Palinodia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHIJKLEKMNOPQRK STUVWXYZA2B2C2D2E2F2 G2H2 I2J2K2L2M2N2O2P2Q2R2 S2M2T2U2V2W2X2Y2 Z2A3Z2M2X2ANKB3O2W2C 3D3N2E3F3G3NA3H3P2AI 3A3J3SLK3L3DU2S2M3N3 O3A3BALP3Q3R3 S3T3N2A3L2ZO3AU3BJ2V 3A3W3S3Q3X3YX3X3Y3Z3 X3A4B4C4AD4X3E4F4G4X 3X3X3H4X3 D4X3I4KJ4X3K4Y3X3L4M 4X3S3X3ACN4D X3X3Y3J2O4X3X3Y3X3P4 X3X3Q4R4D4X3X3S4AX3T 4KX3U4X3V4V2X3S3W4Z3 U4X4X3Y4Z4X3EAKCS4X3 R3DC2W2X3V4X3K3Z X3X3D4S2X3X3X3AR3YM2 L4P4LN2M4 X3X3X3X3K3AK3S4DI4IG X3DX3R3S2X3BA3U3GS4X 3B4 DX3O4X3X3X3V2X3X3X3X 3L4X3X3X3X3JBTo The Marquis Gino Capponi | A |
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I was mistaken my dear Gino Long | B |
And greatly have I erred I fancied life | C |
A vain and wretched thing and this our age | D |
Now passing vainest silliest of all | E |
Intolerable seemed and was such talk | F |
Unto the happy race of mortals if | G |
Indeed man ought or could be mortal called | H |
'Twixt anger and surprise the lofty creatures laughed | I |
Forth from the fragrant Eden where they dwell | J |
Neglected or unfortunate they called me | K |
Of joy incapable or ignorant | L |
To think my lot the common lot of all | E |
Mankind the partner in my misery | K |
At length amid the odor of cigars | M |
The crackling sound of dainty pastry and | N |
The orders loud for ices and for drinks | O |
'Midst clinking glasses and 'midst brandished spoons | P |
The daily light of the gazettes flashed full | Q |
On my dim eyes I saw and recognized | R |
The public joy and the felicity | K |
Of human destiny The lofty state | S |
I saw and value of all human things | T |
Our mortal pathway strewed with flowers I saw | U |
How naught displeasing here below endures | V |
Nor less I saw the studies and the works | W |
Stupendous wisdom virtue knowledge deep | X |
Of this our age From far Morocco to | Y |
Cathay and from the Poles unto the Nile | Z |
From Boston unto Goa on the track | A2 |
Of flying Fortune emulously panting | B2 |
The empires kingdoms dukedoms of the earth | C2 |
I saw now clinging to her waving locks | D2 |
Now to the end of her encircling boa | E2 |
Beholding this and o'er the ample sheets | F2 |
Profoundly meditating I became | G2 |
Of my sad blunder and myself ashamed | H2 |
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The age of gold the spindles of the Fates | I2 |
O Gino are evolving Every sheet | J2 |
In each variety of speech and type | K2 |
The splendid promise to the world proclaims | L2 |
From every quarter Universal love | M2 |
And iron roads and commerce manifold | N2 |
Steam types and cholera remotest lands | O2 |
Most distant nations will together bind | P2 |
Nor need we wonder if the pine or oak | Q2 |
Yield milk and honey or together dance | R2 |
Unto the music of the waltz So much | S2 |
The force already hath increased both of | M2 |
Alembics and retorts and of machines | T2 |
That vie with heaven in working miracles | U2 |
And will increase in times that are to come | V2 |
For evermore from better unto best | W2 |
Without a pause as in the past the race | X2 |
Of Shem and Ham and Japhet will progress | Y2 |
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And yet on acorns men will never feed | Z2 |
Unless compelled by hunger never will | A3 |
Hard iron lay aside Full oft indeed | Z2 |
They gold and silver will despise bills of | M2 |
Exchange preferring Often too the race | X2 |
Its generous hands with brothers' blood will stain | A |
With fields of carnage filling Europe and | N |
The other shore of the Atlantic sea | K |
The new world that the old still nourishes | B3 |
As often as it sends its rival bands | O2 |
Of armed adventurers in eager quest | W2 |
Of pepper cinnamon or other spice | C3 |
Or sugar cane aught that ministers | D3 |
Unto the universal thirst for gold | N2 |
True worth and virtue modesty and faith | E3 |
And love of justice in whatever land | F3 |
From public business will be still estranged | G3 |
Or utterly humiliated and | N |
O'erthrown condemned by Nature still | A3 |
To sink unto the bottom Insolence | H3 |
And fraud with mediocrity combined | P2 |
Will to the surface ever rise and reign | A |
Authority and strength howe'er diffused | I3 |
However concentrated will be still | A3 |
Abused beneath whatever name concealed | J3 |
By him who wields them this the law by Fate | S |
And nature written first in adamant | L |
Nor can a Volta with his lightnings nor | K3 |
A Davy cancel it nor England with | L3 |
Her vast machinery nor this our age | D |
With all its floods of Leading Articles | U2 |
The good man ever will be sad the wretch | S2 |
Will keep perpetual holiday against | M3 |
