Don Juan: Canto The Fourth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABABCC DEDEDEFF GFGFGFHH AIAIAIJJ KLKLKLMM NONONOPP GNGNGNQQ RNRNRNAA STSTTTUU NVNVNVWW UXUXUXYY ZA2ZB2ZA2C2C2 D2ND2ND2NFF E2F2E2F2E2G2H2H2 I2J2I2K2I2K2L2L2 M2N2M2N2M2N2O2P2 DN2DN2Q2N2ZU GSGSGVOO R2AR2AR2AN2N2 VN2VN2S2N2T2T2 U2NU2NU2NYY R2FR2V2R2FN2W2Nothing so difficult as a beginning | A |
In poesy unless perhaps the end | B |
For oftentimes when Pegasus seems winning | A |
The race he sprains a wing and down we tend | B |
Like Lucifer when hurl'd from heaven for sinning | A |
Our sin the same and hard as his to mend | B |
Being pride which leads the mind to soar too far | C |
Till our own weakness shows us what we are | C |
- | |
But Time which brings all beings to their level | D |
And sharp Adversity will teach at last | E |
Man and as we would hope perhaps the devil | D |
That neither of their intellects are vast | E |
While youth's hot wishes in our red veins revel | D |
We know not this the blood flows on too fast | E |
But as the torrent widens towards the ocean | F |
We ponder deeply on each past emotion | F |
- | |
As boy I thought myself a clever fellow | G |
And wish'd that others held the same opinion | F |
They took it up when my days grew more mellow | G |
And other minds acknowledged my dominion | F |
Now my sere fancy 'falls into the yellow | G |
Leaf ' and Imagination droops her pinion | F |
And the sad truth which hovers o'er my desk | H |
Turns what was once romantic to burlesque | H |
- | |
And if I laugh at any mortal thing | A |
'T is that I may not weep and if I weep | I |
'T is that our nature cannot always bring | A |
Itself to apathy for we must steep | I |
Our hearts first in the depths of Lethe's spring | A |
Ere what we least wish to behold will sleep | I |
Thetis baptized her mortal son in Styx | J |
A mortal mother would on Lethe fix | J |
- | |
Some have accused me of a strange design | K |
Against the creed and morals of the land | L |
And trace it in this poem every line | K |
I don't pretend that I quite understand | L |
My own meaning when I would be very fine | K |
But the fact is that I have nothing plann'd | L |
Unless it were to be a moment merry | M |
A novel word in my vocabulary | M |
- | |
To the kind reader of our sober clime | N |
This way of writing will appear exotic | O |
Pulci was sire of the half serious rhyme | N |
Who sang when chivalry was more Quixotic | O |
And revell'd in the fancies of the time | N |
True knights chaste dames huge giants kings despotic | O |
But all these save the last being obsolete | P |
I chose a modern subject as more meet | P |
- | |
How I have treated it I do not know | G |
Perhaps no better than they have treated me | N |
Who have imputed such designs as show | G |
Not what they saw but what they wish'd to see | N |
But if it gives them pleasure be it so | G |
This is a liberal age and thoughts are free | N |
Meantime Apollo plucks me by the ear | Q |
And tells me to resume my story here | Q |
- | |
Young Juan and his lady love were left | R |
To their own hearts' most sweet society | N |
Even Time the pitiless in sorrow cleft | R |
With his rude scythe such gentle bosoms he | N |
Sigh'd to behold them of their hours bereft | R |
Though foe to love and yet they could not be | N |
Meant to grow old but die in happy spring | A |
Before one charm or hope had taken wing | A |
- | |
Their faces were not made for wrinkles their | S |
Pure blood to stagnate their great hearts to fail | T |
The blank grey was not made to blast their hair | S |
But like the climes that know nor snow nor hail | T |
They were all summer lightning might assail | T |
And shiver them to ashes but to trail | T |
A long and snake like life of dull decay | U |
Was not for them they had too little day | U |
- | |
They were alone once more for them to be | N |
Thus was another Eden they were never | V |
Weary unless when separate the tree | N |
Cut from its forest root of years the river | V |
Damm'd from its fountain the child from the knee | N |
And breast maternal wean'd at once for ever | V |
Would wither less than these two torn apart | W |
Alas there is no instinct like the heart | W |
- | |
The heart which may be broken happy they | U |
Thrice fortunate who of that fragile mould | X |
The precious porcelain of human clay | U |
Break with the first fall they can ne'er behold | X |
The long year link'd with heavy day on day | U |
And all which must be borne and never told | X |
While life's strange principle will often lie | Y |
Deepest in those who long the most to die | Y |
- | |
