The Golden Age Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEE FFGGHHCIJJ KLLMMNNOOPPFFQQ RRSSFFFFTTUUGGVVWWNN FFDDPPXXFFYYPPZZ A2A2VVJJB2B2FFFFCCFF C2C2D2D2E2E2TTF2F2G2 G2PPH2 FFE2E2FFBBFFFFFFI2I2 VVJ2J2A2FFF K2K2H2H2L2M2N2N2O2O2 FFFFP2P2DDQ2Q2GGA2 R2 S2S2T2U2FFH2H2V2V2 W2W2V2V2V2V2V2V2FFX2 X2 RRY2| Long ere the Muse the strenuous chords had swept | A |
| And the first lay as yet in silence slept | A |
| A Time there was which since has stirred the lyre | B |
| To notes of wail and accents warm with fire | C |
| Moved the soft Mantuan to his silvery strain | D |
| And him who sobbed in pentametric pain | D |
| To which the World waxed desolate and old | E |
| Fondly reverts and calls the Age of Gold | E |
| - | |
| Then without toil by vale and mountain side | F |
| Men found their few and simple wants supplied | F |
| Plenty like dew dropped subtle from the air | G |
| And Earth's fair gifts rose prodigal as prayer | G |
| Love with no charms except its own to lure | H |
| Was swiftly answered by a love as pure | H |
| No need for wealth each glittering fruit and flower | C |
| Each star each streamlet made the maiden's dower | I |
| Far in the future lurked maternal throes | J |
| And children blossomed painless as the rose | J |
| No harrowing question why ' no torturing how ' | - |
| Bent the lithe frame or knit the youthful brow | K |
| The growing mind had naught to seek or shun | L |
| Like the plump fig it ripened in the sun | L |
| From dawn to dark Man's life was steeped in joy | M |
| And the gray sire was happy as the boy | M |
| Nature with Man yet waged no troublous strife | N |
| And Death was almost easier than Life | N |
| Safe on its native mountains throve the oak | O |
| Nor ever groaned 'neath greed's relentless stroke | O |
| No fear of loss no restlessness for more | P |
| Drove the poor mariner from shore to shore | P |
| No distant mines by penury divined | F |
| Made him the sport of fickle wave or wind | F |
| Rich for secure he checked each wish to roam | Q |
| And hugged the safe felicity of home | Q |
| - | |
| Those days are long gone by but who shall say | R |
| Why like a dream passed Saturn's Reign away | R |
| Over its rise its ruin hangs a veil | S |
| And naught remains except a Golden Tale | S |
| Whether 'twas sin or hazard that dissolved | F |
| That happy scheme by kindly Gods evolved | F |
| Whether Man fell by lucklessness or pride | F |
| Let jarring sects and not the Muse decide | F |
| But when that cruel Fiat smote the earth | T |
| Primeval Joy was poisoned at its birth | T |
| In sorrow stole the infant from the womb | U |
| The ag d crept in sorrow to the tomb | U |
| The ground so bounteous once refused to bear | G |
| More than was wrung by sower seed and share | G |
| Ofttimes would ruthless winds or torrents raze | V |
| The ripening fruit of toilsome nights and days | V |
| Each one in turn grew jealous of his own | W |
| And fenced his patch with ditch and churlish stone | W |
| As greed uprose and greed engendered strife | N |
| Contention raged coincident with life | N |
| Man against man maid against maiden turned | F |
| And the soft breast with envious passions burned | F |
| The loss of one was hailed as others' gain | D |
| And pleasure took unnatural birth from pain | D |
| Goaded by woe and through tradition's lore | P |
| Mindful of all the blissfulness of yore | P |
| The Human Race its sorrows to assuage | X |
| Dreamed afar off a second Golden Age | X |
| Not in the dim irrevocable Past | F |
| But in a Future just as vague and vast | F |
| The prophet's lips the poet's flattering pen | Y |
| Revelled in forecasts of that golden Then | Y |
| The days should come when grief would be no more | P |
| And Peace and Plenty rule from shore to shore | P |
| All men alike enjoy what none did earn | Z |
| And even more than Saturn's Reign return | Z |
| - | |
| As years rolled on as centuries went by | A2 |
| And still that Promised Time seemed no more nigh | A2 |
| Mankind at length outwearied with delays | V |
| Gave up all hope of those seductive days | V |
| Then other prophets other scribes arose | J |
| A nearer surer Eden to disclose | J |
| O long befooled ' they said awake and deem | B2 |
| The Past a tale the Future but a dream | B2 |
| Here in the living Present act your part | F |
| Straining its vulgar blessings to your heart | F |
| Let hand with hand and brain with brain contend | F |
| And each one labour to some selfish end | F |
| In wealth and riot luxury and power | C |
| Baffle the mockery of the transient hour | C |
| If thousands fall if tens of thousands bleed | F |
| Will not a hundred or a score succeed | F |
| Let those who cannot yield to those who can | C2 |
