The Owl And The Lark Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CBCB BBBB BBBB DEDE BFBF BBBB EGE HEHE BBBB IJIJ KLKL MJMJ EBNB EEEE EBEB EEEE OBOB PEPE QJQJ| A grizzled owl at midnight moped | A |
| Where thick the ivy glistened | B |
| So I who long have vainly groped | A |
| For wisdom leaned and listened | B |
| - | |
| Its perch was firm its aspect staid | C |
| Its big eyes gleamed and brightened | B |
| Now now at last will doubt be laid | C |
| Now yearning be enlightened | B |
| - | |
| Tu whit Tu whoo '' the bird discoursed | B |
| Tu whoo Tu whit '' repeated | B |
| Showing how matter was when forced | B |
| Through space condensed and heated | B |
| - | |
| How rent but spinning still 'twas sphered | B |
| In star and orb and planet | B |
| Where as it cooled live germs appeared | B |
| In lias sand and granite | B |
| - | |
| And last since nothing 'neath the sun | D |
| Avoids material tether | E |
| How life must end when once begun | D |
| In scale and hoof and feather | E |
| - | |
| Then flapping from the ivy tod | B |
| It slouched around the gable | F |
| And perching there discussed if God | B |
| Be God or but a fable | F |
| - | |
| In pompous scales Free Will and Fate | B |
| Were placed and poised and dangled | B |
| And riddles small from riddles great | B |
| Expertly disentangled | B |
| - | |
| It drew betwixt Tu whit '' Tu whoo '' | - |
| Distinctions nice and nicer | E |
| The bird was very wise I knew | G |
| But I grew no whit wiser | E |
| - | |
| Then letting metaphysics slip | H |
| It mumbled moral thunder | E |
| Showing how Virtue's self will trip | H |
| If Reason chance to blunder | E |
| - | |
| Its pleated wings adown its breast | B |
| Were like a surplice folded | B |
| And if the truth must be confessed | B |
| It threatened me and scolded | B |
| - | |
| I thought the lecture somewhat long | I |
| Impatient for its ending | J |
| When sudden came a burst of song | I |
| It was the lark ascending | J |
| - | |
| Dew gleamed in many a jewelled cup | K |
| The air was bright and gracious | L |
| And away the wings and the song went up | K |
| Up through the ether spacious | L |
| - | |
| They bubbled rippled up the dome | M |
| In sprays of silvery trilling | J |
| Like endless fountain's lyric foam | M |
| Still falling still refilling | J |
| - | |
| And when I could no more descry | E |
| The bird I still could hear it | B |
| For sight but not for soul too high | N |
| Unseen but certain Spirit | B |
| - | |
| All that the perched owl's puckered brow | E |
| Had vainly bid me ponder | E |
| The lark's light wings were solving now | E |
| In the roofless dome up yonder | E |
| - | |
| Then brief as lightning flash no more | E |
| I passed beyond the Finite | B |
| And borne past Heaven's wide open door | E |
| Saw everything within it | B |
| - | |
| Slow showering down from cloudless sphere | E |
| The wanderer Elysian | E |
| Dropped nearer clearer to the ear | E |
| Then back into the vision | E |
| - | |
| On his own song he seemed to swim | O |
| Diving through song descended | B |
| Since I had been to Heaven with him | O |
| Earth now was apprehended | B |
| - | |
| O souls perplexed by hood and cowl | P |
| Fain would you find a teacher | E |
| Consult the lark and not the owl | P |
| The poet not the preacher | E |
| - | |
| While brains mechanic vainly weave | Q |
| The web and woof of thinking | J |
| Go mount up with the lark and leave | Q |
| The bird of wisdom blinking | J |
Alfred Austin
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