Saint Monica Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEF GGCCAAEEFHHAA IIAA JJKLAAAAF AAGGMNAAFOOAA AAAAFAAAAAAAAF AAAAPPAAFQQAA RRAAFGGAAAAAAF MMNNSSAAFAMONG 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)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Saint Monica poem by Charlotte Smith
Best Poems of Charlotte Smith