Cowper Green. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBAACC DDAAEEFFGGAAHHAAII JJKKLLAAMMIINNOPQQRA SSAAAAAAIIAAAAAAHHTT AAUUII AAVWXXAAYYTTZZTTYYHH AZA2A2AAB2AC2C2AAD2D 2AAZZE2E2ZZ AAF2G2AAAAQQAAH2H2ZZ B2AAAZZAAZZAAB2B2I2I 2AAJ2K2 OOL2L2M2M2E2E2N2O2AA AACCAAQQAAAAE2E2ZZP2 P2AAAAQ2Q2AAR2S2QQ T2U2B2B2ZZV2V2AAAAZZNow eve's hours hot noon succeed | A |
And day's herald wing'd with speed | A |
Flush'd with summer's ruddy face | B |
Hies to light some cooler place | B |
Now industry her hand has dropt | A |
And the din of labour's stopt | A |
All is silent free from care | C |
The welcome boon of night to share | C |
- | |
Pleas'd I wander from the town | D |
Pester'd by the selfish clown | D |
Whose talk though spun the night about | A |
Hogs cows and horses spin it out | A |
Far from these so low so vain | E |
Glad I wind me down the lane | E |
Where a deeper gloom pervades | F |
'Tween the hedges' narrow shades | F |
Where a mimic night hour spreads | G |
'Neath the ash grove's meeting heads | G |
Onward then I glad proceed | A |
Where the insect and the weed | A |
Court my eye as I pursue | H |
Something curious worthy view | H |
Chiefly though my wanderings bend | A |
Where the groves of ashes end | A |
And their ceasing lights the scene | I |
O thy lov'd prospect Cowper Green | I |
- | |
Though no rills with sandy sweep | J |
Down thy shaggy borders creep | J |
Save as when thy rut gull'd lanes | K |
Run little brooks with hasty rains | K |
Though no yellow plains allow | L |
Food on thee for sheep or cow | L |
Where on list'ning ears so sweet | A |
Fall the mellow low and bleat | A |
Greeting on eve's dewy gale | M |
Resting fold and milking pail | M |
Though not these adorn thy scene | I |
Still I love thee Cowper Green | I |
Some may praise the grass plat whims | N |
Which the gard'ner weekly trims | N |
And cut hedge and lawn adore | O |
Which his shears have smoothen'd o'er | P |
But give me to ponder still | Q |
Nature when she blooms at will | Q |
In her kindred taste and joy | R |
Wildness and variety | A |
Where the furze has leave to wreathe | S |
Its dark prickles o'er the heath | S |
Where the grey grown hawthorns spread | A |
Foliag'd houses o'er one's head | A |
By the spoiling ax untouch'd | A |
Where the oak tree gnarl'd and notch'd | A |
Lifts its deep moss'd furrow'd side | A |
In nature's grandeur nature's pride | A |
Such is still my favour'd scene | I |
When I seek thee Cowper Green | I |
And full pleas'd would nature's child | A |
Wander o'er thy narrow wild | A |
Marking well thy shaggy head | A |
Where uncheck'd the brambles spread | A |
Where the thistle meets the sight | A |
With its down head cotton white | A |
And the nettle keen to view | H |
And hemlock with its gloomy hue | H |
Where the henbane too finds room | T |
For its sickly stinking bloom | T |
And full many a nameless weed | A |
Neglected left to run to seed | A |
Seen but with disgust by those | U |
Who judge a blossom by the nose | U |
Wildness is my suiting scene | I |
So I seek thee Cowper Green | I |
- | |
Still thou ought'st to have thy meed | A |
To show thy flower as well as weed | A |
Though no fays from May day's lap | V |
Cowslips on thee care to drop | W |
Still does nature yearly bring | X |
Fairest heralds of the spring | X |
On thy wood's warm sunny side | A |
Primrose blooms in all its pride | A |
Violets carpet all thy bowers | Y |
And anemone's weeping flowers | Y |
Dyed in winter's snow and rime | T |
Constant to their early time | T |
White the leaf strewn ground again | Z |
And make each wood a garden then | Z |
Thine's full many a pleasing bloom | T |
Of blossoms lost to all perfume | T |
Thine the dandelion flowers | Y |
Gilt with dew like suns with showers | Y |
Hare bells thine and bugles blue | H |
And cuckoo flowers all sweet to view | H |
Thy wild woad on each road we see | A |
And medicinal betony | Z |
By thy woodside railing reeves | A2 |
With antique mullein's flannel leaves | A2 |
These though mean the flowers of waste | A |
Planted here in nature's haste | A |
Display to the discerning eye | B2 |
Her loved wild variety | A |
