Epistle To Augusta Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCBCDD AEFEGEGHH AIJKJKJLL MNOPOPOMM MOQOQOQRR MSTSTSTUU MVWVWVWMM MXYXYXSXX MLXLXLXMM MZHZHZHA2A2 MB2MB2MB2MMM MC2MC2MC2MXX MXBXBXBHH MOTOSOTMM MD2E2D2E2D2E2XX MXCXCXCXXI | A |
My sister my sweet sister if a name | B |
Dearer and purer were it should be thine | C |
Mountains and seas divide us but I claim | B |
No tears but tenderness to answer mine | C |
Go where I will to me thou art the same | B |
A loved regret which I would not resign | C |
There yet are two things in my des tiny | D |
A world to roam through and a home with thee | D |
- | |
II | A |
The first were nothing had I still the last | E |
It were the haven of my happiness | F |
But other claims and other ties thou hast | E |
And mine is not the wish to make them less | G |
A strange doom is thy father's son's and past | E |
Recalling as it lies beyond redress | G |
Reversed for him our grandsire's fate of yore | H |
He had no rest at sea nor I on shore | H |
- | |
III | A |
If my inheritance of storms hath been | I |
In other elements and on the rocks | J |
Of perils overlook'd or unforeseen | K |
I have sustain'd my share of worldly shocks | J |
The fault was mine nor do I seek to screen | K |
My errors with defensive paradox | J |
I have been cunning in mine overthrow | L |
The careful pilot of my proper woe | L |
- | |
IV | M |
Mine were my faults and mine be their reward | N |
My whole life was a contest since the day | O |
That gave me being gave me that which marr'd | P |
The gift a fate or will that walk'd astray | O |
And I at times have found the struggle hard | P |
And thought of shaking off my bonds of clay | O |
But now I fain would for a time survive | M |
If but to see what next can well arrive | M |
- | |
V | M |
Kingdoms and empires in my little day | O |
I have outlived and yet I am not old | Q |
And when I look on this the petty spray | O |
Of my own years of trouble which have roll'd | Q |
Like a wild bay of breakers melts away | O |
Something I know not what does still uphold | Q |
A spirit of slight patience not in vain | R |
Even for its own sake do we purchase pain | R |
- | |
VI | M |
Perhaps the workings of defiance stir | S |
Within me or perhaps a cold despair | T |
Brought on when ills habitually recur | S |
Perhaps a kinder clime or purer air | T |
For even to this may change of soul refer | S |
And with light armour we may learn to bear | T |
Have taught me a strange quiet which was not | U |
The chief companion of a calmer lot | U |
- | |
VII | M |
I feel almost at times as I have felt | V |
In happy childhood trees and flowers and brooks | W |
Which do remember me of where I dwelt | V |
Ere my young mind was sacrificed to books | W |
Come as of yore upon me and can melt | V |
My heart with recognition of their looks | W |
And even at moments I could think I see | M |
Some living thing to love but none like thee | M |
- | |
VIII | M |
Here are the Alpine landscapes which create | X |
A fund for contemplation to admire | Y |
Is a brief feeling of a trivial date | X |
But something worthier do such scenes inspire | Y |
Here to be lonely is not desolate' | X |
For much I view which I could most desire | S |
And above all a lake I can behold | X |
Lovelier not dearer than our own of old | X |
- | |
IX | M |
Oh that thou wert but with me but I grow | L |
The fool of my own wishes and forget | X |
The solitude which I have vaunted so | L |
Has lost its praise in this but one regret | X |
There may be others which I less may show | L |
I am not of the plaintive mood and yet | X |
I feel an ebb in my philosophy | M |
And the tide rising in my alter'd eye | M |
- | |
X | M |
I did remind thee of our own dear Lake | Z |
By the old Hall which may be mine no more | H |
Leman's is fair but think not I forsake | Z |
The sweet remembrance of a dearer shore | H |
Sad havoc Time must with my memory make | Z |
Ere that or thou can fade these eyes before | H |
Though like all things which I have loved they are | A2 |
Resign 'd For ever or divided far | A2 |
- | |
XI | M |
The world is all before me I but ask | B2 |
Of Nature that with which she will comply | M |
It is but in her summer's sun to bask | B2 |
To mingle with the quiet of her sky | M |
To see her gentle face without a mask | B2 |
And never gaze on it with apathy | M |
She was my early friend and now shall be | M |
My sister till I look again on thee | M |
- | |
XII | M |
I can reduce all feelings but this one | C2 |
And that I would not for at length I see | M |
Such scenes as those wherein my life begun | C2 |
The earliest even the only paths for me | M |
Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun | C2 |
I had been better than I now can be | M |
The passions which have torn me would have slept | X |
I had not suffer'd and thou hadst not wept | X |
- | |
XIII | M |
With false Ambition what had I to do | X |
Little with Love and least of all with Fame | B |
And yet they came unsought and with me grew | X |
And made me all which they can make a name | B |
Yet this was not the end I did pursue | X |
Surely I once beheld a nobler aim | B |
But all is over I am one the more | H |
To baffled millions which have gone before | H |
- | |
XIV | M |
And for the future this world's future may | O |
From me demand but little of my care | T |
I have outlived myself by many a day | O |
Having survived so many things that were | S |
My years have been no slumber but the prey | O |
Of ceaseless vigils for I had the share | T |
Of life which might have fill'd a century | M |
Before its fourth in time had pass'd me by | M |
- | |
XV | M |
And for the remnant which may be to come | D2 |
I am content and for the past I feel | E2 |
Not thankless for within the crowded sum | D2 |
Of struggles happiness at times would steal | E2 |
And for the present I would not benumb | D2 |
My feelings further Nor shall I conceal | E2 |
That with all this I still can look around | X |
And worship Nature with a thought profound | X |
- | |
XVI | M |
For thee my own sweet sister in thy heart | X |
I know myself secure as thou in mine | C |
We were and are I am even as thou art | X |
Beings who ne'er each other can resign | C |
It is the same together or apart | X |
From life's commencement to its slow decline | C |
We are entwined let death come slow or fast | X |
The tie which bound the first endures the last | X |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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