Saint Monica Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEF GGCCAAEEFHHAA IIAA JJKLAAAAF AAGGMNAAFOOAA AAAAFAAAAAAAAF AAAAPPAAFQQAA RRAAFGGAAAAAAF MMNNSSAAF| AMONG deep woods is the dismantled scite | A |
| Of an old Abbey where the chaunted rite | A |
| By twice ten brethren of the monkish cowl | B |
| Was duly sung and requiems for the soul | C |
| Of the first founder For the lordly chief | D |
| Who flourish'd paramount of many a fief | D |
| Left here a stipend yearly paid that they | E |
| The pious monks for his repose might say | E |
| Mass and orisons to Saint Monica | F |
| - | |
| Beneath the falling archway overgrown | G |
| With briars a bench remains a single stone | G |
| Where sat the indigent to wait the dole | C |
| Given at the buttery that the baron's soul | C |
| The poor might intercede for there would rest | A |
| Known by his hat of straw with cockles drest | A |
| And staff and humble weed of watchet gray | E |
| The wandering pilgrim who came there to pray | E |
| The intercession of Saint Monica | F |
| Stern Reformation and the lapse of years | H |
| Have reft the windows and no more appears | H |
| Abbot or martyr on the glass anneal'd | A |
| And half the falling cloisters are conceal'd | A |
| - | |
| By ash and elder the refectory wall | I |
| Oft in the storm of night is heard to fall | I |
| When wearied by the labours of the day | A |
| The half awaken'd cotters starting say | A |
| 'It is the ruins of Saint Monica ' | - |
| Now with approaching rain is heard the rill | J |
| Just trickling thro' a deep and hollow gill | J |
| By osiers and the alder's crowding bush | K |
| Reeds and dwarf elder and the pithy rush | L |
| Choak'd and impeded to the lower ground | A |
| Slowly it creeps there traces still are found | A |
| Of hollow squares embank'd with beaten clay | A |
| Where brightly glitter'd in the eye of day | A |
| The peopled waters of Saint Monica | F |
| - | |
| The chapel pavement where the name and date | A |
| Or monkish rhyme had mark'd the graven plate | A |
| With docks and nettles now is overgrown | G |
| And brambles trail above the dead unknown | G |
| Impatient of the heat the straggling ewe | M |
| Tinkles her drowsy bell as nibbling slow | N |
| She picks the grass among the thistles gray | A |
| Whose feather'd seed the light air bears away | A |
| O'er the pale relicks of Saint Monica | F |
| Reecho'd by the walls the owl obscene | O |
| Hoots to the night as thro' the ivy green | O |
| Whose matted tods the arch and buttress bind | A |
| Sobs in low gusts the melancholy wind | A |
| - | |
| The Conium there her stalks bedropp'd with red | A |
| Rears with Circea neighbour of the dead | A |
| Atropa too that as the beldams say | A |
| Shews her black fruit to tempt and to betray | A |
| Nods by the mouldering shrine of Monica | F |
| Old tales and legends are not quite forgot | A |
| Still Superstition hovers o'er the spot | A |
| And tells how here the wan and restless sprite | A |
| By some way wilder'd peasant seen at night | A |
| Gibbers and shrieks among the ruins drear | A |
| And how the friar's lanthorn will appear | A |
| Gleaming among the woods with fearful ray | A |
| And from the church yard take its wavering way | A |
| To the dim arches of Saint Monica | F |
| - | |
| The antiquary comes not to explore | A |
| As once the unrafter'd roof and pathless floor | A |
| For now no more beneath the vaulted ground | A |
| Is crosier cross or sculptur'd chalice found | A |
| Nor record telling of the wassail ale | P |
| What time the welcome summons to regale | P |
| Given by the matin peal on holiday | A |
| The villagers rejoicing to obey | A |
| Feasted in honour of Saint Monica | F |
| Yet often still at eve or early morn | Q |
| Among these ruins shagg'd with fern and thorn | Q |
| A pensive stranger from his lonely seat | A |
| Observes the rapid martin threading fleet | A |
| - | |
| The broken arch or follows with his eye | R |
| The wall creeper that hunts the burnish'd fly | R |
| Sees the newt basking in the sunny ray | A |
| Or snail that sinuous winds his shining way | A |
| O'er the time fretted walls of Monica | F |
| He comes not here from the sepulchral stone | G |
| To tear the oblivious pall that Time has thrown | G |
| But meditating marks the power proceed | A |
| From the mapped lichen to the plumed weed | A |
| From thready mosses to the veined flower | A |
| The silent slow but ever active power | A |
| Of Vegetative Life that o'er Decay | A |
| Weaves her green mantle when returning May | A |
| Dresses the ruins of Saint Monica | F |
| - | |
| Oh Nature ever lovely ever new | M |
| He whom his earliest vows has paid to you | M |
| Still finds that life has something to bestow | N |
| And while to dark Forgetfulness they go | N |
| Man and the works of man immortal Youth | S |
| Unfading Beauty and eternal Truth | S |
| Your Heaven indited volume will display | A |
| While Art's elaborate monuments decay | A |
| Even as these shatter'd aisles deserted Monica | F |
Charlotte Smith
(1)
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