A Poem On The Last Day - Book I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDEEFFGG FFFFFFHHHHII JJHHKKDC LLMMNNHHOPHHHHHH IIQMRRSSMMLLHH TTFFFFHH HHUUVVWWMMFFXXMMMMMM MMSS MMJJXX MMQQJJ MMMMFFMMWW MMWWMMMMXXMMFFMM YYWW MMXXWWZA2 MMMMFF MMMMYYB2KMMMMMMQQMMM M MMFFC2C2D2C2| While others sing the fortune of the great | A |
| Empire and arms and all the pomp of state | A |
| With Britain's hero | B |
| set their souls on fire | C |
| And grow immortal as his deeds inspire | D |
| I draw a deeper scene a scene that yields | E |
| A louder trumpet and more dreadful fields | E |
| The world alarm'd both earth and heaven o'erthrown | F |
| And gasping Nature's last tremendous groan | F |
| Death's ancient sceptre broke the teeming tomb | G |
| The righteous Judge and man's eternal doom | G |
| - | |
| 'Twixt joy and pain I view the bold design | F |
| And ask my anxious heart if it be mine | F |
| Whatever great or dreadful has been done | F |
| Within the sight of conscious stars or sun | F |
| Is far beneath my daring I look down | F |
| On all the splendours of the British crown | F |
| This globe is for my verse a narrow bound | H |
| Attend me all ye glorious worlds around | H |
| O all ye angels howsoe'er disjoin'd | H |
| Of every various order place and kind | H |
| Hear and assist a feeble mortal's lays | I |
| 'Tis your eternal King I strive to praise | I |
| - | |
| But chiefly Thou great Ruler Lord of all | J |
| Before whose throne archangels prostrate fall | J |
| If at Thy nod from discord and from night | H |
| Sprang beauty and yon sparkling worlds of light | H |
| Exalt e'en me all inward tumults quell | K |
| The clouds and darkness of my mind dispel | K |
| To my great subject Thou my breast inspire | D |
| And raise my labouring soul with equal fire | C |
| - | |
| Man bear thy brow aloft view every grace | L |
| In God's great offspring beauteous Nature's face | L |
| See Spring's gay bloom see golden Autumn's store | M |
| See how Earth smiles and hear old Ocean roar | M |
| Leviathans but heave their cumbrous mail | N |
| It makes a tide and wind bound navies sail | N |
| Here forests rise the mountain's awful pride | H |
| Here rivers measure climes and worlds divide | H |
| There valleys fraught with gold's resplendent seeds | O |
| Hold kings and kingdoms' fortunes in their beds | P |
| There to the skies aspiring hills ascend | H |
| And into distant lands their shades extend | H |
| View cities armies fleets of fleets the pride | H |
| See Europe's law in Albion's Channel ride | H |
| View the whole earth's vast landscape unconfined | H |
| Or view in Britain all her glories join'd | H |
| - | |
| Then let the firmament thy wonder raise | I |
| 'T will raise thy wonder but transcend thy praise | I |
| How far from east to west The labouring eye | Q |
| Can scarce the distant azure bounds descry | M |
| Wide theatre where tempests play at large | R |
| And God's right hand can all its wrath discharge | R |
| Mark how those radiant lamps inflame the pole | S |
| Call forth the seasons and the year control | S |
| They shine through time with an unalter'd ray | M |
| See this grand period rise and that decay | M |
| So vast this world's a grain yet myriads grace | L |
| With golden pomp the throng'd ethereal space | L |
| So bright with such a wealth of glory stored | H |
| 'T were sin in Heathens not to have adored | H |
| - | |
| How great how firm how sacred all appears | T |
| How worthy an immortal round of years | T |
| Yet all must drop as autumn's sickliest grain | F |
| And earth and firmament be sought in vain | F |
| The tract forgot where constellations shone | F |
| Or where the Stuarts fill'd an awful throne | F |
| Time shall be slain all Nature be destroy'd | H |
| Nor leave an atom in the mighty void | H |
| - | |
| Sooner or later in some future date | H |
| A dreadful secret in the book of fate | H |
| This hour for aught all human wisdom knows | U |
| Or when ten thousand harvests more have rose | U |
| When scenes are changed on this revolving earth | V |
| Old empires fall and give new empires birth | V |
| While other Bourbons rule in other lands | W |
| And if man's sin forbids not other Annes | W |
| While the still busy world is treading o'er | M |
| The paths they trod five thousand years before | M |
| Thoughtless as those who now life's mazes run | F |
| Of earth dissolved or an extinguish'd sun | F |
| Ye sublunary worlds awake awake | X |
| Ye rulers of the nations hear and shake | X |
| Thick clouds of darkness shall arise on day | M |
| In sudden night all earth's dominions lay | M |
| Impetuous winds the scatter'd forests rend | M |
| Eternal mountains like their cedars bend | M |
| The valleys yawn the troubled ocean roar | M |
