Experience Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDEEFF GH IIJJ KKLLDDMMNNOPQQRRSSTT UUVV WWQQDDXXGYZZA2A2 B2B2C2C2OOGYYYYYYYD2 D2SSAAE2E2YYF2F2YYG2 G2E2E2H2H2I2I2YYJ2J2 Y BBK2L2E2E2 E2E2E2E2G2G2QQM2N2E2 E2E2E2YYYYO2O2E2E2 YYYYP2P2C2C2C2E2E2E2 E2 Q2Q2D2D2E2E2E2E2R2R2 E2E2C2C2M2M2D2D2YYS2 S2T2T2 E2E2E2E2E2E2YYM2M2YYA COSTLY good that none e'er bought or sold | A |
For gem or pearl or miser's store twice told | A |
Save certain watery pearls possessed by all | B |
Which one by one may buy it as they fall | B |
Of these though precious few will not suffice | C |
So slow the traffic and so large the price | C |
- | |
It is for wrinkled brows grey locks and sighs | D |
Not for bright blooming cheeks and sparkling eyes | D |
When those have faded these as dimly shine | E |
Then in their stead Experience may be thine | E |
Books will assert and sires and pulpits teach | F |
And youth may listen to their sober speech | F |
And smiling lips pronounce a careless 'yes ' | - |
While neither eye nor heart can acquiesce | G |
But grief extorts conviction brings to view | H |
Those slightest words and answers 'very true ' | - |
Surprised reluctant yet at last compelled | I |
To own what long in doubtful scale was held | I |
That life whate'er the course our own has led | J |
Is much the same as what our fathers said | J |
- | |
A tattered cottage to the view of taste | K |
In beauty glows at needful distance placed | K |
Its broken panes its richly ruined thatch | L |
Its gable graced with many a mossy patch | L |
The sunset lighting up its varied dyes | D |
Form quite a picture to poetic eyes | D |
And yield delight that modern brick and board | M |
Square sound and well arranged would not afford | M |
But cross the mead to take a nearer ken | N |
Where all the magic of the vision then | N |
The picturesque is vanished and the eye | O |
Averted turns from loathsome poverty | P |
And while it lingers e'en the sun's pure ray | Q |
Seems almost sullied by its transient stay | Q |
The broken walls with slight repairs embossed | R |
Are but cold comforts in a winter's frost | R |
No smiling peaceful peasant half refined | S |
There tunes his reed on rustic seat reclined | S |
But there the bended form and haggard face | T |
Worn with the lines that vice and misery trace | T |
Thus fades the charm by vernal hope supplied | U |
To every object it has never tried | U |
To fairy visions and elysian meads | V |
Thus vulgar cold reality succeeds | V |
- | |
When sanguine youth the plain of life surveys | W |
It does not calculate on rainy days | W |
Some as they enter on the unknown way | Q |
Expect large troubles at a distant day | Q |
The loss of wealth or friends they fondly prize | D |
But reckon not on ills of smaller size | D |
Those nameless trifling ills that intervene | X |
And people life infesting every scene | X |
And there with silent unavowed success | G |
Wear off the keener edge of happiness | Y |
Those teazing swarms that buzz about our joys | Z |
More potent than the whirlwind that destroys | Z |
Potent with heavenly teaching to attest | A2 |
Life is a pilgrimage and not a rest | A2 |
- | |
That lesson learned aright is valued more | B2 |
Than all experience ever taught before | B2 |
For this her choicest secret timely given | C2 |
Is wisdom virtue happiness and heaven | C2 |
Long is religion viewed by many an eye | O |
As wanted more for safety by and by | O |
A thing for times of danger and distress | G |
Than needful for our present happiness | Y |
But after fruitless wearisome assays | Y |
To find repose and peace in other ways | Y |
The sickened soul when Heaven imparts its grace | Y |
Returns to seek its only resting place | Y |
And sweet Experience proves as years increase | Y |
That wisdom ways are pleasantness and peace | Y |
Yes and the late conviction fraught with pain | D2 |
On many a callous conscience strikes in vain | D2 |
Blind to ourselves to others not less blind | S |
We slowly learn to understand mankind | S |
Sanguine and ardent indisposed to hold | A |
The cautious maxims that our fathers told | A |
We place new objects in the fairest light | E2 |
And offer generous friendship at first sight | E2 |
Expect though not the first rate mental powers | Y |
A mind at least in unison with ours | Y |
Free from those meaner faults that most conspire | F2 |
To damp our love if not put out its fire | F2 |
Cold o'er the heart the slight expression steals | Y |
That first some trait of character reveals | Y |
