Lament Xix. The Dream Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHFFBB IIJJFFFFDDFFBBKKLLBB MMBBNNFFOOFFFFPPQNRR SSFFBBTTUUBBFFIIBBLL FFIIBBFFFFFFEELLRVWW HHRRNNXXSSBBFFDDFFFF FFYZFFBBDDIIKKYYBBBB A2A2B2B2C2C2FFFFFFFF DDD2D2Long through the night hours sorrow was my guest | A |
And would not let my fainting body rest | A |
Till just ere dawn from out its slow dominions | B |
Flew sleep to wrap me in its dear dusk pinions | B |
And then it was my mother did appear | C |
Before mine eyes in vision doubly dear | C |
For in her arms she held my darling one | D |
My Ursula just as she used to run | D |
To me at dawn to say her morning prayer | E |
In her white nightgown with her curling hair | E |
Framing her rosy face her eyes about | F |
To laugh like flowers only halfway out | F |
Art thou still sorrowing my son Thus spoke | G |
My mother Sighing bitterly I woke | G |
Or seemed to wake and heard her say once more | H |
It is thy weeping brings me to this shore | H |
Thy lamentations long uncomforted | F |
Have reached the hidden chambers of the dead | F |
Till I have come to grant thee some small grace | B |
And let thee gaze upon thy daughter's face | B |
That it may calm thy heart in some degree | I |
And check the grief that imperceptibly | I |
Doth gnaw away thy health and leave thee sick | J |
Like fire that turns to ashes a dry wick | J |
Dost thou believe the dead have perished quite | F |
Their sun gone down in an eternal night | F |
Ah no we have a being far more splendid | F |
Now that our bodies' coarser claims are ended | F |
Though dust returns to dust the spirit given | D |
A life eternal must go back to heaven | D |
And little Ursula hath not gone out | F |
Forever like a torch Nay cease thy doubt | F |
For I have brought her hither in the guise | B |
She used to wear before thy mortal eyes | B |
Though mid the deathless angels brighter far | K |
She shineth as the lovely morning star | K |
And still she offers up her prayers for you | L |
As here on earth when yet no words she knew | L |
If herefrom springs thy sorrow that her years | B |
Were broken off before all that endears | B |
A life on earth to mortals she might prove | M |
Yet think how empty the delights that move | M |
The minds of men delights that must give place | B |
At last to sorrow as in thine own case | B |
Did then thy little girl such joy confer | N |
That all the comfort thou didst find in her | N |
Could parallel thine anguish of today | F |
Thou canst not answer otherwise than nay | F |
Then fret not that so early death has come | O |
To what was dearest thee in Christendom | O |
She did not leave a land of much delight | F |
But one of toil and grief and evil blight | F |
So plenteous that all which men can hold | F |
Of their so transitory blessings gold | F |
Must lose its value through this base alloy | P |
This knowledge of the grief that follows joy | P |
Why do we weep great God That with her dower | Q |
She bought herself no lord that she might cower | N |
Before upbraidings from her husband's kin | R |
That she knew not the pangs that usher in | R |
The newborn child And that she could not know | S |
Like her poor mother if more racking woe | S |
It were to bear or bury them Ah meet | F |
Are such delights to make the world more sweet | F |
But heaven hath purer surer happiness | B |
Free from all intermingling of distress | B |
Care rules not here and here we know not toil | T |
Misfortune and disaster do not spoil | T |
Here sickness can not enter nor old age | U |
And death tear nourished hath no pasturage | U |
We live a life of endless joy that brings | B |
Good thoughts we know the causes of all things | B |
The sun shines on forever here its light | F |
Unconquered by impenetrable night | F |
And the Creator in his majesty | I |
Invisible to mortals we may see | I |
Then turn thy meditations hither towards | B |
This changeless gladness and these rich rewards | B |
Thou know'st the world what love of it can do | L |
Found thou thine efforts on a base more true | L |
Thy little girl hath chosen well her part | F |
Thou may'st believe as one about to start | F |
For the first time upon the stormy sea | I |
Beholding there great flux and jeopardy | I |
Returneth to the shore while those that raise | B |
Their sails the wind or some blind crag betrays | B |
And this one dies from hunger that from cold | F |
Scarce one escapes the perils manifold | F |
So she who though her years should have surpassed | F |
That ancient Sybil must have died at last | F |
Preferred that ending to anticipate | F |
Before she knew the ills of man's estate | F |
For some are left without their parents' care | E |
To know how sore an orphan's lot to bear | E |
One girl must marry headlong and then rue | L |
Her dower given up to God knows who | L |
Some maids are seized by their own countrymen | R |
Others made captive by the Tatar clan | V |
And held thus in a pagan shameful thrall | W |
Must drink their tears till death comes ending all | W |
But this thy little child need fear no more | H |
Who taken early up to heaven's door | H |
Could walk all glad and shining pure within | R |
Her soul still innocent of earthly sin | R |
Doubt not my son that all is well with her | N |
And let not sorrow be thy conqueror | N |
Reason and self command are precious still | X |
And yielding all to blighted hope is ill | X |
Be in this matter thine own lord although | S |
Thy longed for happiness thou must forego | S |
For man is born exposed to circumstance | B |
To be the target of all evil chance | B |
And if we like it or we like it not | F |
We still can not escape our destined lot | F |
Nor hath misfortune singled thee my son | D |
It lays its burdens upon every one | D |
Thy little child was mortal as thou art | F |
She ran her given course and did depart | F |
And if that course was brief yet who can say | F |
That she would have been happier to stay | F |
The ways of God are past our finding out | F |
Yet what He holds as good shall we misdoubt | F |
And when the spirit leaves us it is vain | Y |
To weep so long it will not come again | Z |
And herein man is hardly just to fate | F |
To bear in mind what is unfortunate | F |
In life and to forget all that transpires | B |
In full accordance with his own desires | B |
And such is Fortune's power dearest son | D |
That we should not lament when she hath done | D |
A bitter turn but thank her in that she | I |
Hath held her hand from greater injury | I |
So yielding to the common order bar | K |
Thy heart to more disasters than now are | K |
Gaze at the happiness thou dost retain | Y |
What is not loss that must be rated gain | Y |
And finally what profits the expense | B |
Of thy long labor and the years gone hence | B |
While thou didst spend thyself upon thy books | B |
And knewest scarce how lightsome pleasure looks | B |
Now from thy grafting pluck the fruit and save | A2 |
Something of value from frail nature's grave | A2 |
To other men in sorrow thou hast shown | B2 |
The comfort left them hast none for thine own | B2 |
Now master heal thyself time is the cure | C2 |
For all but he whose wisdom doth abjure | C2 |
The common ways he should anticipate | F |
The healing for which other men must wait | F |
What is time's cunning That it drives away | F |
Our former haps with newer ones more gay | F |
Or like the old So man by taking thought | F |
Perceives them ere their accidents are wrought | F |
And by such thinking banishes the past | F |
And views the future quiet and steadfast | F |
Then bear man's portion like a man my son | D |
The Lord of grief and comfort is but one | D |
Then I awoke and know not if to deem | D2 |
This truth itself or but a passing dream | D2 |
Jan Kochanowski
(1)
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