Recollections Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLLLGLGMLN LGMLCL ILLGGOPQLLRLGGGGSTRL LMU VPLRWLLLML LXYLLLLLGGZA2GGG GB2GLVC2LGLGLNGGGD2L E2LLF2GLSMYLG A2GLGG2LLGNLH2I2E2M SGLLJ2MDLGGLK2L2LM2N 2 LO2WI2GLGLP2LGWQ2LR2 GMS2LLSGLE2L GMZ SLT2 SGGLLYe dear stars of the Bear I did not think | A |
I should again be turning as I used | B |
To see you over father's garden shine | C |
And from the windows talk with you again | D |
Of this old house where as a child I dwelt | E |
And where I saw the end of all my joys | F |
What charming images what fables once | G |
The sight of you created in my thought | H |
And of the lights that bear you company | I |
Silent upon the verdant clod I sat | J |
My evening thus consuming as I gazed | K |
Upon the heavens and listened to the chant | L |
Of frogs that in the distant marshes croaked | L |
While o'er the hedges ditches fire flies roamed | L |
And the green avenues and cypresses | G |
In yonder grove were murmuring to the wind | L |
While in the house were heard at intervals | G |
The voices of the servants at their work | M |
What thoughts immense in me the sight inspired | L |
Of that far sea and of the mountains blue | N |
That yonder I behold and which I thought | L |
One day to cross mysterious worlds and joys | G |
Mysterious in the future fancying | M |
Of my hard fate unconscious and how oft | L |
This sorrowful and barren life of mine | C |
I willingly would have for death exchanged | L |
- | |
Nor did my heart e'er tell me I should be | I |
Condemned the flower of my youth to spend | L |
In this wild native region and amongst | L |
A wretched clownish crew to whom the names | G |
Of wisdom learning are but empty sounds | G |
Or arguments of laughter and of scorn | O |
Who hate avoid me not from envy no | P |
For they do not esteem me better than | Q |
Themselves but fancy that I in my heart | L |
That feeling cherish though I strive indeed | L |
No token of such feeling to display | R |
And here I pass my years abandoned lost | L |
Of love deprived of life and rendered fierce | G |
'Mid such a crowd of evil minded ones | G |
My pity and my courtesy I lose | G |
And I become a scorner of my race | G |
By such a herd surrounded meanwhile fly | S |
The precious hours of youth more precious far | T |
Than fame or laurel or the light of day | R |
Or breath of life thus uselessly without | L |
One joy I lose thee in this rough abode | L |
Whose only guests are care and suffering | M |
O thou the only flower of barren life | U |
- | |
The wind now from the tower of the town | V |
The deep sound of the bell is bringing Oh | P |
What comfort was that sound to me a child | L |
When in my dark and silent room I lay | R |
Besieged by terrors longing for the dawn | W |
Whate'er I see or hear recalls to mind | L |
Some vivid image recollection sweet | L |
Sweet in itself but O how bitter made | L |
By painful sense of present suffering | M |
By idle longing for the past though sad | L |
And by the still recurring thought ' I was ' | - |
Yon gallery that looks upon the west | L |
Those frescoed walls these painted herds the sun | X |
Just rising o'er the solitary plain | Y |
My idle hours with thousand pleasures filled | L |
While busy Fancy at my side still spread | L |
Her bright illusions wheresoe'er I went | L |
In these old halls when gleamed the snow without | L |
And round these ample windows howled the wind | L |
My sports resounded and my merry words | G |
In those bright days when all the mysteries | G |
And miseries of things an aspect wear | Z |
So full of sweetness when the ardent youth | A2 |
Sees in his untried life a world of charms | G |
And like an unexperienced lover dotes | G |
On heavenly beauty creature of his dreams | G |
- | |
O hopes illusions of my early days | G |
Of you I still must speak to you return | B2 |
For neither flight of time nor change of thoughts | G |
Or feelings can efface you from my mind | L |
Full well I know that honor and renown | V |
Are phantoms pleasures but an idle dream | C2 |
That life a useless misery has not | L |
One solid fruit to show and though my days | G |
Are empty wearisome my mortal state | L |
