Sleep And Poetry Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABC CCCCDDBBBBBBBBBBBB EEFFAAEECCDDGGDDAABB BB HHIIAA JKLLDDJKGGMMIIGGDDDD AABBCCCCAABBAABBBB AANNOOPPGGQ QAABBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAB BOOAAR RSSTTTTBBBBAABBTTBBN NTTUUBBBBAAOO AADDVVWAWXXBBYYDDOOB BAAATAs I lay in my bed slepe full unmete | A |
Was unto me but why that I ne might | A |
Rest I ne wist for there n'as erthly wight | A |
As I suppose had more of hertis ese | B |
Than I for I n'ad sicknesse nor disese Chaucer | C |
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What is more gentle than a wind in summer | C |
What is more soothing than the pretty hummer | C |
That stays one moment in an open flower | C |
And buzzes cheerily from bower to bower | C |
What is more tranquil than a musk rose blowing | D |
In a green island far from all men's knowing | D |
More healthful than the leafiness of dales | B |
More secret than a nest of nightingales | B |
More serene than Cordelia's countenance | B |
More full of visions than a high romance | B |
What but thee Sleep Soft closer of our eyes | B |
Low murmurer of tender lullabies | B |
Light hoverer around our happy pillows | B |
Wreather of poppy buds and weeping willows | B |
Silent entangler of a beauty's tresses | B |
Most happy listener when the morning blesses | B |
Thee for enlivening all the cheerful eyes | B |
That glance so brightly at the new sun rise | B |
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But what is higher beyond thought than thee | E |
Fresher than berries of a mountain tree | E |
More strange more beautiful more smooth more regal | F |
Than wings of swans than doves than dim seen eagle | F |
What is it And to what shall I compare it | A |
It has a glory and naught else can share it | A |
The thought thereof is awful sweet and holy | E |
Chasing away all worldliness and folly | E |
Coming sometimes like fearful claps of thunder | C |
Or the low rumblings earth's regions under | C |
And sometimes like a gentle whispering | D |
Of all the secrets of some wond'rous thing | D |
That breathes about us in the vacant air | G |
So that we look around with prying stare | G |
Perhaps to see shapes of light aerial limning | D |
And catch soft floatings from a faint heard hymning | D |
To see the laurel wreath on high suspended | A |
That is to crown our name when life is ended | A |
Sometimes it gives a glory to the voice | B |
And from the heart up springs rejoice rejoice | B |
Sounds which will reach the Framer of all things | B |
And die away in ardent mutterings | B |
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No one who once the glorious sun has seen | H |
And all the clouds and felt his bosom clean | H |
For his great Maker's presence but must know | I |
What 'tis I mean and feel his being glow | I |
Therefore no insult will I give his spirit | A |
By telling what he sees from native merit | A |
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O Poesy for thee I hold my pen | J |
That am not yet a glorious denizen | K |
Of thy wide heaven Should I rather kneel | L |
Upon some mountain top until I feel | L |
A glowing splendour round about me hung | D |
And echo back the voice of thine own tongue | D |
O Poesy for thee I grasp my pen | J |
That am not yet a glorious denizen | K |
Of thy wide heaven yet to my ardent prayer | G |
Yield from thy sanctuary some clear air | G |
Smooth'd for intoxication by the breath | M |
Of flowering bays that I may die a death | M |
Of luxury and my young spirit follow | I |
The morning sun beams to the great Apollo | I |
Like a fresh sacrifice or if I can bear | G |
The o'erwhelming sweets 'twill bring to me the fair | G |
Visions of all places a bowery nook | D |
Will be elysium an eternal book | D |
Whence I may copy many a lovely saying | D |
About the leaves and flowers about the playing | D |
Of nymphs in woods and fountains and the shade | A |
Keeping a silence round a sleeping maid | A |
And many a verse from so strange influence | B |
That we must ever wonder how and whence | B |
It came Also imaginings will hover | C |
Round my fire side and haply there discover | C |
Vistas of solemn beauty where I'd wander | C |
In happy silence like the clear Meander | C |
Through its lone vales and where I found a spot | A |
Of awfuller shade or an enchanted grot | A |
Or a green hill o'erspread with chequer'd dress | B |
Of flowers and fearful from its loveliness | B |
Write on my tablets all that was permitted | A |
All that was for our human senses fitted | A |
Then the events of this wide world I'd seize | B |
Like a strong giant and my spirit teaze | B |
Till at its shoulders it should proudly see | B |
Wings to find out an immortality | B |