A fault perhaps less prominent alone | G2 |
But causing painful friction with our own | G2 |
Long is the harsh reluctant thought supprest | E2 |
We drive the cold suspicion from our breast | E2 |
But when confirmed our generous love condemn | H2 |
Turn off disgusted with the world and them | H2 |
Resolve no more at Friendship's fane to serve | I2 |
And call her names she does not quite deserve | I2 |
But this is rash Experience would confess | Y |
That friendship's very frailties chill us less | Y |
Sincere and well intentioned all the while | J2 |
Than the world's complaisant and polished smile | J2 |
With other chattels nameless in my verse | Y |
Friends must be held 'for better and for worse ' | - |
And that alone true friendship we should call | B |
Which undertakes to love us faults and all | B |
And she who guides this humble line could prove | K2 |
There is there is such candid generous love | L2 |
And from the life her faithful hand could paint | E2 |
Glowing exceptions to her own complaint | E2 |
- | |
But that of all discoveries life can boast | E2 |
Which disappoints us and surprises most | E2 |
Is when the pleasing veil that serves to hide | E2 |
Self from itself by chance is drawn aside | E2 |
As when perhaps some kindred mind is shown | G2 |
In which we trace a portrait of our own | G2 |
Dissolved at once as by the morning ray | Q |
The mists of self delusion pass away | Q |
As that bright moment's unexpected glare | M2 |
Shows us the best and worst of what we are | N2 |
Or some chance word in hasty converse dropt | E2 |
By which the wheel work of the mind is stopt | E2 |
That movement which in daily course goes round | E2 |
And leaves us just precisely where it found | E2 |
This casual word creates a wholesome pause | Y |
The startled mind its quick conclusion draws | Y |
Perceives the form it wears to other eyes | Y |
The proper level where its talents rise | Y |
And ere returning to a different theme | O2 |
Sinks a degree or two in self esteem | O2 |
Then off it goes again with little cost | E2 |
Save that the multiplying wheel is lost | E2 |
- | |
But if such sudden shock abate its force | Y |
Experience aids it by a slower course | Y |
Time spite of fools and flattery lets us see | Y |
Just what we are not what we thought to be | Y |
Midway in life we pause compare with shame | P2 |
Our present progress with our early aim | P2 |
Look back on years with purpose high begun | C2 |
In which the task intended was not done | C2 |
And see beyond us a declining sun | C2 |
Fair opportunities for ever fled | E2 |
The vigorous impulse dying if not dead | E2 |
And we in knowledge habit temper state | E2 |
Nothing superior to the common rate | E2 |
- | |
How false is found as on in life we go | Q2 |
Our early estimate of bliss and woe | Q2 |
Some sparkling joy attracts us that we fain | D2 |
Would sell a precious birth right to obtain | D2 |
There all our hopes of happiness are placed | E2 |
Life looks without it like a joyless waste | E2 |
No good is prized no comfort sought beside | E2 |
Prayers tears implore and will not be denied | E2 |
Heaven pitying hears the intemperate rude appeal | R2 |
And suits its answer to our truest weal | R2 |
The self sought idol if at last bestowed | E2 |
Proves what our wilfulness required a goad | E2 |
Ne'er but as needful chastisement is given | C2 |
The wish thus forced and torn and stormed from Heaven | C2 |
But if withheld in pity from our prayer | M2 |
We rave awhile of torment and despair | M2 |
Refuse each proffered comfort with disdain | D2 |
And slight the thousand blessings that remain | D2 |
Meantime Heaven bears the grievous wrong and waits | Y |
In patient pity till the storm abates | Y |
Applies with gentlest hand the healing balm | S2 |
Or speaks the ruffled mind into a calm | S2 |
Deigning perhaps to show the mourner soon | T2 |
'Twas special mercy that denied the boon | T2 |
- | |
Our blasted hopes our aims and wishes crost | E2 |
Are worth the tears and agonies they cost | E2 |
When the poor mind by fruitless efforts spent | E2 |
With food and raiment learns to be content | E2 |
Bounding with youthful hope the restless mind | E2 |
Leaves that divine monition far behind | E2 |
But tamed at length by suffering comprehends | Y |
The tranquil happiness to which it tends | Y |
Perceives the high wrought bliss it aimed to share | M2 |
Demands a richer soil a purer air | M2 |
That 'tis not fitted and would strangely grace | Y |
The mean c | Y |
Jane Taylor
(1)
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