Melancholy -- To Laura Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCBDDEE FFGGHHIIGJGJ KLMLNNFOFO BBPPFFQQGG RSTTEETBBOOFFB UGGUUDDVWXWXW GYGYZA2LLLLB2B2 FOFOWWWW XGXGC2DC2DD2D2E2E2 FBFFBF2F2LG2LLG2FFWW FC2FC2 H2H2LFFDDMMA2A2LOOFI 2J2FFLaura a sunrise seems to break | A |
Where'er thy happy looks may glow | B |
Joy sheds its roses o'er thy cheek | C |
Thy tears themselves do but bespeak | C |
The rapture whence they flow | B |
Blest youth to whom those tears are given | D |
The tears that change his earth to heaven | D |
His best reward those melting eyes | E |
For him new suns are in the skies | E |
- | |
Thy soul a crystal river passing | F |
Silver clear and sunbeam glassing | F |
Mays into bloom sad Autumn by thee | G |
Night and desert if they spy thee | G |
To gardens laugh with daylight shine | H |
Lit by those happy smiles of thine | H |
Dark with cloud the future far | I |
Goldens itself beneath thy star | I |
Smilest thou to see the harmony | G |
Of charm the laws of Nature keep | J |
Alas to me the harmony | G |
Brings only cause to weep | J |
- | |
Holds not Hades its domain | K |
Underneath this earth of ours | L |
Under palace under fame | M |
Underneath the cloud capped towers | L |
Stately cities soar and spread | N |
O'er your mouldering bones ye dead | N |
From corruption from decay | F |
Springs yon clove pink's fragrant bloom | O |
Yon gay waters wind their way | F |
From the hollows of a tomb | O |
- | |
From the planets thou mayest know | B |
All the change that shifts below | B |
Fled beneath that zone of rays | P |
Fled to night a thousand Mays | P |
Thrones a thousand rising sinking | F |
Earth from thousand slaughters drinking | F |
Blood profusely poured as water | Q |
Of the sceptre of the slaughter | Q |
Wouldst thou know what trace remaineth | G |
Seek them where the dark king reigneth | G |
- | |
Scarce thine eye can ope and close | R |
Ere life's dying sunset glows | S |
Sinking sudden from its pride | T |
Into death the Lethe tide | T |
Ask'st thou whence thy beauties rise | E |
Boastest thou those radiant eyes | E |
Or that cheek in roses dyed | T |
All their beauty thought of sorrow | B |
From the brittle mould they borrow | B |
Heavy interest in the tomb | O |
For the brief loan of the bloom | O |
For the beauty of the day | F |
Death the usurer thou must pay | F |
In the long to morrow | B |
- | |
Maiden Death's too strong for scorn | U |
In the cheek the fairest He | G |
But the fairest throne doth see | G |
Though the roses of the morn | U |
Weave the veil by beauty worn | U |
Aye beneath that broidered curtain | D |
Stands the Archer stern and certain | D |
Maid thy Visionary hear | V |
Trust the wild one as the sear | W |
When he tells thee that thine eye | X |
While it beckons to the wooer | W |
Only lureth yet more nigh | X |
Death the dark undoer | W |
- | |
Every ray shed from thy beauty | G |
Wastes the life lamp while it beams | Y |
And the pulse's playful duty | G |
And the blue veins' merry streams | Y |
Sport and run into the pall | Z |
Creatures of the Tyrant all | A2 |
As the wind the rainbow shatters | L |
Death thy bright smiles rends and scatters | L |
Smile and rainbow leave no traces | L |
From the spring time's laughing graces | L |
From all life as from its germ | B2 |
Grows the revel of the worm | B2 |
- | |
Woe I see the wild wind wreak | F |
Its wrath upon thy rosy bloom | O |
Winter plough thy rounded cheek | F |
Cloud and darkness close in gloom | O |
Blackening over and forever | W |
Youth's serene and silver river | W |
Love alike and beauty o'er | W |
Lovely and beloved no more | W |
- | |
Maiden an oak that soars on high | X |
And scorns the whirlwind's breath | G |
Behold thy Poet's youth defy | X |
The blunted dart of Death | G |
His gaze as ardent as the light | C2 |
That shoots athwart the heaven | D |
His soul yet fiercer than the light | C2 |
In the eternal heaven | D |
Of Him in whom as in an ocean surge | D2 |
Creation ebbs and flows and worlds arise and merge | D2 |
Through Nature steers the poet's thought to find | E2 |
No fear but this one barrier to the mind | E2 |
- | |
And dost thou glory so to think | F |
And heaves thy bosom Woe | B |
This cup which lures him to the brink | F |
As if divinity to drink | F |
Has poison in its flow | B |
Wretched oh wretched they who trust | F2 |
To strike the God spark from the dust | F2 |
The mightiest tone the music knows | L |
But breaks the harp string with the sound | G2 |
And genius still the more it glows | L |
But wastes the lamp whose life bestows | L |
The light it sheds around | G2 |
Soon from existence dragged away | F |
The watchful jailer grasps his prey | F |
Vowed on the altar of the abused fire | W |
The spirits I raised against myself conspire | W |
Let yes I feel it two short springs away | F |
Pass on their rapid flight | C2 |
And life's faint spark shall fleeting from the clay | F |
Merge in the Fount of Light | C2 |
- | |
And weep'st thou Laura be thy tears forbid | H2 |
Would'st thou my lot life's dreariest years amid | H2 |
Protract and doom No sinner dry thy tears | L |
Would'st thou whose eyes beheld the eagle wing | F |
Of my bold youth through air's dominion spring | F |
Mark my sad age life's tale of glory done | D |
Crawl on the sod and tremble in the sun | D |
Hear the dull frozen heart condemn the flame | M |
That as from heaven to youth's blithe bosom came | M |
And see the blind eyes loathing turn from all | A2 |
The lovely sins age curses to recall | A2 |
Let me die young sweet sinner dry thy tears | L |
Yes let the flower be gathered in its bloom | O |
And thou young genius with the brows of gloom | O |
Quench thou life's torch while yet the flame is strong | F |
Even as the curtain falls while still the scene | I2 |
Most thrills the hearts which have its audience been | J2 |
As fleet the shadows from the stage and long | F |
When all is o'er lingers the breathless throng | F |
Friedrich Schiller
(1)
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