The Four Seasons : Winter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIBJKLMNOEPAQ ERSTEEUVDWXYZPZYA2B2 EZC2EAD2EE2EF2C2A2EG 2H2I2ED2EJ2K2EGEL2EE 2EF2EM2WVN2JZEBEZO2D 2P2Q2ZR2ES2T2BU2Q2EE V2W2W2PEW2X2EW2ECY2Z 2W2AEZEZZ2EW2F2C2A3E B3EEW2ZC3EQ2ED3EE3EW 2ZF3W2G3EH3PBW2I3ZC2 W2J3EW2TK3EQ2W2Q2BW2 Y2W2K2R2EL3TXW2K3W2Y 2W2M3EN3See Winter comes to rule the varied year | A |
Sullen and sad with all his rising train | B |
Vapours and clouds and storms Be these my theme | C |
These that exalt the soul to solemn thought | D |
And heavenly musing Welcome kindred glooms | E |
Congenial horrors hail with frequent foot | F |
Pleased have I in my cheerful morn of life | G |
When nursed by careless Solitude I lived | H |
And sung of Nature with unceasing joy | I |
Pleased have I wander'd through your rough domain | B |
Trod the pure virgin snows myself as pure | J |
Heard the winds roar and the big torrent burst | K |
Or seen the deep fermenting tempest brew'd | L |
In the grim evening sky Thus pass'd the time | M |
Till through the lucid chambers of the south | N |
Look'd out the joyous Spring look'd out and smiled | O |
To thee the patron of her first essay | E |
The Muse O Wilmington renews her song | P |
Since has she rounded the revolving year | A |
Skimm'd the gay Spring on eagle pinions borne | Q |
Attempted through the Summer blaze to rise | E |
Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale | R |
And now among the wintry clouds again | S |
Roll'd in the doubling storm she tries to soar | T |
To swell her note with all the rushing winds | E |
To suit her sounding cadence to the floods | E |
As is her theme her numbers wildly great | U |
Thrice happy could she fill thy judging ear | V |
With bold description and with manly thought | D |
Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone | W |
And how to make a mighty people thrive | X |
But equal goodness sound integrity | Y |
A firm unshaken uncorrupted soul | Z |
Amid a sliding age and burning strong | P |
Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal | Z |
A steady spirit regularly free | Y |
These each exalting each the statesman light | A2 |
Into the patriot these the public hope | B2 |
And eye to thee converting bid the Muse | E |
Record what envy dares not flattery call | Z |
Now when the cheerless empire of the sky | C2 |
To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields | E |
And fierce Aquarius stains the inverted year | A |
Hung o'er the farthest verge of Heaven the sun | D2 |
Scarce spreads through ether the dejected day | E |
Faint are his gleams and ineffectual shoot | E2 |
His struggling rays in horizontal lines | E |
Through the thick air as clothed in cloudy storm | F2 |
Weak wan and broad he skirts the southern sky | C2 |
And soon descending to the long dark night | A2 |
Wide shading all the prostrate world resigns | E |
Nor is the night unwish'd while vital heat | G2 |
Light life and joy the dubious day forsake | H2 |
Meantime in sable cincture shadows vast | I2 |
Deep tinged and damp and congregated clouds | E |
And all the vapoury turbulence of Heaven | D2 |
Involve the face of things Thus Winter falls | E |
A heavy gloom oppressive o'er the world | J2 |
Through Nature shedding influence malign | K2 |
And rouses up the seeds of dark disease | E |
The soul of man dies in him loathing life | G |
And black with more than melancholy views | E |
The cattle droop and o'er the furrow'd land | L2 |
Fresh from the plough the dun discolour'd flocks | E |
Untended spreading crop the wholesome root | E2 |
Along the woods along the moorish fens | E |
Sighs the sad Genius of the coming storm | F2 |
And up among the loose disjointed cliffs | E |
And fractured mountains wild the brawling brook | M2 |
And cave presageful send a hollow moan | W |
Resounding long in listening Fancy's ear | V |
Then comes the father of the tempest forth | N2 |
Wrapt in black glooms First joyless rains obscure | J |
Drive through the mingling skies with vapour foul | Z |
Dash on the mountain's brow and shake the woods | E |
That grumbling wave below The unsightly plain | B |
Lies a brown deluge as the low bent clouds | E |
Pour flood on flood yet unexhausted still | Z |
Combine and deepening into night shut up | O2 |
The day's fair face The wanderers of Heaven | D2 |
Each to his home retire save those that love | P2 |
To take their pastime in the troubled air | Q2 |
Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool | Z |
The cattle from the untasted fields return | R2 |
