |
| Here ever shines the godlike Socrates | A |
| He whom ungrateful Athens could expell | P |
| At all times just but when he sign'd the Shell | P |
| Here his abode the martyr'd Phocion claims | A |
| With Agis not the last of Spartan names | A |
| Unconquered Cato shews the wound he tore | G |
| And Brutus his ill Genius meets no more | G |
| But in the centre of the hallow'd choir | S |
| Six pompous columns o'er the rest aspire | O |
| Around the shrine itself of Fame they stand | F |
| Hol | P |
Alexander Pope
(1)
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