Celestial Heights Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCB DDEFFE GGHIIH JJKLLK MMJNNJ OOPQQP RRSTTS RRUVVU WWXFFB YYZA2A2Z B2B2C2D2E2C2 F2F2G2H2H2G2 DDQI2I2Q H2H2J2RRJ2 BBH2K2K2H2 L2L2YH2H2Y M2M2C2QQC2 EEN2O2O2N2 J2J2CP2P2C H2H2Q2R2R2Q2 EES2T2T2S2 EG2A2ZZA2 H2H2U2T2T2U2 V2V2EG2G2E H2H2IW2W2W2 W2W2X2QQX2 P2P2Y2EEY2Hail steep ascents and winding ways | A |
Glimmering through melting morning haze | A |
Hail mountain herd bells chiming clear | B |
Hail meads and cherry orchards green | C |
And hail thrice hail thou golden mean | C |
The ch let's simple cheer | B |
- | |
I leave the highwayed world behind | D |
And amid pathless pinewoods wind | D |
I drink their aromatic air | E |
Leap with kin feet the leaping stream | F |
And wake as from an evil dream | F |
To dawn and speechless prayer | E |
- | |
Louder I hear the cattle bells | G |
Wider the prospect spreads and swells | G |
Lakes mountains snow peaks round me throng | H |
I veil mine eyes with awe oppressed | I |
Then gaze and with a carolling breast | I |
Burst into native song | H |
- | |
The moist cool dews are round my feet | J |
Forests of wild flowers simple sweet | J |
With honey load each vacant breeze | K |
Which healing bears upon its wing | L |
Breathes with an air of more than Spring | L |
And banishes disease | K |
- | |
My limbs their youthful stride regain | M |
From off me fall fatigue and pain | M |
I mount more borne on wings than feet | J |
My blood in faster current flows | N |
Yet like stream fed by mountain snows | N |
Is coolest when most fleet | J |
- | |
And not this common frame alone | O |
Reclaims its youth remounts its throne | O |
I feel as air and sky expand | P |
That here the spirit as the flesh | Q |
Grows fragrant dewy healthful fresh | Q |
And like the landscape grand | P |
- | |
Is it then so And must the soul | R |
That unseen wing towards unseen goal | R |
Disdain the crowded vale's delights | S |
Its heat unfruitful vapid noise | T |
And soaring solitary poise | T |
Among celestial heights | S |
- | |
Even so And poised aloft my soul | R |
Far above human fret and dole | R |
In empyrean calm abides | U |
No mortal voice the silence mars | V |
I hear the singing of the stars | V |
And the eternal tides | U |
- | |
The greedy aims the lean regrets | W |
The disenchantment Hope begets | W |
On ravished hearts beheld from here | X |
Like unto hamlet pasture stream | F |
Confused in one indifferent dream | F |
Mean and minute appear | B |
- | |
Man's feeble fury trivial hate | Y |
The pains that upon pleasure wait | Y |
The exhaustion of tumultuous love | Z |
The hopes that dwindle fears that grow | A2 |
All that upheaves the plain below | A2 |
Tranquil I breathe above | Z |
- | |
Yet 'mid these sun confronting peaks | B2 |
The undesisting spirit seeks | B2 |
To mount to loftier rarer height | C2 |
Are what we see but toys of sense | D2 |
And we who see them but a lens | E2 |
Refracting heavenly light | C2 |
- | |
Imperfect mirror faulty glass | F2 |
Who let the pure white rays to pass | F2 |
But twist the coloured beams awry | G2 |
Belittle all the good we see | H2 |
And ill since of our own degree | H2 |
Absorb to magnify | G2 |
- | |
Who knoweth or shall answer find | D |
I hear the rising of the wind | D |
More near and full the torrent's plash | Q |
The swaying pine woods murmur deep | I2 |
The lightnings laugh and roused from sleep | I2 |
The storm winds meet and crash | Q |
- | |
From underneath their lurid cowls | H2 |
Rossberg 'gainst Rigi frowns and scowls | H2 |
Across Arth's vale that cowers for dread | J2 |
And mustering for their awful goal | R |
The phalanxed thunders rumbling roll | R |
Around Pilatus' head | J2 |
- | |
Zug's gentle bosom heaves with fear | B |
And K ssnachts' waves late soft and clear | B |
As maiden's gaze or childhood's kiss | H2 |
Wax black as murkiest pool of hell | K2 |
When the infernal tempests swell | K2 |
And demons jeer and hiss | H2 |
- | |
'Mid such a ferment what is Man | L2 |
He sits beneath the rainbow's span | L2 |
And contemplates his little state | Y |
He hears the darkness call and deems | H2 |
The skies speak to him in his dreams | H2 |
And recognise him great | Y |
- | |
Yet not for him the Heavens engage | M2 |
In their reverberating rage | M2 |
For him the ambushed levins fight | C2 |
Him but a fainter lightning flash | Q |
Him but a feebler thunder crash | Q |
Ending in deeper night | C2 |
- | |
Lo unto other lands of air | E |
The elemental furies bear | E |
The roar of unexhausted strife | N2 |
And freed from the sepulchral gloom | O2 |
Earth once again as from the tomb | O2 |
Rises to light and life | N2 |
- | |
Pilatus frees his rugged head | J2 |
Zug's crouching lake released from dread | J2 |
Looks up and smiles with face serene | C |
And gazed on by the dying sun | P2 |
The phantom snow crests one by one | P2 |
Glow with transfigured mien | C |
- | |
Dead And the tender twilight sighs | H2 |
Wan wane her cheeks moist grow her eyes | H2 |
She draws her robes of mourning round | Q2 |
Slowly she lights her widowed lamp | R2 |
And listens through the night dews damp | R2 |
To catch some cheering sound | Q2 |
- | |
Yet in her loneliness how fair | E |
There is a sadness in the air | E |
Sweeter than all the chords of joy | S2 |
A fragrance as of spices borne | T2 |
Unto the tomb of one we mourn | T2 |
And can no more annoy | S2 |
- | |
Cham's spire I scarce in heaven descry | E |
Inverted in that other sky | G2 |
The lake's lit breast still plain doth glow | A2 |
So Soul that darkly points above | Z |
Shows sure and clear when glassed by love | Z |
In answering heart below | A2 |
- | |
No more the grazing herds I see | H2 |
But still their bells chime silvery | H2 |
The tuneful if unmeasured peal | U2 |
And as when heard in dewy morn | T2 |
From lonely mind and heart forlorn | T2 |
Their desolation steal | U2 |
- | |
The legions of the starry host | V2 |
Each to their high and solemn post | V2 |
In silent discipline repair | E |
And from the unbattlemented sky | G2 |
With an intrepid calm defy | G2 |
The demons of the air | E |
- | |
And lo athwart their ordered lines | H2 |
That strange auxiliary shines | H2 |
Who wears the bright long flowing crest | I |
Weird warrior from another world | W2 |
Whose banner shortly will be furled | W2 |
Or waved in realms unguessed | W2 |
- | |
Erratic pilgrim go not yet | W2 |
And each fair planet do not set | W2 |
For once if only once O Time | X2 |
Stay thine interminable march | Q |
Round and still round that hollow arch | Q |
Where aeons vainly chime | X2 |
- | |
For when the tide which unto Heaven | P2 |
Brings night 'gainst earth is backward driven | P2 |
In waves of rising day ah then | Y2 |
Me helpless will it bear once more | E |
Unto that thronged but barren shore | E |
Ploughed by the cares of men | Y2 |
Alfred Austin
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