Seven Sonnets On The Thought Of Death 1 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A ABBACBBADEDECC A FGGFFGGFHIIHJJ A KBBKKBBKLMMM G NOONNONPQPLLQ G RSSRTSSRPPUVVW G OOOOOOOOGLGOOX G OOOOOOOOGGOXLO

IA
-
That children in their loveliness should dieA
Before the dawning beauty which we knowB
Cannot remain has yet begun to goB
That when a certain period has passed byA
People of genius and of facultyC
Leaving behind them some result to showB
Having performed some function should foregoB
The task which younger hands can better plyA
Appears entirely natural But that oneD
Whose perfectness did not at all consistE
In things towards forming which time can have doneD
Anything whose sole office was to existE
Should suddenly dissolve and cease to beC
Is the extreme of all perplexityC
-
IIA
-
That there are better things within the wombF
Of Nature than to our unworthy viewG
She grants for a possession may be trueG
The cycle of the birthplace and the tombF
Fulfils at least the order and the doomF
Of earth that has not ordinance to doG
More than to withdraw and to renewG
To show one moment and the next resumeF
The law that we return from whence we cameH
May for the flowers beasts and most men remainI
If for ourselves we ask not nor complainI
But for a being that demands the nameH
We highest deem a Person and a SoulJ
It troubles us that this should be the wholeJ
-
IIIA
-
To see the rich autumnal tint departK
And view the fading of the roseate glowB
That veils some Alpine altitude of snowB
To hear of some great masterpiece of artK
Lost or destroyed may to the adult heartK
Impatient of the transitory showB
Of lovelinesses that but come and goB
A positive strange thankfulness impartK
When human pure perfections disappearL
Not at the first but at some later dayM
The buoyancy of such reaction mayM
With strong assurance conquer blank dismayM
-
IVG
-
But whether in the uncoloured light of truthN
This inward strong assurance be indeedO
More than the self willed arbitrary creedO
Manhood's inheritor to the dream of youthN
Whether to shut out fact because forsoothN
To live were insupportable unfreedO
Be not or be the service of untruthN
Whether this vital confidence be moreP
Than his who upon death's immediate brinkQ
Knowing perforce determines to ignoreP
Or than the bird's that when the hunter's nearL
Burying her eyesight can forget her fearL
Who about this shall tell us what to thinkQ
-
VG
-
If it is thou whose casual hand withdrawsR
What it at first as casually did makeS
Say what amount of ages it will takeS
With tardy rare concurrences of lawsR
And subtle multiplicities of causeT
The thing they once had made us to remakeS
May hopes dead slumbering dare to reawakeS
E'en after utmost interval of pauseR
What revolutions must have passed beforeP
The great celestial cycles shall restoreP
The starry sign whose present hour is goneU
What worse than dubious chances interposeV
With cloud and sunny gleam to recomposeV
The skiey picture we had gazed uponW
-
VIG
-
But if as not by that the soul desiredO
Swayed in the judgment wisest men have thoughtO
And furnishing the evidence it soughtO
Man's heart hath ever fervently requiredO
And story for that reason deemed inspiredO
To every clime in every age hath taughtO
If in this human complex there be aughtO
Not lost in death as not in birth acquiredO
O then though cold the lips that did conveyG
Rich freights of meaning dead each living sphereL
Where thought abode and fancy loved to playG
Thou yet we think somewhere somehow still artO
And satisfied with that the patient heartO
The where and how doth not desire to hearX
-
VIIG
-
Shall I decide it by a random shotO
Our happy hopes so happy and so goodO
Are not mere idle motions of the bloodO
And when they seem most baseless most are notO
A seed there must have been upon the spotO
Where the flowers grow without it ne'er they couldO
The confidence of growth least understoodO
Of some deep intuition was begotO
What if despair and hope alike be trueG
The heart 'tis manifest is free to doG
Whichever Nature and itself suggestO
And always 'tis a fact that we are hereX
And with being here doth palsy giving fearL
Whoe'er can ask or hope accord the bestO

Arthur Hugh Clough



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