A Vision Of Poesy - Part 01 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDCEE A FGFGHH A IJIKLL L CMCMNN L OPOPQQ L RSRSTT L KUKUVV L WWWWXX W YZA2ZWW W B2HB2HWW W WC2WC2D2D2 W LWLWLW W RWRWWW L E2WE2WF2F2 L CG2CG2H2H2 L WI2WI2EE L KJ2KJ2II L WE2WE2K2K2 W L2WL2WWW W E2A2E2YWW W E2IE2IM2M2 W N2O2N2O2P2P2 W WCWCO2O2 L O2WO2WO2O2 L O2HO2HWW L Q2WQ2WO2O2 L O2WO2WWW L EWEO2O2O2 W WI | A |
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In a far country and a distant age | B |
Ere sprites and fays had bade farewell to earth | C |
A boy was born of humble parentage | D |
The stars that shone upon his lonely birth | C |
Did seem to promise sovereignty and fame | E |
Yet no tradition hath preserved his name | E |
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II | A |
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'T is said that on the night when he was born | F |
A beauteous shape swept slowly through the room | G |
Its eyes broke on the infant like a morn | F |
And his cheek brightened like a rose in bloom | G |
But as it passed away there followed after | H |
A sigh of pain and sounds of elvish laughter | H |
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III | A |
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And so his parents deemed him to be blest | I |
Beyond the lot of mortals they were poor | J |
As the most timid bird that stored its nest | I |
With the stray gleanings at their cottage door | K |
Yet they contrived to rear their little dove | L |
And he repaid them with the tenderest love | L |
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IV | L |
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The child was very beautiful in sooth | C |
And as he waxed in years grew lovelier still | M |
On his fair brow the aureole of truth | C |
Beamed and the purest maidens with a thrill | M |
Looked in his eyes and from their heaven of blue | N |
Saw thoughts like sinless Angels peering through | N |
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V | L |
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Need there was none of censure or of praise | O |
To mould him to the kind parental hand | P |
Yet there was ever something in his ways | O |
Which those about him could not understand | P |
A self withdrawn and independent bliss | Q |
Beside the father's love the mother's kiss | Q |
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VI | L |
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For oft when he believed himself alone | R |
They caught brief snatches of mysterious rhymes | S |
Which he would murmur in an undertone | R |
Like a pleased bee's in summer and at times | S |
A strange far look would come into his eyes | T |
As if he saw a vision in the skies | T |
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VII | L |
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And he upon a simple leaf would pore | K |
As if its very texture unto him | U |
Had some deep meaning sometimes by the door | K |
From noon until a summer day grew dim | U |
He lay and watched the clouds and to his thought | V |
Night with her stars but fitful slumbers brought | V |
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VIII | L |
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In the long hours of twilight when the breeze | W |
Talked in low tones along the woodland rills | W |
Or the loud North its stormy minstrelsies | W |
Blent with wild noises from the distant hills | W |
The boy his rosy hand against his ear | X |
Curved like a sea shell hushed as some rapt seer | X |
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IX | W |
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Followed the sounds and ever and again | Y |
As the wind came and went in storm or play | Z |
He seemed to hearken as to some far strain | A2 |
Of mingled voices calling him away | Z |
And they who watched him held their breath to trace | W |
The still and fixed attention in his face | W |
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X | W |
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Once on a cold and loud voiced winter night | B2 |
The three were seated by their cottage fire | H |
The mother watching by its flickering light | B2 |
The wakeful urchin and the dozing sire | H |
There was a brief quick motion like a bird's | W |
And the boy's thought thus rippled into words | W |
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XI | W |
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O mother thou hast taught me many things | W |
But none I think more beautiful than speech | C2 |
A nobler power than even those broad wings | W |
I used to pray for when I longed to reach | C2 |
That distant peak which on our vale looks down | D2 |
And wears the star of evening for a crown | D2 |
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XII | W |
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But mother while our human words are rife | L |
To us with meaning other sounds there be | W |
Which seem and are the language of a life | L |
Around yet unlike ours winds talk the sea | W |
Murmurs articulately and the sky | L |
Listens and answers though inaudibly | W |
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XIII | W |
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By stream and spring in glades and woodlands lone | R |
Beside our very cot I've gathered flowers | W |
Inscribed with signs and characters unknown | R |
But the frail scrolls still baffle all my powers | W |
What is this language and where is the key | W |
That opes its weird and wondrous mystery | W |
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XIV | L |
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The forests know it and the mountains know | E2 |
And it is written in the sunset's dyes | W |
A revelation to the world below | E2 |
Is daily going on before our eyes | W |
And but for sinful thoughts I do not doubt | F2 |
That we could spell the thrilling secret out | F2 |
