The Castle Of Indolence Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC CDCDDCDCCEFEFFGFGGFH FHHFHFFGCGCCICIIJFKF FLFLLGMGMLFMFFGFGFFF FFFLMLMMNFNNFGFGGMGM MOPOJJLJLLLQLQQRQRRJ IJIIJIJJSJSJJGJGGLTL UTFUFFJVJVVJVJJFWFWX GWGGJGJGGYGYYJUJTTMU MJFVFVVVVVVFThe castle hight of Indolence | A |
And its false luxury | B |
Where for a little time alas | A |
We lived right jollily | C |
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O mortal man who livest here by toil | C |
Do not complain of this thy hard estate | D |
That like an emmet thou must ever moil | C |
Is a sad sentence of an ancient date | D |
And certes there is for it reason great | D |
For though sometimes it makes thee weep and wail | C |
And curse thy star and early drudge and late | D |
Withouten that would come a heavier bale | C |
Loose life unruly passions and diseases pale | C |
In lowly dale fast by a river's side | E |
With woody hill o'er hill encompass'd round | F |
A most enchanting wizard did abide | E |
Than whom a fiend more fell is no where found | F |
It was I ween a lovely spot of ground | F |
And there a season atween June and May | G |
Half prankt with spring with summer half imbrown'd | F |
A listless climate made where sooth to say | G |
No living wight could work ne cared even for play | G |
Was nought around but images of rest | F |
Sleep soothing groves and quiet lawns between | H |
And flowery beds that slumbrous influence kest | F |
From poppies breathed and beds of pleasant green | H |
Where never yet was creeping creature seen | H |
Meantime unnumber'd glittering streamlets play'd | F |
And hurled every where their waters sheen | H |
That as they bicker'd through the sunny glade | F |
Though restless still themselves a lulling murmur made | F |
Join'd to the prattle of the purling rills | G |
Were heard the lowing herds along the vale | C |
And flocks loud bleating from the distant hills | G |
And vacant shepherds piping in the dale | C |
And now and then sweet Philomel would wail | C |
Or stock doves plain amid the forest deep | I |
That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale | C |
And still a coil the grasshopper did keep | I |
Yet all these sounds yblent inclined all to sleep | I |
Full in the passage of the vale above | J |
A sable silent solemn forest stood | F |
Where nought but shadowy forms was seen to move | K |
As Idless fancied in her dreaming mood | F |
And up the hills on either side a wood | F |
Of blackening pines aye waving to and fro | L |
Sent forth a sleepy horror through the blood | F |
And where this valley winded out below | L |
The murmuring main was heard and scarcely heard to flow | L |
A pleasing land of drowsy head it was | G |
Of dreams that wave before the half shut eye | M |
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass | G |
For ever flushing round a summer sky | M |
There eke the soft delights that witchingly | L |
Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast | F |
And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh | M |
But whate'er smack'd of noyance or unrest | F |
Was far far off expell'd from this delicious nest | F |
The landscape such inspiring perfect ease | G |
Where Indolence for so the wizard hight | F |
Close hid his castle mid embowering trees | G |
That half shut out the beams of Ph bus bright | F |
And made a kind of checker'd day and night | F |
Meanwhile unceasing at the massy gate | F |
Beneath a spacious palm the wicked wight | F |
Was placed and to his lute of cruel fate | F |
And labour harsh complain'd lamenting man's estate | F |
Thither continual pilgrims crowded still | L |
From all the roads of earth that pass there by | M |
For as they chaunced to breathe on neighbouring hill | L |
The freshness of this valley smote their eye | M |
And drew them ever and anon more nigh | M |
Till clustering round the enchanter false they hung | N |
Ymolten with his syren melody | F |
While o'er the enfeebling lute his hand he flung | N |
And to the trembling chords these tempting verses sung | N |
Behold ye pilgrims of this earth behold | F |
See all but man with unearn'd pleasure gay | G |
See her bright robes the butterfly unfold | F |
Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May | G |
What youthful bride can equal her array | G |
Who can with her for easy pleasure vie | M |
From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray | G |
From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly | M |
Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky | M |