| And break the bondage of his wonted shore | M |
| A sanguine stain the silver moon o'erspread | M |
| Darkness the circle of the sun invade | M |
| From inmost heaven incessant thunders roll | S |
| And the strong echo bound from pole to pole | S |
| - | |
| When lo a mighty trump one half conceal'd | M |
| In clouds one half to mortal eye reveal'd | M |
| Shall pour a dreadful note the piercing call | J |
| Shall rattle in the centre of the ball | J |
| The' extended circuit of creation shake | X |
| The living die with fear the dead awake | X |
| - | |
| O powerful blast to which no equal sound | M |
| Did e'er the frighted ear of Nature wound | M |
| Though rival clarions have been strain'd on high | Q |
| And kindled wars immortal through the sky | Q |
| Though God's whole enginery discharged and all | J |
| The rebel angels bellow'd in their fall | J |
| - | |
| Have angels sinn'd And shall not man beware | M |
| How shall a son of earth decline the snare | M |
| Not folded arms and slackness of the mind | M |
| Can promise for the safety of mankind | M |
| None are supinely good through care and pain | F |
| And various arts the steep ascent we gain | F |
| This is the scene of combat not of rest | M |
| Man's is laborious happiness at best | M |
| On this side death his dangers never cease | W |
| His joys are joys of conquest not of peace | W |
| - | |
| If then obsequious to the will of fate | M |
| And bending to the terms of human state | M |
| When guilty joys invite us to their arms | W |
| When beauty smiles or grandeur spreads her charms | W |
| The conscious soul would this great scene display | M |
| Call down the' immortal hosts in dread array | M |
| The trumpet sound the Christian banner spread | M |
| And raise from silent graves the trembling dead | M |
| Such deep impression would the picture make | X |
| No power on earth her firm resolve could shake | X |
| Engaged with angels she would greatly stand | M |
| And look regardless down on sea and land | M |
| Not proffer'd worlds her ardour could restrain | F |
| And Death might shake his threatening lance in vain | F |
| Her certain conquest would endear the fight | M |
| And danger serve but to exalt delight | M |
| - | |
| Instructed thus to shun the fatal spring | Y |
| Whence flow the terrors of that day I sing | Y |
| More boldly we our labours may pursue | W |
| And all the dreadful image set to view | W |
| - | |
| The sparkling eye the sleek and painted breast | M |
| The burnish'd scale curl'd train and rising crest | M |
| All that is lovely in the noxious snake | X |
| Provokes our fear and bids us flee the brake | X |
| The sting once drawn his guiltless beauties rise | W |
| In pleasing lustre and detain our eyes | W |
| We view with joy what once did horror move | Z |
| And strong aversion softens into love | A2 |
| - | |
| Say then my Muse whom dismal scenes delight | M |
| Frequent at tombs and in the realms of Night | M |
| Say melancholy maid if bold to dare | M |
| The last extremes of terror and despair | M |
| O say what change on earth what heart in man | F |
| This blackest moment since the world began | F |
| - | |
| Ah mournful turn The blissful Earth who late | M |
| At leisure on her axle roll'd in state | M |
| While thousand golden planets knew no rest | M |
| Still onward in their circling journey press'd | M |
| A grateful change of seasons some to bring | Y |
| And sweet vicissitude of fall and spring | Y |
| Some through vast oceans to conduct the keel | B2 |
| And some those watery worlds to sink or swell | K |
| Around her some their splendours to display | M |
| And gild her globe with tributary day | M |
| This world so great of joy the bright abode | M |
| Heaven's darling child and favourite of her God | M |
| Now looks an exile from her Father's care | M |
| Deliver'd o'er to darkness and despair | M |
| No sun in radiant glory shines on high | Q |
| No light but from the terrors of the sky | Q |
| Fallen are her mountains her famed rivers lost | M |
| And all into a second chaos toss'd | M |
| One universal ruin spreads abroad | M |
| Nothing is safe beneath the throne of God | M |
| - | |
| Such Earth thy fate what then canst thou afford | M |
| To comfort and support thy guilty lord | M |
| Man haughty lord of all beneath the moon | F |
| How must he bend his soul's ambition down | F |
| Prostrate the reptile own and disavow | C2 |
| His boasted stature and assuming brow | C2 |
| Claim kindred with the clay and curse his form | D2 |
| That speaks distinction fr | C2 |
Edward Young
(1)
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About A Poem On The Last Day - Book I
A Poem On The Last Day - Book I is a poem by Edward Young. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.