The Child Of The Islands - Opening Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCADAEA FGFGGHGHHA IJIJKLKLLI MNMNNONOPI QRQRSARAAA TITIIUIUUI VWVWWXWXXI FYFYYZYZZR RA2RA2A2FA2FFR IIIIIJIJJI JB2JB2B2RB2RRR C2D2C2D2E2JF2JJR G2H2G2I2I2AI2AAI J2JJ2JJRJRRI RK2RK2K2ZK2ZZI JL2JL2L2RL2RRI IM2IM2M2N2M2N2N2I O2O2O2O2O2IO2IO2R RO2P2| I | A |
| - | |
| OF all the joys that brighten suffering earth | B |
| What joy is welcomed like a new born child | C |
| What life so wretched but that at its birth | B |
| Some heart rejoiced some lip in gladness smiled | C |
| The poorest cottager by love beguiled | C |
| Greets his new burden with a kindly eye | A |
| He knows his son must toil as he hath toiled | D |
| But cheerful Labour standing patient by | A |
| Laughs at the warning shade of meagre Poverty | E |
| II | A |
| - | |
| The pettiest squire who holds his bounded sway | F |
| In some far nook of England's fertile ground | G |
| Keeps a high jubilee the happy day | F |
| Which bids the bonfires blaze the joybells sound | G |
| And the small tenantry come flocking round | G |
| While the old steward triumphs to declare | H |
| The mother's suffering hour with safety crowned | G |
| And then with reverent eyes and grey locks bare | H |
| Falters 'GOD bless the Boy ' his Master's Son and Heir | H |
| III | A |
| - | |
| The youthful couple whose sad marriage vow | I |
| Received no sanction from a haughty sire | J |
| Feel as they gaze upon their infant's brow | I |
| The angel Hope whose strong wings never tire | J |
| Once more their long discouraged hearts inspire | K |
| Surely they deem the smiles of that young face | L |
| Shall thaw the frost of his relentless ire | K |
| Homeward they turn in thought old scenes retrace | L |
| And weeping yearn to meet his reconciled embrace | L |
| IV | I |
| - | |
| Yea for this cause even SHAME will step aside | M |
| And cease to bow the head and wring the heart | N |
| For she that is a mother but no bride | M |
| Out of her lethargy of woe will start | N |
| Pluck from her side that sorrow's barb d dart | N |
| And now no longer faint and full of fears | O |
| Plan how she best protection may impart | N |
| To the lone course of those forsaken years | O |
| Which dawn in Love's warm light though doomed to set in tears | P |
| V | I |
| - | |
| The dread exception when some frenzied mind | Q |
| Crushed by the weight of unforeseen distress | R |
| Grows to that feeble creature all unkind | Q |
| And Nature's sweetest fount through grief's excess | R |
| Is strangely turned to gall and bitterness | S |
| When the deserted babe is left to lie | A |
| Far from the woeful mother's lost caress | R |
| Under the broad cope of the solemn sky | A |
| Or by her shuddering hands forlorn condemned to die | A |
| VI | A |
| - | |
| Monstrous unnatural and MAD is deemed | T |
| However dark life's Future glooms in view | I |
| An act no sane and settled heart had dreamed | T |
| Even in extremity of want to do | I |
| And surely WE should hold that verdict true | I |
| Who for men's lives not children's have thought fit | U |
| Though high those lives were valued at their due | I |
| The savage thirst of murder to acquit | U |
| By stamping cold revenge an error of crazed wit | U |
| VII | I |
| - | |
| She after pains unpitied unrelieved | V |
| Sate in her weakness lonely and forlorn | W |
| Listening bewildered while the wind that grieved | V |
| Mocked the starved wailing of her newly born | W |
| Racking her brain from weary night till morn | W |
| For friendly names and chance of present aid | X |
| Till as she felt how this world's crushing scorn | W |
| Passing the Tempter rests on the Betrayed | X |
| Hopeless she flung to Death the life her sin had made | X |
| VIII | I |
| - | |
| Yes deem her mad for holy is the sway | F |
| Of that mysterious sense which bids us bend | Y |
| Toward the young souls new clothed in helpless clay | F |
| Fragile beginnings of a mighty end | Y |
| Angels unwinged which human care must tend | Y |
| Till they can tread the world's rough path alone | Z |
| Serve for themselves or in themselves offend | Y |
| But God o'erlooketh all from His high throne | Z |
| And sees with eyes benign their weakness and our own | Z |
| IX | R |
| - | |
| Therefore we pray for them when sunset brings | R |
| Rest to the joyous heart and shining head | A2 |
| When flowers are closed and birds fold up their wings | R |
| And watchful mothers pass each cradle bed | A2 |
| With hushed soft steps and earnest eyes that shed | A2 |
| Tears far more glad than smiling Yea all day | F |
| We bless them while by guileless pleasure led | A2 |
| Their voices echo in their gleesome play | F |