'Whom the gods love die young ' was said of yore | Z |
And many deaths do they escape by this | A2 |
The death of friends and that which slays even more | Z |
The death of friendship love youth all that is | B2 |
Except mere breath and since the silent shore | Z |
Awaits at last even those who longest miss | A2 |
The old archer's shafts perhaps the early grave | C2 |
Which men weep over may be meant to save | C2 |
- | |
Haidee and Juan thought not of the dead | D2 |
The heavens and earth and air seem'd made for them | N |
They found no fault with Time save that he fled | D2 |
They saw not in themselves aught to condemn | N |
Each was the other's mirror and but read | D2 |
Joy sparkling in their dark eyes like a gem | N |
And knew such brightness was but the reflection | F |
Of their exchanging glances of affection | F |
- | |
The gentle pressure and the thrilling touch | E2 |
The least glance better understood than words | F2 |
Which still said all and ne'er could say too much | E2 |
A language too but like to that of birds | F2 |
Known but to them at least appearing such | E2 |
As but to lovers a true sense affords | G2 |
Sweet playful phrases which would seem absurd | H2 |
To those who have ceased to hear such or ne'er heard | H2 |
- | |
All these were theirs for they were children still | I2 |
And children still they should have ever been | J2 |
They were not made in the real world to fill | I2 |
A busy character in the dull scene | K2 |
But like two beings born from out a rill | I2 |
A nymph and her beloved all unseen | K2 |
To pass their lives in fountains and on flowers | L2 |
And never know the weight of human hours | L2 |
- | |
Moons changing had roll'd on and changeless found | M2 |
Those their bright rise had lighted to such joys | N2 |
As rarely they beheld throughout their round | M2 |
And these were not of the vain kind which cloys | N2 |
For theirs were buoyant spirits never bound | M2 |
By the mere senses and that which destroys | N2 |
Most love possession unto them appear'd | O2 |
A thing which each endearment more endear'd | P2 |
- | |
Oh beautiful and rare as beautiful | D |
But theirs was love in which the mind delights | N2 |
To lose itself when the old world grows dull | D |
And we are sick of its hack sounds and sights | N2 |
Intrigues adventures of the common school | Q2 |
Its petty passions marriages and flights | N2 |
Where Hymen's torch but brands one strumpet more | Z |
Whose husband only knows her not a wh re | U |
- | |
Hard words harsh truth a truth which many know | G |
Enough The faithful and the fairy pair | S |
Who never found a single hour too slow | G |
What was it made them thus exempt from care | S |
Young innate feelings all have felt below | G |
Which perish in the rest but in them were | V |
Inherent what we mortals call romantic | O |
And always envy though we deem it frantic | O |
- | |
This is in others a factitious state | R2 |
An opium dream of too much youth and reading | A |
But was in them their nature or their fate | R2 |
No novels e'er had set their young hearts bleeding | A |
For Haidee's knowledge was by no means great | R2 |
And Juan was a boy of saintly breeding | A |
So that there was no reason for their loves | N2 |
More than for those of nightingales or doves | N2 |
- | |
They gazed upon the sunset 't is an hour | V |
Dear unto all but dearest to their eyes | N2 |
For it had made them what they were the power | V |
Of love had first o'erwhelm'd them from such skies | N2 |
When happiness had been their only dower | S2 |
And twilight saw them link'd in passion's ties | N2 |
Charm'd with each other all things charm'd that brought | T2 |
The past still welcome as the present thought | T2 |
- | |
I know not why but in that hour to night | U2 |
Even as they gazed a sudden tremor came | N |
And swept as 't were across their hearts' delight | U2 |
Like the wind o'er a harp string or a flame | N |
When one is shook in sound and one in sight | U2 |
And thus some boding flash'd through either frame | N |
And call'd from Juan's breast a faint low sigh | Y |
While one new tear arose in Haidee's eye | Y |
- | |
That large black prophet eye seem'd to dilate | R2 |
And follow far the disappearing sun | F |
As if their last day of a happy date | R2 |
With his broad bright and dropping orb were gone | V2 |
Juan gazed on her as to ask his fate | R2 |
He felt a grief but knowing cause for none | F |
His glance inquired of hers for some excuse | N2 |
For feelings causeless or at least | W2 |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Don Juan: Canto The Fourth poem by George Gordon Byron
Best Poems of George Gordon Byron