Lines Written Under The Conviction That It Is Not Wise To Read Mathematics In November After One-s Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABCCCB DDEFGGGF HHHFIIIF JJJKLLLK MMMNOOON PPPKQQQK RRRFSSSF TTUFJJJF VVVWXXXW YYYZSSSZ A2A2A2B2C2D2C2B2 VVMZE2E2E2Z| In the sad November time | A |
| When the leaf has left the lime | A |
| And the Cam with sludge and slime | A |
| Plasters his ugly channel | B |
| While with sober step and slow | C |
| Round about the marshes low | C |
| Stiffening students stumping go | C |
| Shivering through their flannel | B |
| - | |
| Then to me in doleful mood | D |
| Rises up a question rude | D |
| Asking what sufficient good | E |
| Comes of this mode of living | F |
| Moping on from day to day | G |
| Grinding up what will not pay | G |
| Till the jaded brain gives way | G |
| Under its own misgiving | F |
| - | |
| Why should wretched Man employ | H |
| Years which Nature meant for joy | H |
| Striving vainly to destroy | H |
| Freedom of thought and feeling | F |
| Still the injured powers remain | I |
| Endless stores of hopeless pain | I |
| When at last the vanquished brain | I |
| Languishes past all healing | F |
| - | |
| Where is then his wealth of mind | J |
| All the schemes that Hope designed | J |
| Gone like spring to leave behind | J |
| Indolent melancholy | K |
| Thus he ends his helpless days | L |
| Vex t with thoughts of former praise | L |
| Tell me how are Wisdom s ways | L |
| Better than senseless Folly | K |
| - | |
| Happier those whom trifles please | M |
| Dreaming out a life of ease | M |
| Sinking by unfelt degrees | M |
| Into annihilation | N |
| Or the slave to labour born | O |
| Heedless of the freeman s scorn | O |
| Destined to be slowly worn | O |
| Down to the brute creation | N |
| - | |
| Thus a tempting spirit spoke | P |
| As from troubled sleep I woke | P |
| To a morning thick with smoke | P |
| Sunless and damp and chilly | K |
| Then to sleep I turned once more | Q |
| Eyes inflamed and windpipe sore | Q |
| Dreaming dreams I dreamt before | Q |
| Only not quite so silly | K |
| - | |
| In my dream methought I strayed | R |
| Where a learned looking maid | R |
| Stores of flimsy goods displayed | R |
| Articles not worth wearing | F |
| These she said with solemn air | S |
| Are the robes that sages wear | S |
| Warranted when kept with care | S |
| Never to need repairing | F |
| - | |
| Then unnumbered witlings caught | T |
| By her wiles the trappings bought | T |
| And by labour not by thought | U |
| Honour and fame were earning | F |
| While the men of wiser mind | J |
| Passed for blind among the blind | J |
| Pedants left them far behind | J |
| In the career of learning | F |
| - | |
| Those that fix their eager eyes | V |
| Ever on the nearest prize | V |
| Well may venture to despise | V |
| Loftier aspirations | W |
| Pedantry is in demand | X |
| Buy it up at second hand | X |
| Seek no more to understand | X |
| Profitless speculations | W |
| - | |
| Thus the gaudy gowns were sold | Y |
| Cast off sloughs of pedants old | Y |
| Proudly marched the students bold | Y |
| Through the domain of error | Z |
| Till their trappings false though fair | S |
| Mouldered off and left them bare | S |
| Clustering close in blank despair | S |
| Nakedness cold and terror | Z |
| - | |
| Then I said These haughty Schools | A2 |
| Boast that by their formal rules | A2 |
| They produce more learned fools | A2 |
| Than could be well expected | B2 |
| Learned fools they are indeed | C2 |
| Learned in the books they read | D2 |
| Fools whene er they come to need | C2 |
| Wisdom too long neglected | B2 |
| - | |
| Oh that men indeed were wise | V |
| And would raise their purblind eyes | V |
| To the opening mysteries | M |
| Scattered around them ever | Z |
| Truth should spring from sterile ground | E2 |
| Beauty beam from all around | E2 |
| Right should then at last be found | E2 |
| Joining what none may sever | Z |
James Clerk Maxwell
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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