And ask with meaning low their wonted stalls | E |
Or ruminate in the contiguous shade | S2 |
Thither the household feathery people crowd | T2 |
The crested cock with all his female train | B |
Pensive and dripping while the cottage hind | U2 |
Hangs oe'r the enlivening blaze and taleful there | Q2 |
Recounts his simple frolic much he talks | E |
And much he laughs nor recks the storm that blows | E |
Without and rattles on his humble roof | V2 |
Wide o'er the brim with many a torrent swell'd | W2 |
And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread | W2 |
At last the roused up river pours along | P |
Resistless roaring dreadful down it comes | E |
From the rude mountain and the mossy wild | W2 |
Tumbling through rocks abrupt and sounding far | X2 |
Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads | E |
Calm sluggish silent till again constrain'd | W2 |
Between two meeting hills it bursts away | E |
Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream | C |
There gathering triple force rapid and deep | Y2 |
It boils and wheels and foams and thunders through | Z2 |
Nature great parent whose unceasing hand | W2 |
Rolls round the seasons of the changeful year | A |
How mighty how majestic are thy works | E |
With what a pleasing dread they swell the soul | Z |
That sees astonish'd and astonish'd sings | E |
Ye too ye winds that now begin to blow | Z |
With boisterous sweep I raise my voice to you | Z2 |
Where are your stores ye powerful beings say | E |
Where your a rial magazines reserved | W2 |
To swell the brooding terrors of the storm | F2 |
In what far distant region of the sky | C2 |
Hush'd in deep silence sleep ye when 'tis calm | A3 |
When from the pallid sky the sun descends | E |
With many a spot that o'er his glaring orb | B3 |
Uncertain wanders stain'd red fiery streaks | E |
Begin to flush around The reeling clouds | E |
Stagger with dizzy poise as doubting yet | W2 |
Which master to obey while rising slow | Z |
Blank in the leaden colour'd east the moon | C3 |
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns | E |
Seen through the turbid fluctuating air | Q2 |
The stars obtuse emit a shiver'd ray | E |
Or frequent seem to shoot athwart the gloom | D3 |
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze | E |
Snatch'd in short eddies plays the wither'd leaf | E3 |
And on the flood the dancing feather floats | E |
With broaden'd nostrils to the sky upturn'd | W2 |
The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale | Z |
E'en as the matron at her nightly task | F3 |
With pensive labour draws the flaxen thread | W2 |
The wasted taper and the crackling flame | G3 |
Foretell the blast But chief the plumy race | E |
The tenants of the sky its changes speak | H3 |
Retiring from the downs where all day long | P |
They pick'd their scanty fare a blackening train | B |
Of clamorous rooks thick urge their weary flight | W2 |
And seek the closing shelter of the grove | I3 |
Assiduous in his bower the wailing owl | Z |
Plies his sad song The cormorant on high | C2 |
Wheels from the deep and screams along the land | W2 |
Loud shrieks the soaring hern and with wild wing | J3 |
The circling seafowl cleave the flaky clouds | E |
Ocean unequal press'd with broken tide | W2 |
And blind commotion heaves while from the shore | T |
Eat into caverns by the restless wave | K3 |
And forest rustling mountain comes a voice | E |
That solemn sounding bids the world prepare | Q2 |
Then issues forth the storm with sudden burst | W2 |
And hurls the whole precipitated air | Q2 |
Down in a torrent On the passive main | B |
Descends the ethereal force and with strong gust | W2 |
Turns from its bottom the discolour'd deep | Y2 |
Through the black night that sits immense around | W2 |
Lash'd into foam the fierce conflicting brine | K2 |
Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn | R2 |
Meantime the mountain billows to the clouds | E |
In dreadful tumult swell'd surge above surge | L3 |
Burst into chaos with tremendous roar | T |
And anchor'd navies from their stations drive | X |
Wild as the winds across the howling waste | W2 |
Of mighty waters now the inflated wave | K3 |
Straining they scale and now impetuous shoot | W2 |
Into the secret chambers of the deep | Y2 |
The wintry Baltic thundering o'er their head | W2 |
Emerging thence again before the breath | M3 |
Of full exerted Heaven they wing their course | E |
And dart on distant coasts if | N3 |
James Thomson
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