The Island - Canto The First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDDEEFFBBGHIIJJ A KKELMMNNOOPPQQRRSSTT UUVVWWXCYRCCZZ A A2A2B2B2C2C2D2D2E2E2 CCF2F2 R G2G2D2D2CCD2D2D2D2LH 2I2J2D2D2 R ARLLD2D2AAD2D2K2K2L2 L2MM A M2M2MN2O2O2P2B2ARQ2Q 2D2D2JJCCO2O2O2O2BBR 2R2D2D2 A AAS2S2CCT2T2DARRGGD2 D2 A B2B2CCARU2U2V2V2N2N2 U2U2W2W2JJL2L2H2LX2X 2Y2Y2X2X2 C AACY2AAFZ2 AAFFJJEEGGY2Y2D2D2D2 D2CCZ2FD2D2GG C A3D2CCB2B2BBJ2J2CCBD 2CCEECCLL2AAT2T2CCBW Y2Y2BB Z2I | A |
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The morning watch was come the vessel lay | B |
Her course and gently made her liquid way ex | C |
The cloven billow flashed from off her prow | D |
In furrows formed by that majestic plough | D |
The waters with their world were all before | E |
Behind the South Sea's many an islet shore | E |
The quiet night now dappling 'gan to wane | F |
Dividing darkness from the dawning main | F |
The dolphins not unconscious of the day | B |
Swam high as eager of the coming ray | B |
The stars from broader beams began to creep | G |
And lift their shining eyelids from the deep ey | H |
The sail resumed its lately shadowed white | I |
And the wind fluttered with a freshening flight | I |
The purpling Ocean owns the coming Sun | J |
But ere he break a deed is to be done | J |
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II | A |
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The gallant Chief within his cabin slept | K |
Secure in those by whom the watch was kept | K |
His dreams were of Old England's welcome shore | E |
Of toils rewarded and of dangers o'er | L |
His name was added to the glorious roll | M |
Of those who search the storm surrounded Pole | M |
The worst was over and the rest seemed sure | N |
And why should not his slumber be secure | N |
Alas his deck was trod by unwilling feet | O |
And wilder hands would hold the vessel's sheet | O |
Young hearts which languished for some sunny isle | P |
Where summer years and summer women smile | P |
Men without country who too long estranged | Q |
Had found no native home or found it changed | Q |
And half uncivilised preferred the cave | R |
Of some soft savage to the uncertain wave | R |
The gushing fruits that nature gave unfilled | S |
The wood without a path but where they willed | S |
The field o'er which promiscuous Plenty poured | T |
Her horn the equal land without a lord | T |
The wish which ages have not yet subdued | U |
In man to have no master save his mood | U |
The earth whose mine was on its face unsold | V |
The glowing sun and produce all its gold | V |
The Freedom which can call each grot a home | W |
The general garden where all steps may roam | W |
Where Nature owns a nation as her child | X |
Exulting in the enjoyment of the wild ez | C |
Their shells their fruits the only wealth they know | Y |
Their unexploring navy the canoe fa | R |
Their sport the dashing breakers and the chase | C |
Their strangest sight an European face | C |
Such was the country which these strangers yearned | Z |
To see again a sight they dearly earned | Z |
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III | A |
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Awake bold Bligh the foe is at the gate | A2 |
Awake awake Alas it is too late | A2 |
Fiercely beside thy cot the mutineer | B2 |
Stands and proclaims the reign of rage and fear | B2 |
Thy limbs are bound the bayonet at thy breast | C2 |
The hands which trembled at thy voice arrest | C2 |
Dragged o'er the deck no more at thy command | D2 |
The obedient helm shall veer the sail expand | D2 |
That savage Spirit which would lull by wrath | E2 |
Its desperate escape from Duty's path | E2 |
Glares round thee in the scarce believing eyes | C |
Of those who fear the Chief they sacrifice | C |
For ne'er can Man his conscience all assuage | F2 |
Unless he drain the wine of Passion Rage | F2 |
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IV | R |
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In vain not silenced by the eye of Death | G2 |
Thou call'st the loyal with thy menaced breath | G2 |
They come not they are few and overawed | D2 |
Must acquiesce while sterner hearts applaud | D2 |
In vain thou dost demand the cause a curse | C |
Is all the answer with the threat of worse | C |
Full in thine eyes is waved the glittering blade | D2 |
Close to thy throat the pointed bayonet laid | D2 |
