Declining Days Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFFF GHGH IJIJ HKHK LML NFNF OFOF PFPF QRQR SBSB FTFU VJVJ FFFF FDFD MBWB XFYF ZFZF A2B2C2B2 FPFP| Why do I sigh to find | A |
| Life's evening shadows gathering round my way | B |
| The keen eye dimming and the buoyant mind | A |
| Unhinging day by day | B |
| - | |
| Is it the natural dread | C |
| Of that stern lot which all who live must see | D |
| The worm the clay the dark and narrow bed | C |
| Have these such awe for me | D |
| - | |
| Can I not summon pride | E |
| To fold my decent mantle round my breast | F |
| And lay me down at Nature's eventide | F |
| Calm to my dreamless rest | F |
| - | |
| As nears my soul the verge | G |
| Of this dim continent of woe and crime | H |
| Shrinks she to hear Eternity's long surge | G |
| Break o'er the shores of time | H |
| - | |
| Asks she how shall she fare | I |
| When conscience stands before the judge's throne | J |
| And gives her record in and all shall there | I |
| Know as they all are known | J |
| - | |
| A solemn scene and time | H |
| And well may Nature quail to feel them near | K |
| But grace in feeble breasts can work sublime | H |
| And faith overmaster fear | K |
| - | |
| Hark I from that throne comes down | L |
| A voice which strength to sinking souls can give | M |
| That voice all judgment's thunders cannot drown | L |
| 'Believe ' it cries 'and live ' | - |
| - | |
| Weak sinful as I am | N |
| That still small voice forbids me to despond | F |
| Faith clings for refuge to thebleeding Lamb | N |
| Nor dreads the gloom beyond | F |
| - | |
| 'Tis not then earth's delights | O |
| From which my spirit feels so loath to part | F |
| Nor the dim future's solemn sounds or sights | O |
| That press so on my heart | F |
| - | |
| No I 'tis the thought that I | P |
| My lamp so low my sun so nearly set | F |
| Have lived so useless so unmissed should lie | P |
| 'Tis this I now regret | F |
| - | |
| I would not be the wave | Q |
| That swells and ripples up to yonder shore | R |
| That drives impulsive on the wild wind's slave | Q |
| And breaks and is no more | R |
| - | |
| I would not be the breeze | S |
| That murmers by me in its viewless play | B |
| Bends the light grass and flutters in the trees | S |
| And sighs and flits away | B |
| - | |
| No I not like wave or wind | F |
| Be my career across the earthly scene | T |
| To come and go and leave no trace behind | F |
| To say that I have been | U |
| - | |
| I want not vulgar fame | V |
| I seek not to survive in brass or stone | J |
| Hearts may not kindle when they hear my name | V |
| Nor tears my value own | J |
| - | |
| But might I leave behind | F |
| Some blessing for my fellows some fair trust | F |
| To guide to cheer to elevate my kind | F |
| When I am in the dust | F |
| - | |
| Within my narrow bed | F |
| Might I not wholly mute or useless be | D |
| But hope that they who trampled o'er my head | F |
| Drew still some good from me | D |
| - | |
| Might my poor lyre but give | M |
| Some simple strain some spirit moving lay | B |
| Some sparklet of the soul that still might live | W |
| When I have passed to clay | B |
| - | |
| Might verse of mine inspire | X |
| One virtuous aim one high resolve impart | F |
| Light in one drooping soul a hallowed fire | Y |
| Or bind one broken heart | F |
| - | |
| Death would be sweeter then | Z |
| More calm my slumber 'neath the silent sod | F |
| Might I thus live to bless my fellow men | Z |
| Or glorify my God | F |
| - | |
| Why do we ever lose | A2 |
| As judgment ripens our diviner powers | B2 |
| Why do we only learn our gifts to use | C2 |
| When they no more are ours | B2 |
| - | |
| O Thou whose touch can lend | F |
| Life to the dead Thy quick'ning grace supply | P |
| And grant me swanlike my last breath to spend | F |
| In song that may not die | P |
Henry Francis Lyte
(1)
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