A Poem Sacred To The Memory Of Sir Isaac Newton Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIFJ KLMND OPQRSTUVWXYZS A2B2C2D2E2F2G2H2I I2J2K2L2M2N2O2EP2EQ2 R2S2T2U2V2W2X2 EY2EZ2GA3B3C3X2J2I2 D3E3F3CG3Q2H3D I3J3K3Q2IK3 L3YN2M3A2N3D2O3P3TQ3 VR3Q2N3X2K3N3X2M3D2S 3T3O2A3IV2U3EK3J2V3W 3X3Y3Z3I A4B4W3C4A4K2 D4R2D3E4F4T3K3 IIG4S2H H4R2K2F3I4J2J4 IK4W3X2J2L4M4J3N4O4C 2P4Q4R4S4T4P4U4 V4W4K4X4J4Y4Z4J2 A3J2Q2Shall the great soul of Newton quit this earth | A |
To mingle with his stars and every muse | B |
Astonish'd into silence shun the weight | C |
Of honours due to his illustrious name | D |
But what can man Even now the sons of light | E |
In strains high warbled to seraphic lyre | F |
Hail his arrival on the coast of bliss | G |
Yet am not I deterr'd though high the theme | H |
And sung to harps of angels for with you | I |
Ethereal flames ambitious I aspire | F |
In Nature's general symphony to join | J |
- | |
And what new wonders can ye show your guest | K |
Who while on this dim spot where mortals toil | L |
Clouded in dust from motion's simple laws | M |
Could trace the secret hand of Providence | N |
Wide working through this universal frame | D |
- | |
Have ye not listen'd while he bound the suns | O |
And planets to their spheres th' unequal task | P |
Of humankind till then Oft had they roll'd | Q |
O'er erring man the year and oft disgrac'd | R |
The pride of schools before their course was known | S |
Full in its causes and effects to him | T |
All piercing sage who sat not down and dream'd | U |
Romantic schemes defended by the din | V |
Of specious words and tyranny of names | W |
But bidding his amazing mind attend | X |
And with heroic patience years on years | Y |
Deep searching saw at last the system dawn | Z |
And shine of all his race on him alone | S |
- | |
What were his raptures then how pure how strong | A2 |
And what the triumphs of old Greece and Rome | B2 |
By his diminish'd but the pride of boys | C2 |
In some small fray victorious when instead | D2 |
Of shatter'd parcels of this earth usurp'd | E2 |
By violence unmanly and sore deeds | F2 |
Of cruelty and blood Nature herself | G2 |
Stood all subdu'd by him and open laid | H2 |
Her every latent glory to his view | I |
- | |
All intellectual eye our solar round | I2 |
First gazing through he by the blended power | J2 |
Of gravitation and projection saw | K2 |
The whole in silent harmony revolve | L2 |
From unassisted vision hid the moons | M2 |
To cheer remoter planets numerous pour'd | N2 |
By him in all their mingled tracts were seen | O2 |
He also fix'd the wandering Queen of Night | E |
Whether she wanes into a scanty orb | P2 |
Or waxing broad with her pale shadowy light | E |
In a soft deluge overflows the sky | Q2 |
Her every motion clear discerning he | R2 |
Adjusted to the mutual main and taught | S2 |
Why now the mighty mass of water swells | T2 |
Resistless heaving on the broken rocks | U2 |
And the full river turning till again | V2 |
The tide revertive unattracted leaves | W2 |
A yellow waste of idle sands behind | X2 |
- | |
Then breaking hence he took his ardent flight | E |
Through the blue infinite and every star | Y2 |
Which the clear concave of a winter's night | E |
Pours on the eye or astronomic tube | Z2 |
Far stretching snatches from the dark abyss | G |
Or such as farther in successive skies | A3 |
To fancy shine alone at his approach | B3 |
Blaz'd into suns the living centre each | C3 |
Of an harmonious system all combin'd | X2 |
And rul'd unerring by that single power | J2 |
Which draws the stone projected to the ground | I2 |
- | |
O unprofuse magnificence divine | D3 |
O wisdom truly perfect thus to call | E3 |
From a few causes such a scheme of things | F3 |
Effects so various beautiful and great | C |
An universe complete and O belov'd | G3 |
Of Heaven whose well purg'd penetrative eye | Q2 |
The mystic veil transpiercing inly scann'd | H3 |
The rising moving wide establish'd frame | D |
- | |
He first of men with awful wing pursu'd | I3 |
The comet through the long elliptic curve | J3 |
As round innumerous worlds he wound his way | K3 |
Till to the forehead of our evening sky | Q2 |
Return'd the blazing wonder glares anew | I |
And o'er the trembling nations shakes dismay | K3 |
- | |
The heavens are all his own from the wild rule | L3 |
Of whirling vortices and circling spheres | Y |
To their first great simplicity restor'd | N2 |
The schools astonish'd stood but found it vain | M3 |
To keep at odds with demonstration strong | A2 |
And unawaken'd dream beneath the blaze | N3 |
Of truth At once their pleasing visions fled | D2 |
With the gay shadows of the morning mix'd | O3 |
When Newton rose our philosophic sun | P3 |
Th' a rial flow of sound was known to him | T |
