To The Duke Of Dorset Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGGGHHII JJGKLLMMNNDDOOPPQQEE LLDDRRSSTTFFPPGGPPGG GGUUPPVWPPXXMMLLGGXX GGPPYYDDZZPPPPDDPPA2 A2B2B2GGGGPPC2C2PPDorset whose early steps with mine have stray'd | A |
Exploring every path of Ida's glade | A |
Whom still affection taught me to defend | B |
And made me less a tyrant than a friend | B |
Though the harsh custom of our youthful band | C |
Bade thee obey and gave me to command | C |
Thee on whose head a few short years will shower | D |
The gift of riches and the pride of power | D |
E'en now a name illustrious is thine own | E |
Renown'd in rank nor far beneath the throne | E |
Yet Dorset let not this seduce thy soul | F |
To shun fair science or evade control | F |
Though passive tutors fearful to dispraise | G |
The titled child whose future breath may raise | G |
View ducal errors with indulgent eyes | G |
And wink at faults they tremble to chastise | G |
When youthful parasites who bend the knee | H |
To wealth their golden idol not to thee | H |
And even in simple boyhood 's opening dawn | I |
Some slaves are found to flatter and to fawn | I |
When these declare ' that pomp alone should wait | J |
On one by birth predestined to be great | J |
That books were only meant for drudging fools | G |
That gallant spirits scorn the common rules ' | K |
Believe them not they point the path to shame | L |
And seek to blast the honours of thy name | L |
Turn to the few in Ida's early throng | M |
Whose souls disdain not to condemn the wrong | M |
Or if amidst the comrades of thy youth | N |
None dare to raise the sterner voice of truth | N |
Ask thine own heart 'twill bid thee boy forbear | D |
For well I know that virtue lingers there | D |
Yes I have mark'd thee many a passing day | O |
But now new scenes invite me far away | O |
Yes I have mark'd within that generous mind | P |
A soul if well matured to bless mankind | P |
Ah though myself by nature haughty wild | Q |
Whom Indiscretion hail'd her favourite child | Q |
Though every error stamps me for her own | E |
And dooms my fall I fain would fall alone | E |
Though my proud heart no precept now can tame | L |
I love the virtues which I cannot claim | L |
'Tis not enough with other sons of power | D |
To gleam tile lambent meteor of an hour | D |
To swell some peerage page in feeble pride | R |
With long drawn names that grace no page beside | R |
Then share with titled crowds the common lot | S |
In life just gazed at in the grave forgot | S |
While nought divides thee from the vulgar dead | T |
Except the dull cold stone that hides thy head | T |
The mouldering 'scutcheon or the herald's roll | F |
That well emblazon'd but neglected scroll | F |
Where lords unhonour'd in the tomb may find | P |
One spot to leave a worthless name behind | P |
There sleep unnoticed as the gloomy vaults | G |
That veil their dust their follies and their faults | G |
A race with old armorial lists o'erspread | P |
In records destined never to be read | P |
Fain would I view thee with prophetic eyes | G |
Exalted more among the good and wise | G |
A glorious and a long career pursue | G |
As first in rank the first in talent too | G |
Spurn every vice each little meanness shun | U |
Not Fortune's minion but her noblest son | U |
Turn to the annals of a former day | P |
Bright are the deeds thine earlier sires play | P |
One though a Courtier lived a man of worth | V |
And call'd proud boast the British drama forth | W |
Another view not less renown'd for wit | P |
Alike for Courts and camps or senates fit | P |
Bold in the field and favour'd by the Nine | X |
In every splendid part ordain'd to shine | X |
Far far distingish'd ish'd from the glittering throng | M |
The pride of princes and the boast of song | M |
Such were thy fathers thus preserve their name | L |
Not heir to titles only but to fame | L |
The hour draws nigh a few brief days will close | G |
To me this little scene of joys and woes | G |
Each knell of Time now warns me to resign | X |
Shades where Hope Peace and Friendship all were mine | X |
Hope that could vary like the rainbow's hue | G |
And gild their pinions as the moments flew | G |
Peace that reflection never frown'd away | P |
By dreams of ill to cloud some future day | P |
Friendship whose truth let childhood only tell | Y |
Alas they love not long who love so well | Y |
To these adieu nor let me linger o'er | D |
Scenes hail'd as exiles hall their native shore | D |
Receding slowly through the dark blue deep | Z |
Beheld by eyes that mourn yet cannot weep | Z |
Dorset farewell I will not ask one part | P |
Of sad remembrance in so young a heart | P |
The coming morrow from thy youthful mind | P |
Will sweep my name nor leave a trace behind | P |
And yet perhaps in some maturer year | D |
Since chance has thrown us in the self same sphere | D |
Since the same senate nay the same debate | P |
May one day claim our suffrage for the state | P |
We hence may meet and pass each other by | A2 |
With faint regard or cold and distant eye | A2 |
For me in future neither friend nor foe | B2 |
A stranger to thyself thy weal or woe | B2 |
With thee non more saain I hope to trace | G |
The recollection of our early race | G |
No more as once in social hours rejoice | G |
Or hear unless in crowds thy well known voice | G |
Still if the wishes of a heart untaught | P |
To veil those feelings which perchance it ought | P |
If these but let me cease the lengthen'd strain | C2 |
Oh if these wishes arc not breathed in vain | C2 |
The guardian seraph who directs thy fate | P |
Will leave thee glorious as he found thee great | P |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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