The levelled muskets circle round thy breast | D2 |
In hands as steeled to do the deadly rest | D2 |
Thou dar'st them to their worst exclaiming Fire | L |
But they who pitied not could yet admire | H2 |
Some lurking remnant of their former awe | I2 |
Restrained them longer than their broken law | J2 |
They would not dip their souls at once in blood | D2 |
But left thee to the mercies of the flood | D2 |
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V | R |
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Hoist out the boat was now the leader's cry | A |
And who dare answer No to Mutiny | R |
In the first dawning of the drunken hour | L |
The Saturnalia of unhoped for power | L |
The boat is lowered with all the haste of hate | D2 |
With its slight plank between thee and thy fate | D2 |
Her only cargo such a scant supply | A |
As promises the death their hands deny | A |
And just enough of water and of bread | D2 |
To keep some days the dying from the dead | D2 |
Some cordage canvass sails and lines and twine | K2 |
But treasures all to hermits of the brine | K2 |
Were added after to the earnest prayer | L2 |
Of those who saw no hope save sea and air | L2 |
And last that trembling vassal of the Pole | M |
The feeling compass Navigation's soul | M |
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VI | A |
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And now the self elected Chief finds time | M2 |
To stun the first sensation of his crime | M2 |
And raise it in his followers Ho the bowl | M |
Lest passion should return to reason's shoal fb | N2 |
Brandy for heroes Burke could once exclaim | O2 |
No doubt a liquid path to Epic fame | O2 |
And such the new born heroes found it here | P2 |
And drained the draught with an applauding cheer | B2 |
Huzza for Otaheite was the cry | A |
How strange such shouts from sons of Mutiny | R |
The gentle island and the genial soil | Q2 |
The friendly hearts the feasts without a toil | Q2 |
The courteous manners but from nature caught | D2 |
The wealth unhoarded and the love unbought | D2 |
Could these have charms for rudest sea boys driven | J |
Before the mast by every wind of heaven | J |
And now even now prepared with others' woes | C |
To earn mild Virtue's vain desire repose | C |
Alas such is our nature all but aim | O2 |
At the same end by pathways not the same | O2 |
Our means our birth our nation and our name | O2 |
Our fortune temper even our outward frame | O2 |
Are far more potent o'er our yielding clay | B |
Than aught we know beyond our little day | B |
Yet still there whispers the small voice within | R2 |
Heard through Gain's silence and o'er Glory's din | R2 |
Whatever creed be taught or land be trod | D2 |
Man's conscience is the Oracle of God | D2 |
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VII | A |
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The launch is crowded with the faithful few | A |
Who wait their Chief a melancholy crew | A |
But some remained reluctant on the deck | S2 |
Of that proud vessel now a moral wreck | S2 |
And viewed their Captain's fate with piteous eyes | C |
While others scoffed his augured miseries | C |
Sneered at the prospect of his pigmy sail | T2 |
And the slight bark so laden and so frail | T2 |
The tender nautilus who steers his prow | D |
The sea born sailor of his shell canoe | A |
The ocean Mab the fairy of the sea | R |
Seems far less fragile and alas more free | R |
He when the lightning winged Tornados sweep | G |
The surge is safe his port is in the deep | G |
And triumphs o'er the armadas of Mankind | D2 |
Which shake the World yet crumble in the wind | D2 |
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VIII | A |
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When all was now prepared the vessel clear | B2 |
Which hailed her master in the mutineer | B2 |
A seaman less obdurate than his mates | C |
Showed the vain pity which but irritates | C |
Watched his late Chieftain with exploring eye | A |
And told in signs repentant sympathy | R |
Held the moist shaddock to his parched mouth | U2 |
Which felt Exhaustion's deep and bitter drouth | U2 |
But soon observed this guardian was withdrawn | V2 |
Nor further Mercy clouds Rebellion's dawn | V2 |
Then forward stepped the bold and froward boy | N2 |
His Chief had cherished only to destroy | N2 |
And pointing to the helpless prow beneath | U2 |
Exclaimed Depart at once delay is death | U2 |