From whence it first in wavy circles breaks | Q3 |
Till the touch'd organ takes the message in | V |
Nor could the darting beam of speed immense | R3 |
Escape his swift pursuit and measuring eye | Q2 |
Ev'n Light itself which every thing displays | N3 |
Shone undiscover'd till his brighter mind | X2 |
Untwisted all the shining robe of day | K3 |
And from the whitening undistinguish'd blaze | N3 |
Collecting every ray into his kind | X2 |
To the charm'd eye educ'd the gorgeous train | M3 |
Of parent colours First the flaming red | D2 |
Sprung vivid forth the tawny orange next | S3 |
And next delicious yellow by whose side | T3 |
Fell the kind beams of all refreshing green | O2 |
Then the pure blue that swells autumnal skies | A3 |
Ethereal played and then of sadder hue | I |
Emerg'd the deepen'd indigo as when | V2 |
The heavy skirted evening droops with frost | U3 |
While the last gleamings of refracted light | E |
Died in the fainting violet away | K3 |
These when the clouds distil the rosy shower | J2 |
Shine out distinct adown the wat'ry bow | V3 |
While o'er our heads the dewy vision bends | W3 |
Delightful melting on the fields beneath | X3 |
Myriads of mingling dyes from these result | Y3 |
And myriads still remain infinite source | Z3 |
Of beauty ever flushing ever new | I |
- | |
Did ever poet image aught so fair | A4 |
Dreaming in whisp'ring groves by the hoarse brook | B4 |
Or prophet to whose rapture heaven descends | W3 |
Ev'n now the setting sun and shifting clouds | C4 |
Seen Greenwich from thy lovely heights declare | A4 |
How just how beauteous the refractive law | K2 |
- | |
The noiseless tide of time all bearing down | D4 |
To vast eternity's unbounded sea | R2 |
Where the green islands of the happy shine | D3 |
He stemm'd alone and to the source involv'd | E4 |
Deep in primeval gloom ascending rais'd | F4 |
His lights at equal distances to guide | T3 |
Historian wilder'd on his darksome way | K3 |
- | |
But who can number up his labours who | I |
His high discoveries sing When but a few | I |
Of the deep studying race can stretch their minds | G4 |
To what he knew in fancy's lighter thought | S2 |
How shall the muse then grasp the mighty theme | H |
- | |
What wonder thence that his devotion swell'd | H4 |
Responsive to his knowledge For could he | R2 |
Whose piercing mental eye diffusive saw | K2 |
The finish'd university of things | F3 |
In all its order magnitude and parts | I4 |
Forbear incessant to adore that Power | J2 |
Who fills sustains and actuates the whole | J4 |
- | |
Say ye who best can tell ye happy few | I |
Who saw him in the softest lights of life | K4 |
All unwithheld indulging to his friends | W3 |
The vast unborrow'd treasures of his mind | X2 |
oh speak the wondrous man how mild how calr | J2 |
How greatly humble how divinely good | L4 |
How firm establish'd on eternal truth | M4 |
Fervent in doing well with every nerve | J3 |
Still pressing on forgetful of the past | N4 |
And panting for perfection far above | O4 |
Those little cares and visionary joys | C2 |
That so perplex the fond impassion'd heart | P4 |
Of ever cheated ever trusting man | Q4 |
This Conduitt from thy rural hours we hope | R4 |
As through the pleasing shade where nature pours | S4 |
Her every sweet in studious ease you walk | T4 |
The social passions smiling at thy heart | P4 |
That glows with all the recollected sage | U4 |
- | |
And you ye hopeless gloomy minded tribe | V4 |
You who unconscious of those nobler flights | W4 |
That reach impatient at immortal life | K4 |
Against the prime endearing privilege | X4 |
Of being dare contend say can a soul | J4 |
Of such extensive deep tremendous powers | Y4 |
Enlarging still be but a finer breath | Z4 |
Of spirits dancing through their tubes awhile | |
And then for ever lost in vacant air | J2 |
- | |
But hark methinks I hear a warning voice | |
Solemn as when some awful change is come | |
Sound through the world 'Tis done the measure's full | |
And I resign my charge Ye mouldering stones | |
That build the towering pyramid the proud | |
Triumphal arch the monument effac'd | |
By ruthless ruin and whate'er supports | |
The worship'd name of hoar antiquity | |
Down to the dust What grandeur can ye boast | |
While Newton lifts his column to the skies | A3 |
Beyond the waste of time Let no weak drop | |
Be shed for him The virgin in her bloom | |
Cut off the joyous youth and darling child | |
These are the tombs that claim the tender tear | J2 |
And elegiac song But Newton calls | |
For other notes of gratulation high | Q2 |
That now he wanders through those endless worlds | |
He here so well descried and wondering talks | |
And hymns t |
James Thomson
(1)
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