A Descriptive Ode Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDDEFFEGGHIJHKKLMM LNOPQQP OORSSROOTKKTTTUVVWXX OTTOYYZA2B2ZKKC2OOC2 D2D2O KKOE2E2TF2F2TOOOXVOSupposed to have been written under the Ruins of | A |
Rufus's Castle among the remains of the ancient | B |
Church on the Isle of Portland | C |
CHAOTIC pile of barren stone | D |
That Nature's hurrying hand has thrown | D |
Half finish'd from the troubled waves | E |
On whose rude brow the rifted tower | F |
Has frown'd through many a stormy hour | F |
On this drear site of tempest beaten graves | E |
Sure Desolation loves to shroud | G |
His giant form within the cloud | G |
That hovers round thy rugged head | H |
And as through broken vaults beneath | I |
The future storms low muttering breathe | J |
Hears the complaining voices of the dead | H |
Here marks the fiend with eager eyes | K |
Far out at sea the fogs arise | K |
That dimly shade the beacon'd strand | L |
And listens the portentous roar | M |
Of sullen waves as on the shore | M |
Monotonous they burst and tell the storm at hand | L |
Northward the demon's eyes are cast | N |
O'er yonder bare and sterile waste | O |
Where born to hew and heave the block | P |
Man lost in ignorance and toil | Q |
Becomes associate to the soil | Q |
And his heart hardens like his native rock | P |
- | |
On the bleak hills with flint o'erspread | O |
No blossoms rear the purple head | O |
No shrub perfumes the zephyrs' breath | R |
But o'er the cold and cheerless down | S |
Grim desolation seems to frown | S |
Blasting the ungrateful soil with partial death | R |
Here the scathed trees with leaves half dress'd | O |
Shade no soft songster's secret nest | O |
Whose spring notes soothe the pensive ear | T |
But high the croaking cormorant flies | K |
And mews and hawks with clamorous cries | K |
Tire the lone echoes of these caverns drear | T |
Perchance among the ruins grey | T |
Some widow'd mourner loves to stray | T |
Marking the melancholy main | U |
Where once afar she could discern | V |
O'er the white waves his sail return | V |
Who never never now returns again | W |
On these lone tombs by storms up torn | X |
The hopeless wretch may lingering mourn | X |
Till from the ocean rising red | O |
The misty moon with lurid ray | T |
Lights her reluctant on her way | T |
To steep in tears her solitary bed | O |
Hence the dire spirit oft surveys | Y |
The ship that to the western bays | Y |
With favouring gales pursues its course | Z |
Then calls the vapour dark that blinds | A2 |
The pilot calls the felon winds | B2 |
That heave the billows with resistless force | Z |
Commixing with the blotted skies | K |
High and more high the wild waves rise | K |
Till as impetuous torrents urge | C2 |
Driven on yon fatal bank accursed | O |
The vessel's massy timbers burst | O |
And the crew sinks beneath the infuriate surge | C2 |
There find the weak an early grave | D2 |
While youthful strength the whelming wave | D2 |
Repels and labouring for the land | O |
- | |
With shorten'd breath and upturn'd eyes | K |
Sees the rough shore above him rise | K |
Nor dreams that rapine meets him on the strand | O |
And are there then in human form | E2 |
Monsters more savage than the storm | E2 |
Who from the gasping sufferer tear | T |
The dripping weed who dare to reap | F2 |
The inhuman harvest of the deep | F2 |
From half drown'd victims whom the tempests spare | T |
Ah yes by avarice once possess'd | O |
No pity moves the rustic breast | O |
Callous he proves as those who haply wait | O |
Till I a pilgrim weary worn | X |
To my own native land return | V |
With legal toils to drag me to my fate | O |
Charlotte Smith
(1)
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