Obscure and desolate I clearly see | G |
That Fortune robs me but of little Yet | L |
Alas as often as I dwell on you | N |
Ye ancient hopes and youthful fancy's dreams | G |
And then look at the blank reality | G |
A life of ennui and of wretchedness | G |
And think that of so vast a fund of hope | D2 |
Death is to day the only relic left | L |
I feel oppressed at heart I feel myself | E2 |
Of every comfort utterly bereft | L |
And when the death that I have long invoked | L |
Shall be at hand the end be reached of all | F2 |
My sufferings when this vale of tears shall be | G |
To me a stranger and the future fade | L |
Fade from sight forever even then shall I | S |
Recall you and your images will make | M |
Me sigh the thought of having lived in vain | Y |
Will then intrude with bitterness to taint | L |
The sweetness of that day of destiny | G |
- | |
Nay in the first tumultuous days of youth | A2 |
With all its joys desires and sufferings | G |
I often called on death and long would sit | L |
By yonder fountain longing in its waves | G |
To put an end alike to hope and grief | G2 |
And afterwards by lingering sickness brought | L |
Unto the borders of the grave I wept | L |
O'er my lost youth the flower of my days | G |
So prematurely fading often too | N |
At late hours sitting on my conscious bed | L |
Composing by the dim light of the lamp | H2 |
I with the silence and the night would moan | I2 |
O'er my departing soul and to myself | E2 |
In languid tones would sing my funeral song | M |
- | |
Who can remember you without a sigh | S |
First entrance into manhood O ye days | G |
Bewitching inexpressible when first | L |
On the enchanted mortal smiles the maid | L |
And all things round in emulation smile | J2 |
And envy holds its peace not yet awake | M |
Or else in a benignant mood and when | D |
O marvel rare the world a helping hand | L |
To him extends his faults excuses greets | G |
His entrance into life with bows and smiles | G |
Acknowledges his claims to its respect | L |
O fleeting days How like the lightning's flash | K2 |
They vanish And what mortal can escape | L2 |
Unhappiness who has already passed | L |
That golden period his own good time | M2 |
That comes alas so soon to disappear | N2 |
- | |
And thou Nerina does not every spot | L |
Thy memory recall And couldst thou e'er | O2 |
Be absent from my thought Where art thou gone | W |
That here I find the memory alone | I2 |
Of thee my sweet one Thee thy native place | G |
Beholds no more that window whence thou oft | L |
Wouldst talk with me which sadly now reflects | G |
The light of yonder stars is desolate | L |
Where art thou that I can no longer hear | P2 |
Thy gentle voice as in those days of old | L |
When every faintest accent from thy lips | G |
Was wont to turn me pale Those days have gone | W |
They have been my sweet love And thou with them | Q2 |
Hast passed To others now it is assigned | L |
To journey to and fro upon the earth | R2 |
And others dwell amid these fragrant hills | G |
How quickly thou hast passed Thy life was like | M |
A dream While dancing there joy on thy brow | S2 |
Resplendent shone anticipations bright | L |
Shone in thy eyes the light of youth when Fate | L |
Extinguished them and thou didst prostrate lie | S |
Nerina in my heart the old love reigns | G |
If I at times still go unto some feast | L |
Or social gathering unto myself | E2 |
I say 'Nerina thou no more to feast | L |
Dost go nor for the ball thyself adorn ' | - |
If May returns when lovers offerings | G |
Of flowers and of songs to maidens bring | M |
I say 'Nerina mine to thee spring ne'er | Z |
Returns and love no more its tribute brings ' | - |
Each pleasant day each flowery field that I | S |
Behold each pleasure that I taste the thought | L |
Suggest 'Nerina pleasure knows no more | T2 |
The face of heaven and earth no more beholds ' | - |
Ah thou hast passed for whom I ever sigh | S |
Hast passed and still the memory of thee | G |
Remains and with each thought and fancy blends | G |
Each varying emotion of the heart | L |
And will remain so bitter yet so sweet | L |
Count Giacomo Leopardi
(1)
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