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Stop and consider life is but a day | A |
A fragile dew drop on its perilous way | A |
From a tree's summit a poor Indian's sleep | N |
While his boat hastens to the monstrous steep | N |
Of Montmorenci Why so sad a moan | O |
Life is the rose's hope while yet unblown | O |
The reading of an ever changing tale | P |
The light uplifting of a maiden's veil | P |
A pigeon tumbling in clear summer air | G |
A laughing school boy without grief or care | G |
Riding the springy branches of an elm | Q |
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O for ten years that I may overwhelm | Q |
Myself in poesy so I may do the deed | A |
That my own soul has to itself decreed | A |
Then will I pass the countries that I see | B |
In long perspective and continually | B |
Taste their pure fountains First the realm I'll pass | B |
Of Flora and old Pan sleep in the grass | B |
Feed upon apples red and strawberries | B |
And choose each pleasure that my fancy sees | B |
Catch the white handed nymphs in shady places | B |
To woo sweet kisses from averted faces | B |
Play with their fingers touch their shoulders white | A |
Into a pretty shrinking with a bite | A |
As hard as lips can make it till agreed | A |
A lovely tale of human life we'll read | A |
And one will teach a tame dove how it best | A |
May fan the cool air gently o'er my rest | A |
Another bending o'er her nimble tread | A |
Will set a green robe floating round her head | A |
And still will dance with ever varied ease | B |
Smiling upon the flowers and the trees | B |
Another will entice me on and on | O |
Through almond blossoms and rich cinnamon | O |
Till in the bosom of a leafy world | A |
We rest in silence like two gems upcurl'd | A |
In the recesses of a pearly shell | R |
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And can I ever bid these joys farewell | R |
Yes I must pass them for a nobler life | S |
Where I may find the agonies the strife | S |
Of human hearts for lo I see afar | T |
O'ersailing the blue cragginess a car | T |
And steeds with streamy manes the charioteer | T |
Looks out upon the winds with glorious fear | T |
And now the numerous tramplings quiver lightly | B |
Along a huge cloud's ridge and now with sprightly | B |
Wheel downward come they into fresher skies | B |
Tipt round with silver from the sun's bright eyes | B |
Still downward with capacious whirl they glide | A |
And now I see them on the green hill's side | A |
In breezy rest among the nodding stalks | B |
The charioteer with wond'rous gesture talks | B |
To the trees and mountains and there soon appear | T |
Shapes of delight of mystery and fear | T |
Passing along before a dusky space | B |
Made by some mighty oaks as they would chase | B |
Some ever fleeting music on they sweep | N |
Lo how they murmur laugh and smile and weep | N |
Some with upholden hand and mouth severe | T |
Some with their faces muffled to the ear | T |
Between their arms some clear in youthful bloom | U |
Go glad and smilingly athwart the gloom | U |
Some looking back and some with upward gaze | B |
Yes thousands in a thousand different ways | B |
Flit onward now a lovely wreath of girls | B |
Dancing their sleek hair into tangled curls | B |
And now broad wings Most awfully intent | A |
The driver of those steeds is forward bent | A |
And seems to listen O that I might know | O |
All that he writes with such a hurrying glow | O |
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The visions all are fled the car is fled | A |
Into the light of heaven and in their stead | A |
A sense of real things comes doubly strong | D |
And like a muddy stream would bear along | D |
My soul to nothingness but I will strive | V |
Against all doubtings and will keep alive | V |
The thought of that same chariot and the strange | W |
Journey it went | A |
Is there so small a range | W |
In the present strength of manhood that the high | X |
Imagination cannot freely fly | X |
As she was wont of old prepare her steeds | B |
Paw up against the light and do strange deeds | B |
Upon the clouds Has she not shown us all | Y |
From the clear space of ether to the small | Y |
Breath of new buds unfolding From the meaning | D |
Of Jove's large eye brow to the tender greening | D |
Of April meadows Here her altar shone | O |
E'en in this isle and who could paragon | O |
The fervid choir that lifted up a noise | B |
Of harmony to where it aye will poise | B |
Its mighty self of convoluting sound | A |
Huge as a planet and like that roll round | A |
Eternally around a dizzy void | A |
Ay in those days the Muses were | T |
John Keats
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