Behold the merry minstrels of the morn | O |
The swarming songsters of the careless grove | P |
Ten thousand throats that from the flowering thorn | O |
Hymn their good God and carol sweet of love | J |
Such grateful kindly raptures them emove | J |
They neither plough nor sow ne fit for flail | L |
E'er to the barn the nodden sheaves they drove | J |
Yet theirs each harvest dancing in the gale | L |
Whatever crowns the hill or smiles along the vale | L |
Outcast of nature man the wretched thrall | L |
Of bitter dropping sweat of sweltry pain | Q |
Of cares that eat away the heart with gall | L |
And of the vices an inhuman train | Q |
That all proceed from savage thirst of gain | Q |
For when hard hearted interest first began | R |
To poison earth Astr a left the plain | Q |
Guile violence and murder seized on man | R |
And for soft milky streams with blood the rivers ran | R |
Come ye who still the cumbrous load of life | J |
Push hard up hill but as the furthest steep | I |
You trust to gain and put an end to strife | J |
Down thunders back the stone with mighty sweep | I |
And hurls your labours to the valley deep | I |
For ever vain come and withouten fee | J |
I in oblivion will your sorrows steep | I |
Your cares your toils will steep you in a sea | J |
Of full delight O come ye weary wights to me | J |
With me you need not rise at early dawn | S |
To pass the joyless day in various stounds | J |
Or louting low on upstart fortune fawn | S |
And sell fair honour for some paltry pounds | J |
Or through the city take your dirty rounds | J |
To cheat and dun and lie and visit pay | G |
Now flattering base now giving secret wounds | J |
Or prowl in courts of law for human prey | G |
In venal senate thieve or rob on broad highway | G |
No cocks with me to rustic labour call | L |
From village on to village sounding clear | T |
To tardy swain no shrill voiced matrons squall | L |
No dogs no babes no wives to stun your ear | U |
No hammers thump no horrid blacksmith sear | T |
Ne noisy tradesman your sweet slumbers start | F |
With sounds that are a misery to hear | U |
But all is calm as would delight the heart | F |
Of Sybarite of old all nature and all art | F |
Here nought but candour reigns indulgent ease | J |
Good natured lounging sauntering up and down | V |
They who are pleased themselves must always please | J |
On others' ways they never squint a frown | V |
Nor heed what haps in hamlet or in town | V |
Thus from the source of tender Indolence | J |
With milky blood the heart is overflown | V |
Is sooth'd and sweeten'd by the social sense | J |
For interest envy pride and strife are banish'd hence | J |
What what is virtue but repose of mind | F |
A pure ethereal calm that knows no storm | W |
Above the reach of wild ambition's wind | F |
Above those passions that this world deform | W |
And torture man a proud malignant worm | X |
But here instead soft gales of passion play | G |
And gently stir the heart thereby to form | W |
A quicker sense of joy as breezes stray | G |
Across the enliven'd skies and make them still more gay | G |
The best of men have ever loved repose | J |
They hate to mingle in the filthy fray | G |
Where the soul sours and gradual rancour grows | J |
Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day | G |
E'en those whom fame has lent her fairest ray | G |
The most renown'd of worthy wights of yore | Y |
From a base world at last have stolen away | G |
So Scipio to the soft Cum an shore | Y |
Retiring tasted joy he never knew before | Y |
But if a little exercise you choose | J |
Some zest for ease 'tis not forbidden here | U |
Amid the groves you may indulge the Muse | J |
Or tend the blooms and deck the vernal year | T |
Or softly stealing with your watery gear | T |
Along the brooks the crimson spotted fry | M |
You may delude the whilst amused you hear | U |
Now the hoarse stream and now the zephyr's sigh | M |
Attuned to the birds and woodland melody | J |
O grievous folly to heap up estate | F |
Losing the days you see beneath the sun | V |
When sudden comes blind unrelenting fate | F |
And gives the untasted portion you have won | V |
With ruthless toil and many a wretch undone | V |
To those who mock you gone to Pluto's reign | V |
There with sad ghosts to pine and shadows dun | V |
But sure it is of vanities most vain | V |
To toil for what you here untoiling may obtain | V |
He ceased But still their trembling ears retai | F |
James Thomson
(1)
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