The Tower Of The Dream Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLHMNOPQRS TBUVWHXYZA2B2HC2D2BE 2F2G2HH2I2J2K2L2M2N2 O2P2Q2R2S2T2 N2U2V2W2NS2X2S2AS2Y2 Z2A3HB3 S2S2S2S2S2C3D3T2B3E3 S2F3B3S2G3H3S2C2BB3 ABI3PJ3S2S2K3BL3M3S2 N3S2KS2O3S2P3S2Q3S2R 3G3 S2Q3C2S3B3T3K3A3U3V3 H3J3KK3S2W3X3HY3S2S2 Y3C3Z3NIA4 B4S2C4S2D4E4F4G4S2S2 S2S2H4 S2U3U3I4B3C2S2J4GK4S 2S2L4S2 M4S2N4K3S2S2O4K4S2S2 Y3S2GD2KP4S2Q4Part I | A |
HOW wonderful are dreams If they but be | B |
As some have said the thin disjoining shades | C |
Of thoughts or feelings long foregone or late | D |
All interweaving set in ghostly act | E |
And strange procession fair grotesque or grim | F |
By mimic fancy wonderful no less | G |
Are they though this be true and wondrous more | H |
Is she who in the dark and stript of sense | I |
Can wield such sovereignty the Queen of Art | J |
For what a cunning painter is she then | K |
Who hurriedly embodying from the waste | L |
Of things memorial littering life s dim floor | H |
The forms and features manifold and quaint | M |
That crowd the timeless vistas of a dream | N |
Fails in no stroke but breathes Pygmalion like | O |
A soul of motion into all her work | P |
And doth full oft in magic mood inspire | Q |
Her phantom creatures with more eloquent tones | R |
Than ever broke upon a waking ear | S |
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But are they more True glimpses oft though vague | T |
Over that far unnavigable sea | B |
Of mystic being where the impatient soul | U |
Is sometimes wont to stray and roam at large | V |
No answer comes Yet are they wonderful | W |
However we may rank them in our lore | H |
And worthy some fond record are these dreams | X |
That with so capable a wand can bring | Y |
Back to the faded heart the rosy flush | Z |
And sweetness of a long fled love or touch | A2 |
The eyes of an old enmity with tears | B2 |
Of a yet older friendship or restore | H |
A world lost mate or reunite in joy | C2 |
The living and the dead can when so wills | D2 |
Their wand s weird wielder whatsoe er it be | B |
Lift up the fallen fallen however low | E2 |
Give youth unto the worn enrich the poor | F2 |
Build in the future higher than the hope | G2 |
Of power when boldest ever dared to soar | H |
Annul the bars of space the dens of time | H2 |
Giving the rigid and cold clanking chain | I2 |
Which force that grey iniquity hath clenched | J2 |
About its captive to relent yea stretch | K2 |
Forth into fairy land or melt like wax | L2 |
In that fierce life whose spirit lightens wide | M2 |
Round freedom seated on her mountain throne | N2 |
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But not thus always are our dreams benign | O2 |
Oft are they miscreations gloomier worlds | P2 |
Crowded tempestuously with wrongs and fears | Q2 |
More ghastly than the actual ever knew | R2 |
And rent with racking noises such as should | S2 |
Go thundering only through the wastes of hell | T2 |
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Yes wonderful are dreams and I have known | N2 |
Many most wild and strange And once long since | U2 |
As in the death like mystery of sleep | V2 |
My body lay impalled my soul arose | W2 |
And journeyed outward in a wondrous dream | N |
In the mid hour of a dark night methought | S2 |
I roamed the margin of a waveless lake | X2 |
That in the knotted forehead of the land | S2 |
Deep sunken like a huge Cyclopean eye | A |
Lidless and void of speculation stared | S2 |
Glassily up for ever sleepless up | Y2 |
At the wide vault of heaven and vaguely came | Z2 |
Into my mind a mystic consciousness | A3 |
That over against me on the farther shore | H |
Which yet I might not see there stood a tower | B3 |
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The darkness darkened until overhead | S2 |
Solidly black the starless heaven domed | S2 |
And earth was one wide blot when as I looked | S2 |
A light swung blazing from the tower as yet | S2 |
Prophesied only in my inner thought | S2 |
And brought at once its rounded structure forth | C3 |
Massive and tall out of the mighty gloom | D3 |
On the broad lake that streaming radiance fell | T2 |
Through the lit fluid like a shaft of fire | B3 |
Burning its sullen depths with one red blaze | E3 |
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Long at that wild light was I gazing held | S2 |
In speechless wonder till I thence could feel | F3 |
A strange and thrillingly attractive power | B3 |
My bodily weight seemed witched away aloft | S2 |
I mounted poised within the passive air | G3 |
Then felt I through my veins a branching warmth | H3 |
The herald of some yet unseen content | S2 |
The nearness of some yet inaudible joy | C2 |
As if some spell of golden destiny | B |
Lifted me onwards to the fateful tower | B3 |
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Part II | A |