| Fate has its piles of victims why not Man | C2 |
| Better a furious fight where some one wins | D2 |
| Than sluggish life which ends as it begins | D2 |
| Vain was the bard who whilst the World was new | E2 |
| 'Twixt men and beasts the fond distinction drew | E2 |
| That these confine their downward gaze to earth | T |
| Whilst man looks up enamoured of his birth | T |
| Not in the skies but deep beneath the soil | F2 |
| There will you find your happiness and spoil | F2 |
| Enough for brutes its simple face to know | G2 |
| But godlike man must pierce and delve below | G2 |
| Deep in its bowels seek the shining ore | P |
| And at its touch shall Saturn reign once more | P |
| For him whose thews are sound whose vision clear | H2 |
| Whose purpose firm the Golden Age is here ' | - |
| - | |
| Never from cave or tripod mount or glade | F |
| Issued a voice so welcomed so obeyed | F |
| From zone to zone the Golden Gospel flew | E2 |
| And in its train mankind obedient drew | E2 |
| See from their seats the ancient Gods dethroned | F |
| Altars upset and oracles disown'd | F |
| The Muses scared conceal the smothered lyre | B |
| No longer prized the Graces swift retire | B |
| Virtue a butt for ribalds seeks her shroud | F |
| And even Venus veils herself in cloud | F |
| Religion Ethics all men erst adored | F |
| Hymned on the harp or fought for with the sword | F |
| All lofty scopes all ends esteemed of old | F |
| Dissolve like mist before the rage for gold | F |
| The priest for gold makes traffic of his robe | I2 |
| For gold the soldier desolates the globe | I2 |
| The poet shapes for gold his venal lays | V |
| Through gold Vice stalks caparisoned with praise | V |
| Tempted by gold the virgin sells her charms | J2 |
| Though no Immortal slips into her arms | J2 |
| Saddled with gold the adventurer can buy | A2 |
| Titles precedence place and dignity | F |
| High middle low the young the ripe the old | F |
| Man woman child live die are damned for Gold | F |
| - | |
| Soon as the youthful mind begins to ope | K2 |
| It searches Life's significance and scope | K2 |
| And fed by generous impulse year by year | H2 |
| Dreams for itself some glorious career | H2 |
| Its shall it be instructed by the Muse | L2 |
| Truth to abet and beauty to diffuse | M2 |
| With full blown sail and genius at the helm | N2 |
| To steer men's thoughts to a serener realm | N2 |
| Perhaps the ingenuous boy would fain recall | O2 |
| Tintoret's canvas Memmi's fresco'd wall | O2 |
| With godlike pencil purify the mart | F |
| And life ennoble with the breath of Art | F |
| Maybe he burns by Plato's failure fired | F |
| To scale the heights which every wing have tired | F |
| Seize first each part then comprehend the whole | P2 |
| And solve the eternal problem of the Soul | P2 |
| Be these his aims or nobler still to train | D |
| His kind to mutiny till Virtue reign | D |
| Soon doth he learn to count his lovely schemes | Q2 |
| A host of bubbles in a world of dreams | Q2 |
| Experience whispers early Have a care | G |
| Who with the Muse would live must live on air | G |
| The tempting maid is but a poet's lie | A2 |
| Who gave to song what gold could never buy ' | - |
| Confront the world take counsel with the throng | R2 |
| Their verdict what The thing's not worth a song ' | - |
| Are you content you now have learnt your price | S2 |
| Come sink the Muse and don't be quite so nice | S2 |
| Start a new Company and float the shares | T2 |
| Then lunch with Ministers and dine with Mayors | U2 |
| Pimp for a Party praise a Premier's heart | F |
| Head a subscription and then shine a Bart | F |
| Return your income fifty thousand clear | H2 |
| The devil's in it or you'll die a peer | H2 |
| Success so great is never done by halves | V2 |
| 'Tis only virtue when 'tis greatest starves | V2 |
| - | |
| Perhaps his breast untutored yet to serve | W2 |
| Spurns the base counsel with a proud reserve | W2 |
| For Youth is stubborn and when Nature draws | V2 |
| In vain a parent's warning wisdom's saws | V2 |
| Let cravens straight their impotence confess | V2 |
| And sell their birthright for a filthy mess | V2 |
| In flowers see bee like nought but stuff for hives | V2 |
| And for foul lucre prostitute their lives | V2 |
| They have not failed who never once have tried | F |
| Or if they failed they failed for want of pride | F |
| He he at least his soul will ne'er demean | X2 |
| But 'mong the foul will keep his honour clean | X2 |
| - | |
| O touching sight to witness day by day | R |
| His splendid generous day dreams fade away | R |
| His sire reproach | Y2 |
Alfred Austin
(1)
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