The Minstrel ; Or, The Progress Of Genius - Book Ii. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCCDCDD AEFEFFBFBB AGHGAHIHJI K LMLLNLNN KOPOPPQPQQ KRSRSSTSTT KBUBUUTUTT KKTKTTKTKK KTVTVVWVWW KTKTKKKKKK KPTPTTXTYX KTZT ZA2ZA2A2 KBTBTTKTKK KHB2HB2B2BB2BB BC2TC2TTD2TD2D2 BTKTKKKKE2E2 BF2BG2BBBBBB BC2HC2HHZHZZ KH2BH2BBTBTT KKBKBKI | A |
Of chance or change O let not man complain | B |
Else shall he never never cease to wail | C |
For from the imperial dome to where the swain | B |
Rears the lone cottage in the silent dale | C |
All feel the assault of fortune's fickle gale | C |
Art empire earth itself to change are doom'd | D |
Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vale | C |
And gulphs the mountain's mighty mass entomb'd | D |
And where the Atlantic rolls wide continents have bloom'd | D |
- | |
II | A |
But sure to foreign climes we need not range | E |
Nor search the ancient records of our race | F |
To learn the dire effects of time and change | E |
Which in ourselves alas we daily trace | F |
Yet at the darken'd eye the wither'd face | F |
Or hoary hair I never will repine | B |
But spare O Time whate'er of mental grace | F |
Of candour love or sympathy divine | B |
Whate'er of fancy's ray of friendship's flame is mine | B |
- | |
III | A |
So I obsequious to Truth's dread command | G |
Shall here without reluctance change my lay | H |
And smile to the Gothic lyre with harsher hand | G |
Now when I leave that flowery path for aye | A |
Of childhood where I sported many a day | H |
Warbling and sauntering carelessly along | I |
Where every face was innocent and gay | H |
Each vale romantic tuneful every tongue | J |
Sweet wild and artless all as Edwin's infant song | I |
- | |
IV | K |
'Perish the lore that deadens young desire ' | - |
Is the soft tenor of my song no more | L |
Edwin though loved of Heaven must not aspire | M |
To bliss which mortals never knew before | L |
On trembling wings let youthful fancy soar | L |
Nor always haunt the sunny realms of joy | N |
But now and then the shades of life explore | L |
Though many a sound and sight of wo annoy | N |
And many a qualm of care his rising hopes destroy | N |
- | |
V | K |
Vigour from toil from trouble patience grows | O |
The weakly bosom warm in summer bower | P |
Some tints of transient beauty may disclose | O |
But soon it withers in the chilling hour | P |
Mark yonder oak Superior to the power | P |
Of all the warring winds of heaven they rise | Q |
And from the stormy promontory tower | P |
And toss their giant arms amid the skies | Q |
While each assailing blast increase the strength supplies | Q |
- | |
VI | K |
And now the downy cheek and deepen'd voice | R |
Gave dignity to Edwin's blooming prime | S |
And walks of wider circuit were his choice | R |
And vales more wild and mountains more sublime | S |
One evening as he framed the careless rhyme | S |
It was his chance to wander far abroad | T |
And o'er a lonely eminence to climb | S |
Which heretofore his foot had never trode | T |
A vale appear'd below a deep retired abode | T |
- | |
VII | K |
Thither he hied enamour'd of the scene | B |
For rocks on rocks piled as by magic spell | U |
Here scorch'd with lightning there with ivy green | B |
Fenced from the north and east this savage del | U |
Southward a mountain rose with easy swell | U |
Whose long long groves eternal murmur made | T |
And toward the western sun a streamlet fell | U |
Where through the cliffs the eye remote survey'd | T |
Blue hills and glittering waves and skies in gold array'd | T |
- | |
VIII | K |
Along this narrow valley you might see | K |
The wild deer sporting on the meadow ground | T |
And here and there a solitary tree | K |
Or mossy stone or rock with woodbine crown'd | T |
Oft did the cliffs reverberate the sound | T |
Of parted fragments tumbling from on high | K |
And from the summit of that craggy mound | T |
The perching eagle oft was heard to cry | K |
Or on resounding wings to shoot athwart the sky | K |
- | |
IX | K |
One cultivated spot there was that spread | T |
Its flowery bosom to the noonday beam | V |
Where many a rose bud rears its blushing head | T |
And herbs for food with future plenty teem | V |
Sooth'd by the lulling sound of grove and stream | V |
Romantic visions swarm on Edwin's soul | W |
He minded not the sun's last trembling gleam | V |
Nor heard from afar the twilight curfew toll | W |
When slowly on his ear these moving accents stole | W |
- | |
X | K |
'Hail awful scenes that calm the troubled breast | T |
And woo the weary to profound repose | K |
Can passion's wildest uproar lay to rest | T |
And whisper comfort to the man of woes | K |
Here Innocence may wander safe from foes | K |
