The Retreat Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEECCFGADDDHHII JJKKIIDDELMM| Happy those early days when I | A |
| Shin'd in my Angel infancy | B |
| Before I understood this place | C |
| Appointed for my second race | C |
| Or taught my soul to fancy aught | D |
| But a white celestial thought | D |
| When yet I had not walk'd above | E |
| A mile or two from my first Love | E |
| And looking back at that short space | C |
| Could see a glimpse of His bright face | C |
| When on some gilded cloud or flow'r | F |
| My gazing soul would dwell an hour | G |
| And in those weaker glories spy | A |
| Some shadows of eternity | D |
| Before I taught my tongue to wound | D |
| My Conscience with a sinful sound | D |
| Or had the black art to dispense | H |
| A several sin to ev'ry sense | H |
| But felt through all this fleshly dress | I |
| Bright shoots of everlastingness | I |
| - | |
| O how I long to travel back | J |
| And tread again that ancient track | J |
| That I might once more reach that plain | K |
| Where first I left my glorious train | K |
| From whence th' enlightned spirit sees | I |
| That shady City of Palm trees | I |
| But ah my soul with too much stay | D |
| Is drunk and staggers in the way | D |
| Some men a forward motion love | E |
| But I by backward steps would move | L |
| And when this dust falls to the urn | M |
| In that state I came return | M |
Henry Vaughan
(1)
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