Yet then even then his feelings ceased not all | W2 |
In that last moment could a word recall | W2 |
Remorse for the black deed as yet half done | J |
And what he hid from many showed to one | J |
When Bligh in stern reproach demanded where | L2 |
Was now his grateful sense of former care | L2 |
Where all his hopes to see his name aspire | H2 |
And blazon Britain's thousand glories higher | L |
His feverish lips thus broke their gloomy spell | X2 |
Tis that 'tis that I am in hell in hell | X2 |
No more he said but urging to the bark | Y2 |
His Chief commits him to his fragile ark | Y2 |
These the sole accents from his tongue that fell | X2 |
But volumes lurked below his fierce farewell | X2 |
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IX | C |
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The arctic Sun rose broad above the wave | A |
The breeze now sank now whispered from his cave | A |
As on the olian harp his fitful wings | C |
Now swelled now fluttered o'er his Ocean strings fc | Y2 |
With slow despairing oar the abandoned skiff | A |
Ploughs its drear progress to the scarce seen cliff | A |
Which lifts its peak a cloud above the main | F |
That boat and ship shall never meet again | Z2 |
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But 'tis not mine to tell their tale of grief | A |
Their constant peril and their scant relief | A |
Their days of danger and their nights of pain | F |
Their manly courage even when deemed in vain | F |
The sapping famine rendering scarce a son | J |
Known to his mother in the skeleton | J |
The ills that lessened still their little store | E |
And starved even Hunger till he wrung no more | E |
The varying frowns and favours of the deep | G |
That now almost ingulfs then leaves to creep | G |
With crazy oar and shattered strength along | Y2 |
The tide that yields reluctant to the strong | Y2 |
The incessant fever of that arid thirst | D2 |
Which welcomes as a well the clouds that burst | D2 |
Above their naked bones and feels delight | D2 |
In the cold drenching of the stormy night | D2 |
And from the outspread canvass gladly wrings | C |
A drop to moisten Life's all gasping springs | C |
The savage foe escaped to seek again | Z2 |
More hospitable shelter from the main | F |
The ghastly Spectres which were doomed at last | D2 |
To tell as true a tale of dangers past | D2 |
As ever the dark annals of the deep | G |
Disclosed for man to dread or woman weep | G |
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X | C |
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We leave them to their fate but not unknown | A3 |
Nor unredressed Revenge may have her own fd | D2 |
Roused Discipline aloud proclaims their cause | C |
And injured Navies urge their broken laws | C |
Pursue we on his track the mutineer | B2 |
Whom distant vengeance had not taught to fear | B2 |
Wide o'er the wave away away away | B |
Once more his eyes shall hail the welcome bay | B |
Once more the happy shores without a law | J2 |
Receive the outlaws whom they lately saw | J2 |
Nature and Nature's goddess Woman woos | C |
To lands where save their conscience none accuse | C |
Where all partake the earth without dispute fe | B |
And bread itself is gathered as a fruit | D2 |
Where none contest the fields the woods the streams | C |
The goldless Age where Gold disturbs no dreams | C |
Inhabits or inhabited the shore | E |
Till Europe taught them better than before | E |
Bestowed her customs and amended theirs | C |
But left her vices also to their heirs | C |
Away with this behold them as they were | L |
Do good with Nature or with Nature err | L2 |
Huzza for Otaheite was the cry | A |
As stately swept the gallant vessel by | A |
The breeze springs up the lately flapping sail | T2 |
Extends its arch before the growing gale | T2 |
In swifter ripples stream aside the seas | C |
Which her bold bow flings off with dashing ease | C |
Thus Argo ploughed the Euxine's virgin foam ff | B |
But those she wafted still looked back to home | W |
These spurn their country with their rebel bark | Y2 |
And fly her as the raven fled the Ark | Y2 |
And yet they seek to nestle with the dove | B |
And tame their fiery spirits down to Love | B |
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End of Canto st J n | Z2 |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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