All lofty souls both worlds will still be armed | N3 |
Conspirators true honor be assailed | O3 |
By calumny and hate and envy still | A3 |
The weak will be the victim of the strong | B |
The hungry man upon the rich will fawn | A |
Beneath whatever form of government | L |
Alike at the Equator and the Poles | P3 |
So will it be while man on earth abides | Q3 |
And while the sun still lights him on his way | R3 |
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These signs and tokens of the ages past | S3 |
Must of necessity their impress leave | T3 |
Upon our brightly dawning age of gold | N2 |
Because society from Nature still | A3 |
Receives a thousand principles and aims | L2 |
Diverse discordant which to reconcile | Z |
No wit or power of man hath yet availed | O3 |
Since first our race illustrious was born | A |
Nor will avail or treaty or gazette | U3 |
In any age however wise or strong | B |
But in things more important how complete | J2 |
Ne'er seen till now will be our happiness | V3 |
More soft from day to day our garments will | A3 |
Become of woollen or of silk Their rough | W3 |
Attire the husbandman and smith will cast | S3 |
Aside will swathe in cotton their rough hides | Q3 |
And with the skins of beavers warm their backs | X3 |
More serviceable more attractive too | Y |
Will be our carpets and our counterpanes | X3 |
Our curtains sofas tables and our chairs | X3 |
Our beds and their attendant furniture | Y3 |
Will a new grace unto our chambers lend | Z3 |
And dainty forms of kettles and of pans | X3 |
On our dark kitchens will their lustre shed | A4 |
From Paris unto Calais and from there | B4 |
To London and from there to Liverpool | C4 |
More rapid than imagination can | A |
Conceive will be the journey nay the flight | D4 |
While underneath the ample bed of Thames | X3 |
A highway will be made immortal work | E4 |
That should have been completed years ago | F4 |
Far better lighted and perhaps as safe | G4 |
At night as now they are will be the lanes | X3 |
And unfrequented streets of Capitals | X3 |
Perhaps the main streets of the smaller towns | X3 |
Such privileges such a happy lot | H4 |
Kind heaven reserves unto the coming race | X3 |
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How fortunate are they whom as I write | D4 |
Naked and whimpering in her arms receives | X3 |
The midwife They those longed for days may hope | I4 |
To see when after careful studies we | K |
Shall know and every nursling shall imbibe | J4 |
That knowledge with the milk of the dear nurse | X3 |
How many hundred weight of salt and how | K4 |
Much flesh how many bushels too of flour | Y3 |
His native town in every month consumes | X3 |
How many births and deaths in every year | L4 |
The parish priest inscribes when by the aid | M4 |
Of mighty steam that every second prints | X3 |
Its millions hill and dale and ocean's vast | S3 |
Expanse e'en as we see a flock of cranes | X3 |
A rial that suddenly the day obscure will with Gazettes be overrun | A |
Gazettes of the great Universe the life | C |
And soul sole fount of wisdom and of wit | N4 |
To this and unto every coming age | D |
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E'en as a child who carefully constructs | X3 |
Of little sticks and leaves an edifice | X3 |
In form of temple palace or of tower | Y3 |
And soon as he beholds the work complete | J2 |
The impulse feels the structure to destroy | O4 |
Because the self same sticks and leaves he needs | X3 |
To carry out some other enterprise | X3 |
So Nature every work of hers however | Y3 |
It may delight us with its excellence | X3 |
No sooner sees unto perfection brought | P4 |
Than she proceeds to pull it all to pieces | X3 |
For other structures using still the parts | X3 |
And vainly seeks the human race itself | Q4 |
Or others from the cruel sport to save | R4 |
The cause of which is hidden from its sight | D4 |
Forever though a thousand means it tries | X3 |
With skilful hand devising remedies | X3 |
For cruel Nature child invincible | S4 |
Our efforts laughs to scorn and still its own | A |
Caprices carries out without a pause | X3 |
Destroying and creating for its sport | T4 |
And hence a various endless family | K |
Of ills incurable and sufferings | X3 |
Oppresses the frail mortal doomed to death | U4 |
Irreparably hence a hostile force | X3 |
Destructive smites him from within without | V4 |
On every side perpetual e'en from | V2 |
The day of birth and wearies and exhausts | X3 |
Itself untiring till he drops at last | S3 |
By the inhuman mother crushed and killed | W4 |
Those crowning miseries O gentle friend | Z3 |
Of this our mortal life old age and death | U4 |