| And their whole careless souls are making holiday | F |
| X | R |
| - | |
| And if by Heaven's inscrutable decree | I |
| Death calls and human skill be vain to save | I |
| If the bright child that clambered to our knee | I |
| Be coldly buried in the silent grave | I |
| Oh with what wild lament we moan and rave | I |
| What passionate tears fall down in ceaseless shower | J |
| There lies Perfection there of all life gave | I |
| The bud that would have proved the sweetest flower | J |
| That ever woke to bloom within an earthly bower | J |
| XI | I |
| - | |
| For in this hope our intellects abjure | J |
| All reason all experience and forego | B2 |
| Belief in that which only is secure | J |
| Our natural chance and share of human woe | B2 |
| The father pitieth David's heart struck blow | B2 |
| But for himself such augury defies | R |
| No future Absalom his love can know | B2 |
| No pride no passion no rebellion lies | R |
| In the unsullied depth of those delightful eyes | R |
| XII | R |
| - | |
| Their innocent faces open like a book | C2 |
| Full of sweet prophecies of coming good | D2 |
| And we who pore thereon with loving look | C2 |
| Read what we most desire not what we should | D2 |
| Even that which suits our own Ambition's mood | E2 |
| The Scholar sees distinction promised there | J |
| The Soldier laurels in the field of blood | F2 |
| The Merchant venturous skill and trading fair | J |
| None read of broken hope of failure of despair | J |
| XIII | R |
| - | |
| Nor ever can a Parent's gaze behold | G2 |
| Defect of Nature as a Stranger doth | H2 |
| For these with judgment true severe and cold | G2 |
| Mark the ungainly step of heavy Sloth | I2 |
| Coarseness of features tempers quickly wroth | I2 |
| But those with dazzled hearts such errors spy | A |
| A halo of indulgence circling both | I2 |
| The plainest child a stranger passes by | A |
| Shews lovely to the sight of some enamoured eye | A |
| XIV | I |
| - | |
| The Mother looketh from her latticed pane | J2 |
| Her Children's voices echoing sweet and clear | J |
| With merry leap and bound her side they gain | J2 |
| Offering their wild field flow'rets all are dear | J |
| Yet still she listens with an absent ear | J |
| For while the strong and lovely round her press | R |
| A halt uneven step sounds drawing near | J |
| And all she leaves that crippled child to bless | R |
| Folding him to her heart with cherishing caress | R |
| XV | I |
| - | |
| Yea where the Soul denies illumined grace | R |
| The last the worst the fatallest defect | K2 |
| SHE gazing earnest in that idiot face | R |
| Thinks she perceives a dawn of Intellect | K2 |
| And year by year continues to expect | K2 |
| What Time shall never bring ere Life be flown | Z |
| Still loving hoping patient though deject | K2 |
| Watching those eyes that answer not her own | Z |
| Near him and yet how far with him but still alone | Z |
| XVI | I |
| - | |
| Want of attraction this love cannot mar | J |
| Years of Rebellion cannot blot it out | L2 |
| The Prodigal returning from afar | J |
| Still finds a welcome giv'n with song and shout | L2 |
| The Father's hand without reproach or doubt | L2 |
| Clasps his who caused them all such bitter fears | R |
| The Mother's arms encircle him about | L2 |
| That long dark course of alienated years | R |
| Marked only by a burst of reconciling tears | R |
| XVII | I |
| - | |
| CHILD OF THE ISLANDS if the watch of love | I |
| To even the meanest of these fates belong | M2 |
| What shall THINE be whose lot is far above | I |
| All other fortunes woven in my song | M2 |
| To guard THY head from danger and from wrong | M2 |
| What countless voices lift their prayers to Heaven | N2 |
| Those whose own loves crowd round a happy throng | M2 |
| Those for whom Death the blessed tie hath riven | N2 |
| And those to whose scathed age no verdant branch is given | N2 |
| XVIII | I |
| - | |
| There's not a noble matron in the land | O2 |
| Whose christen'd heir in gorgeous robes is drest | O2 |
| There's not a cottage mother whose fond hand | O2 |
| Rocks the low cradle of her darling's rest | O2 |
| By whom THOU art not thought upon and blest | O2 |
| Blest for thyself and for HER lineage high | I |
| Who lull'd thee on her young maternal breast | O2 |
| The Queenly Lady with the clear blue eye | I |
| Through whom thou claimest love and sharest loyalty | O2 |
| XIX | R |
| - | |
| They pray for THEE fair child in Gothic piles | R |
| Where the full organ's deep reverberate sound | O2 |
| Rolls echoing through the dim cathedral | P2 |
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
(1)
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