High up the tower a circling balcony | B |
Emporched a brazen door The silver roof | I3 |
Rested on shafts of jet and ivory work | P |
Made a light fence against the deep abyss | J3 |
Before that portal huge a lady stood | S2 |
In radiant loveliness serene and bright | S2 |
Yet as it seemed expectant for as still | K3 |
She witched me towards her soft she beckon d me | B |
With tiny hand more splendid than a star | L3 |
And then she smiled not as a mortal smiles | M3 |
With visible throes to the mere face confined | S2 |
But with her whole bright influence all at once | N3 |
In gracious act as the Immortals might | S2 |
God happy or as smiles the morning when | K |
Its subtle lips in rosy beauty part | S2 |
Under a pearly cloud and breathe the while | O3 |
A golden prevalence of power abroad | S2 |
That taketh all the orient heaven and earth | P3 |
Into the glory of its own delight | S2 |
Then in a voice keen sweet and silvery clear | Q3 |
And intimately tender as the first | S2 |
Fine feeling of a love born bliss she spoke | R3 |
Where hast thou stayed so long Oh tell me where | G3 |
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With thrilling ears and heart I heard but felt | S2 |
Pass from me forth a cry of sudden fear | Q3 |
As swooning through the wildness of my joy | C2 |
Methought I drifted whither All was now | S3 |
One wide cold blank the lady and the tower | B3 |
The gleaming lake with all around it one | T3 |
Wide dreary blank the drearier for that still | K3 |
A dizzy clinging ghostly consciousness | A3 |
Kept flickering from mine inmost pulse of life | U3 |
Like a far meteor in some dismal marsh | V3 |
How long I knew not but the thrilling warmth | H3 |
That like the new birth of a passionate bliss | J3 |
Erewhile had searched me to the quick again | K |
Shuddered within me more and more until | K3 |
Mine eyes had opened under two that made | S2 |
All else like darkness and upon my cheek | W3 |
A breath that seemed the final spirit of health | X3 |
And floral sweetness harbingered once more | H |
The silver accents of that wondrous voice | Y3 |
Which to have heard was never to forget | S2 |
And with her tones came warbled as it seemed | S2 |
In mystical respondence to her voice | Y3 |
Still music such as Eolus gives forth | C3 |
But purer deeper warbled as from some | Z3 |
Unsearchable recess of soul supreme | N |
Some depth of the Eternal echoing thence | I |
Through the sweet meanings of its spirit speech | A4 |
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I answered not but followed in mute love | B4 |
The beamy glances of her eyes methought | S2 |
Close at her side I lay upon a couch | C4 |
Of purple blazoned all with stars of gold | S2 |
Tremblingly rayed with spiculated gems | D4 |
Thus sat we looking forth nor seemed it strange | E4 |
That the broad lake with its green shelving shores | F4 |
And all the hills and woods and winding vales | G4 |
Were basking in the beauty of a day | S2 |
So goldenly serene that never yet | S2 |
The perfect power of life essential light | S2 |
Had so enrobed since paradise was lost | S2 |
The common world inhabited by man | H4 |
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I saw this rare surpassing beauty yea | S2 |
But saw it all through her superior life | U3 |
Orbing mine own in love I felt her life | U3 |
The source of holiest and truth loving thoughts | I4 |
Breathing abroad like odours from a flower | B3 |
Enriched with rosy passion and pure joy | C2 |
And earnest tenderness Nor ever might | S2 |
The glassy lake below more quickly give | J4 |
Nimble impressions of the coming wind s | G |
Invisible footsteps dimpling swift along | K4 |
Than instant tokens of communion sweet | S2 |
With outward beauty s subtle spirit passed | S2 |
Forth from her eyes and thence in lambent waves | L4 |
Suffused and lightened o er her visage bright | S2 |
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But as upon the wonder of her face | M4 |
My soul now feasted even till it seemed | S2 |
Instinct with kindred lustre lo her eyes | N4 |
Suddenly saddened then abstractedly | K3 |
Outfixing them as on some far wild thought | S2 |
That darkened up like a portentous cloud | S2 |
Over the morning of our peace she flung | O4 |
Her silver voice into a mystic song | K4 |
Of many measures which as forth they went | S2 |
Slid all into a sweet abundant flood | S2 |
Of metric melody And to her voice | Y3 |
As still she sung invisible singers joined | S2 |
A choral burden that prolonged the strain s | G |
Rich concords till the echoes of the hills | D2 |
Came forth in tidal flow and backward then | K |
Subsiding like a refluent wave died down | P4 |
In one rich harmony It strangely seemed | S2 |
As though the song were ware th | Q4 |
Charles Harpur
(1)
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