E'en then commencing when the infant lip | X4 |
The tender breast doth press that life instils | X3 |
This happy nineteenth century I think | Y4 |
Can no more help than could the ninth or tenth | Z4 |
Nor will the coming ages more than this | X3 |
Indeed if we may be allowed to call | E |
The truth by its right name no other than | A |
Supremely wretched must each mortal be | K |
In every age and under every form | |
Of government and walk and mode of life | C |
By nature hopelessly incurable | S4 |
Because a universal law hath so | X3 |
Decreed which heaven and earth alike obey | R3 |
And yet the lofty spirits of our age | D |
A new discovery have made almost | |
Divine for though they cannot make | |
A single person happy on the earth | C2 |
The man forgetting they have gone in quest | W2 |
Of universal happiness and this | X3 |
Forsooth have found so easily that out | V4 |
Of many wretched individuals | X3 |
They can a happy joyful people make | |
And at this miracle not yet explained | |
By quarterly reviews or pamphlets or | K3 |
Gazettes the common herd in wonder smile | Z |
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O minds O wisdom insight marvellous | X3 |
Of this our passing age And what profound | |
Philosophy what lessons deep O Gino | X3 |
In matters more sublime and recondite | D4 |
This century of thine and mine will teach | S2 |
To those that follow With what constancy | X3 |
What yesterday it scorned upon its knees | X3 |
To day it worships and will overthrow | X3 |
To morrow merely to pick up again | A |
The fragments to the idol thus restored | |
To offer incense on the following day | R3 |
How estimable how inspiring too | Y |
This unanimity of thought not of | M2 |
The age alone but of each passing year | L4 |
How carefully should we when we our thought | P4 |
With this compare however different | L |
From that of next year it may be at least | |
Appearance of diversity avoid | |
What giant strides compared with those of old | N2 |
Our century in wisdom's school has made | M4 |
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One of thy friends O worthy Gino once | X3 |
A master poet nay of every Art | |
And Science every human faculty | X3 |
For past and present and for future times | X3 |
A learned expositor remarked to me | X3 |
Of thy own feelings care to speak no more | K3 |
Of them this manly age makes no account | |
In economic problems quite absorbed | |
And with an eye for politics alone | A |
Of what avail thy own heart to explore | K3 |
Seek not within thyself material | S4 |
For song but sing the needs of this our age | D |
And consummation of its ripening hope | I4 |
O memorable words Whereat I laughed | I |
Like chanticleer the name of hope to hear | |
Thus strike upon my ear profane as if | G |
A jest it were or prattle of a child | |
Just weaned But now a different course I take | |
Convinced by many shining proofs that he | X3 |
Must not resist or contradict the age | D |
Who seeketh praise or pudding at its hands | X3 |
But faithfully and servilely obey | R3 |
And so will find a short and easy road | |
Unto the stars And I who long to reach | S2 |
The stars will not howe'er select the needs | X3 |
Of this our age for burden of my song | B |
For these increasing constantly are still | A3 |
By merchants and by work shops amply met | U3 |
But I will sing of hope of hope whereof | G |
The gods now grant a pledge so palpable | S4 |
The first fruits of our new felicity | X3 |
Behold in the enormous growth of hair | B4 |
Upon the lip upon the cheek of youth | |
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O hail thou salutary sign first beam | |
Of light of this our wondrous rising age | D |
See how before thee heaven and earth rejoice | X3 |
How sparkle all the damsels' eyes with joy | O4 |
How through all banquets and all festivals | X3 |
The fame of the young bearded heroes flies | X3 |
Grow for your country's sake ye manly youth | |
Beneath the shadow of your fleecy locks | X3 |
Will Italy increase and Europe from | V2 |
The mouths of Tagus to the Hellespont | X3 |
And all the world will taste the sweets of peace | X3 |
And thou O tender child for whom these days | X3 |
Of gold are yet in store begin to greet | X3 |
Thy bearded father with a smile nor fear | L4 |
The harmless blackness of his loving face | X3 |
Laugh darling child for thee are kept the fruits | X3 |
Of so much dazzling eloquence Thou shalt | X3 |
Behold joy reign in cities and in towns | X3 |
Old age and youth alike contented dwell | J |
And undulating beards of two spans long | B |
Giacomo Leopardi
(1)
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