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XV | L |
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O mother somewhere on this lovely earth | C |
I lived and understood that mystic tongue | G2 |
But for some reason to my second birth | C |
Only the dullest memories have clung | G2 |
Like that fair tree that even while blossoming | H2 |
Keeps the dead berries of a former spring | H2 |
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XVI | L |
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Who shall put life in these my nightly dreams | W |
Some teacher of supernal powers foretell | I2 |
A fair and stately shape appears which seems | W |
Bright with all truth and once in a dark dell | I2 |
Within the forest unto me there came | E |
A voice that must be hers which called my name | E |
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XVII | L |
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Puzzled and frightened wondering more and more | K |
The mother heard but did not comprehend | J2 |
So early dallying with forbidden lore | K |
Oh what will chance and wherein will it end | J2 |
My child my child she caught him to her breast | I |
Oh let me kiss these wildering thoughts to rest | I |
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XVIII | L |
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They cannot come from God who freely gives | W |
All that we need to have or ought to know | E2 |
Beware my son some evil influence strives | W |
To grieve thy parents and to work thee woe | E2 |
Alas the vision I misunderstood | K2 |
It could not be an angel fair and good | K2 |
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XIX | W |
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And then in low and tremulous tones she told | L2 |
The story of his birth night the boy's eyes | W |
As the wild tale went on were bright and bold | L2 |
With a weird look that did not seem surprise | W |
Perhaps he said this lady and her elves | W |
Will one day come and take me to themselves | W |
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XX | W |
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And wouldst thou leave us Dearest mother no | E2 |
Hush I will check these thoughts that give thee pain | A2 |
Or if they flow as they perchance must flow | E2 |
At least I will not utter them again | Y |
Hark didst thou hear a voice like many streams | W |
Mother it is the spirit of my dreams | W |
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XXI | W |
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Thenceforth whatever impulse stirred below | E2 |
In the deep heart beneath that childish breast | I |
Those lips were sealed and though the eye would glow | E2 |
Yet the brow wore an air of perfect rest | I |
Cheerful content with calm though strong control | M2 |
He shut the temple portals of his soul | M2 |
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XXII | W |
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And when too restlessly the mighty throng | N2 |
Of fancies woke within his teeming mind | O2 |
All silently they formed in glorious song | N2 |
And floated off unheard and undivined | O2 |
Perchance not lost with many a voiceless prayer | P2 |
They reached the sky and found some record there | P2 |
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XXIII | W |
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Softly and swiftly sped the quiet days | W |
The thoughtful boy has blossomed into youth | C |
And still no maiden would have feared his gaze | W |
And still his brow was noble with the truth | C |
Yet though he masks the pain with pious art | O2 |
There burns a restless fever in his heart | O2 |
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XXIV | L |
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A childish dream is now a deathless need | O2 |
Which drives him to far hills and distant wilds | W |
The solemn faith and fervor of his creed | O2 |
Bold as a martyr's simple as a child's | W |
The eagle knew him as she knew the blast | O2 |
And the deer did not flee him as he passed | O2 |
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XXV | L |
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But gentle even in his wildest mood | O2 |
Always and most he loved the bluest weather | H |
And in some soft and sunny solitude | O2 |
Couched like a milder sunshine on the heather | H |
He communed with the winds and with the birds | W |
As if they might have answered him in words | W |
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XXVI | L |
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Deep buried in the forest was a nook | Q2 |
Remote and quiet as its quiet skies | W |
He knew it sought it loved it as a book | Q2 |
Full of his own sweet thoughts and memories | W |
Dark oaks and fluted chestnuts gathering round | O2 |
Pillared and greenly domed a sloping mound | O2 |
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XXVII | L |
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Whereof white purple azure golden red | O2 |
Confused like hues of sunset the wild flowers | W |
Wove a rich dais through crosslights overhead | O2 |
Glanced the clear sunshine fell the fruitful showers | W |
And here the shyest bird would fold her wings | W |
Here fled the fairest and the gentlest things | W |
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XXVIII | L |
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Thither one night of mist and moonlight came | E |
The youth with nothing deeper in his thoughts | W |
Than to behold beneath the silver flame | E |
New aspects of his fair and favorite spot | O2 |
A single ray attained the ground and shed | O2 |
Just light enough to guide the wanderer's tread | O2 |
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XXIX | W |
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And high and hushed arose the stately trees | W |
Henry Timrod
(1)
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