Each has charms in nature's book | C2 |
I cannot pass without a look | C2 |
And thou hast fragrant herbs and seed | A |
Which only garden's culture need | A |
Thy horehound tufts I love them well | D2 |
And ploughman's spikenard's spicy smell | D2 |
Thy thyme strong scented 'neath one's feet | A |
Thy marjoram beds so doubly sweet | A |
And pennyroyals creeping twine | Z |
These each succeeding each are thine | Z |
Spreading o'er thee wild and gay | E2 |
Blessing spring or summer's day | E2 |
As herb flower weed adorn thy scene | Z |
Pleas'd I seek thee Cowper Green | Z |
- | |
And I oft zigzag me round | A |
Thy uneven heathy ground | A |
Here a knoll and there a scoop | F2 |
Jostling down and clambering up | G2 |
Which the sandman's delving spade | A |
And the pitman's pix have made | A |
Though many a year has o'er thee roll'd | A |
Since the grass first hid the mold | A |
And many a hole has delv'd thee still | Q |
Since peace cloth'd each mimic hill | Q |
Where the pitmen often find | A |
Antique coins of various kind | A |
And 'neath many a loosen'd block | H2 |
Unlid coffins in the rock | H2 |
Casting up the skull and bone | Z |
Heedless as one hurls a stone | Z |
Not a thought of battles by | B2 |
Bloody times of chivalry | A |
When each country's kingly lord | A |
'Gainst his neighbour drew his sword | A |
And on many a hidden scene | Z |
Now a hamlet field or green | Z |
Waged his little bloody fight | A |
To keep his freedom and his right | A |
And doubtless such was once the scene | Z |
Of thee time shrouded Cowper Green | Z |
O how I love a glimpse to see | A |
Of hoary bald antiquity | A |
And often in my musings sigh | B2 |
Where'er such relics meet my eye | B2 |
To think that history's early page | I2 |
Should yield to black oblivion's rage | I2 |
And e'en without a mention made | A |
Resign them to his deadly shade | A |
Leaving conjecture but to pause | J2 |
That such and such might be the cause | K2 |
- | |
'Tis sweet the fragments to explore | O |
Time's so kind to keep in store | O |
Wrecks the cow boy often meets | L2 |
On the mole hills' thymy seats | L2 |
When by careless pulling weeds | M2 |
Chance unbares the shining beads | M2 |
That to tasteful minds display | E2 |
Relics of the Druid day | E2 |
Opening on conjecturing eyes | N2 |
Some lone hermit's paradise | O2 |
Doubtless oft as here it might | A |
Where such relics meet the sight | A |
On that self same spot of ground | A |
Where the cowboy's beads are found | A |
Hermits fled from worldly care | C |
May have moss'd a cottage there | C |
Liv'd on herbs that there abound | A |
Food and physic doubly found | A |
Herbs that have existence still | Q |
In every vale on every hill | Q |
Whose virtues only in them died | A |
As rural life gave way to pride | A |
Doubtless too oblivion's blot | A |
Blacks some sacred lonely spot | A |
As Cowper Green in thee it may | E2 |
That once was thine in later day | E2 |
Thou mightst hide thy pilgrim then | Z |
From the plague of worldly men | Z |
Thou mightst here possess thy cells | P2 |
Wholesome herbs and pilgrim wells | P2 |
And doubtlessly this very seat | A |
This thyme capt hill beneath one's feet | A |
Might be or nearly so the spot | A |
On which arose his lonely cot | A |
And on that existing bank | Q2 |
Clothed in its sedges rank | Q2 |
Grass might grow and mosses spread | A |
That thatch'd his roof and made his bed | A |
Yes such might be and such l love | R2 |
To think and fancy as I rove | S2 |
O'er thy wood encircled hill | Q |
Like a world shunning pilgrim still | Q |
- | |
Now the dew mists faster fall | T2 |
And the night her gloomy pall | U2 |
Black'ning flings 'tween earth and sky | B2 |
Hiding all things from the eye | B2 |
Nor broken seam nor thin spun screen | Z |
The moon can find to peep between | Z |
Now thy unmolested grass | V2 |
Untouch'd even by the ass | V2 |
Spindled up its destin'd height | A |
Far too sour for sheep to bite | A |
Drooping hangs each feeble joint | A |
With a glass nob on its point | A |
Fancy now shall leave the scene | Z |
And bid good night to Cowper Green | Z |
John Clare
(1)
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