And Contemplation soar on seraph wings | K |
O Solitude the man who thee forgoes | K |
When lucre lures him or ambition stings | K |
Shall never know the source whence real grandeur springs | K |
- | |
XI | K |
'Vain man is grandeur given to gay attire | P |
Then let the butterfly thy pride upbraid | T |
To friends attendant armies bought with hire | P |
It is thy weakness that requires their aid | T |
To palaces with gold and gems inlay'd | T |
They fear the thief and tremble in the storm | X |
To hosts through carnage who to conquests wade | T |
Behold the victor vanquish'd by the worm | Y |
Behold what deeds of wo the locust can perform | X |
- | |
XII | K |
'True dignity is his whose tranquil mind | T |
Virtue has raised above the things below | Z |
Who every hope and fear to heaven resign'd | T |
Shrinks not though Fortune aim her deadliest blow ' | - |
This strain from 'midst the rocks was heard to flow | Z |
In solemn sounds Now beam'd the evening star | A2 |
And from embattled clouds emerging slow | Z |
Cynthia came riding on her silver car | A2 |
And hoary mountain cliffs shone faintly from afar | A2 |
- | |
XIII | K |
Soon did the solemn voice its theme renew | B |
While Edwin wrapp'd in wonder listening stood | T |
'Ye tools and toys of tyranny adieu | B |
Scorn'd by the wise and hated by the good | T |
Ye only can engage the service brood | T |
Of Levity and Lust who all their days | K |
Ashamed of truth and liberty have woo'd | T |
And hugg'd the chain that glittering on their gaze | K |
Seems to outshine the pomp of heaven's empyreal blaze | K |
- | |
XIV | K |
'Like them abandon'd to ambition's sway | H |
I sought for glory in the paths of guile | B2 |
And fawn'd and smiled to plunder and betray | H |
Myself betray'd and plunder'd all the while | B2 |
So gnaw'd the viper the corroding file | B2 |
But now with pangs of keen remorse I rue | B |
Those years of trouble and debasement vile | B2 |
Yet why should I this cruel theme pursue | B |
Fly fly detested thoughts for ever from my view | B |
- | |
XV | B |
'The gusts of appetite the clouds of care | C2 |
And storms of disappointment all o'erpass'd | T |
Henceforth no earthly hope with heaven shall share | C2 |
This heart where peace serenely shines at last | T |
And if for me no treasure be amass'd | T |
And if no future age shall hear my name | D2 |
I lurk the more secure from fortune's blast | T |
And with more leisure feed this pious flame | D2 |
Whose rapture far transcends the fairest hopes of fame | D2 |
- | |
XVI | B |
'The end and the reward of toil is rest | T |
Be all my prayer for virtue and for peace | K |
Of wealth and fame of pomp and power possess'd | T |
Who ever felt his weight of wo decrease | K |
Ah what avails the lore of Rome and Greece | K |
The lay heaven prompted and harmonious | K |
The dust of Ophir or the Tyrian fleece | K |
All that art fortune enterprise can bring | E2 |
If envy scorn remorse or pride the bosom wring | E2 |
- | |
XVII | B |
'Let Vanity adorn the marble tomb | F2 |
With trophies rhymes and scutcheons of renown | B |
In the deep dungeon of some Gothic dome | G2 |
Where night and desolation ever frown | B |
Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down | B |
Where a green grassy turf is all I crave | B |
With here and there a violet bestrown | B |
Fast by a brook or fountain's murmuring wave | B |
And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave | B |
- | |
XVIII | B |
'And thither let the village swain repair | C2 |
And light of heart the village maiden gay | H |
To deck with flowers her half dishevel'd hair | C2 |
And celebrate the merry morn of May | H |
There let the shepherd's pipe the livelong day | H |
Fill all the grove with love's bewitching wo | Z |
And when mild Evening comes with mantle gray | H |
Let not the blooming band make haste to go | Z |
No ghosts nor spell my long and last abode shall know | Z |
- | |
XIX | K |
'For though I fly to 'scape from fortune's rage | H2 |
And bear the scars of envy spite and scorn | B |
Yet with mankind no horrid war I wage | H2 |
Yet with no impious spleen my breast is torn | B |
For virtue lost and ruin'd man I mourn | B |
O man creation's pride heaven's darling child | T |
Whom nature's best divinest gifts adorn | B |
Why from thy home are truth and joy exiled | T |
And all thy favourite haunts with blood and tears defiled | T |
- | |
XX | K |
'Along yon glittering sky what glory streams | K |
What majesty attends night's lovely queen | B |
Fair laugh our valleys in the vernal beams | K |
And mountains rise and oceans roll between | B |
And all conspire to beautify the sce | K |
James Beattie
(1)
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