To Charles Cowden Clarke Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ GGKLLLLLMMJJNNOOOPPQ QRRMMGGQQSSTTQQMMUUG GVVWWAAGGXXQQUUYYUUA AIIUUUULLUUBBBZZUUU QQLLQQQQA2A2A2A2AAUU A2A2A2A2A2A2LLQQUUB2 A2A2Oft have you seen a swan superbly frowning | A |
And with proud breast his own white shadow crowning | A |
He slants his neck beneath the waters bright | B |
So silently it seems a beam of light | B |
Come from the galaxy anon he sports | C |
With outspread wings the Naiad Zephyr courts | C |
Or ruffles all the surface of the lake | D |
In striving from its crystal face to take | D |
Some diamond water drops and them to treasure | E |
In milky nest and sip them off at leisure | E |
But not a moment can he there insure them | F |
Nor to such downy rest can he allure them | F |
For down they rush as though they would be free | G |
And drop like hours into eternity | G |
Just like that bird am I in loss of time | H |
Whene'er I venture on the stream of rhyme | H |
With shatter'd boat oar snapt and canvass rent | I |
I slowly sail scarce knowing my intent | I |
Still scooping up the water with my fingers | J |
In which a trembling diamond never lingers | J |
- | |
By this friend Charles you may full plainly see | G |
Why I have never penn d a line to thee | G |
Because my thoughts were never free and clear | K |
And little fit to please a classic ear | L |
Because my wine was of too poor a savour | L |
For one whose palate gladdens in the flavour | L |
Of sparkling Helicon small good it were | L |
To take him to a desert rude and bare | L |
Who had on Baiae's shore reclin'd at ease | M |
While Tasso's page was floating in a breeze | M |
That gave soft music from Armida's bowers | J |
Mingled with fragrance from her rarest flowers | J |
Small good to one who had by Mulla's stream | N |
Fondled the maidens with the breasts of cream | N |
Who had beheld Belphoebe in a brook | O |
And lovely Una in a leafy nook | O |
And Archimago leaning o'er his book | O |
Who had of all that's sweet tasted and seen | P |
From silv'ry ripple up to beauty's queen | P |
From the sequester'd haunts of gay Titania | Q |
To the blue dwelling of divine Urania | Q |
One who of late had ta'en sweet forest walks | R |
With him who elegantly chats and talks | R |
The wrong'd Libertas who has told you stories | M |
Of laurel chaplets and Apollo s glories | M |
Of troops chivalrous prancing through a city | G |
And tearful ladies made for love and pity | G |
With many else which I have never known | Q |
Thus have I thought and days on days have flown | Q |
Slowly or rapidly unwilling still | S |
For you to try my dull unlearned quill | S |
Nor should I now but that I've known you long | T |
That you first taught me all the sweets of song | T |
The grand the sweet the terse the free the fine | Q |
What swell'd with pathos and what right divine | Q |
Spenserian vowels that elope with ease | M |
And float along like birds o'er summer seas | M |
Miltonian storms and more Miltonian tenderness | U |
Michael in arms and more meek Eve s fair slenderness | U |
Who read for me the sonnet swelling loudly | G |
Up to its climax and then dying proudly | G |
Who found for me the grandeur of the ode | V |
Growing like Atlas stronger from its load | V |
Who let me taste that more than cordial dram | W |
The sharp the rapier pointed epigram | W |
Shew'd me that epic was of all the king | A |
Round vast and spanning all like Saturn's ring | A |
You too upheld the veil from Clio's beauty | G |
And pointed out the patriot's stern duty | G |
The might of Alfred and the shaft of Tell | X |
The hand of Brutus that so grandly fell | X |
Upon a tyrant's head Ah had I never seen | Q |
Or known your kindness what might I have been | Q |
What my enjoyments in my youthful years | U |
Bereft of all that now my life endears | U |
And can I e'er these benefits forget | Y |
And can I e'er repay the friendly debt | Y |
No doubly no yet should these rhymings please | U |
I shall roll on the grass with two fold ease | U |
For I have long time been my fancy feeding | A |
With hopes that you would one day think the reading | A |
Of my rough verses not an hour mis s pent | I |
Should it e'er be so what a rich content | I |
Some weeks have pass'd since last I saw the spires | U |
In lucent Thames reflected warm desires | U |
To see the sun o'er peep the eastern dimness | U |
And morning shadows streaking into slimness | U |
Across the lawny fields and pebbly water | L |
To mark the time as they grow broad and shorter | L |
To feel the air that plays about the hills | U |
And sips its freshness from the little rills | U |
To see high golden corn wave in the light | B |
When Cynthia smiles upon a summer's night | B |
And peers among the cloudlet's jet and white | B |
As though she were reclining in a bed | Z |
Of bean blossoms in heaven freshly shed | Z |
No sooner had I stepp'd into these pleasures | U |
Than I began to think of rhymes and measures | U |
The air that floated by me seem d to say | U |
'Write thou wilt never have a better day ' | - |
And so I did When many lines I d written | Q |
Though with their grace I was not oversmitten | Q |
Yet as my hand was warm I thought I d better | L |
Trust to my feelings and write you a letter | L |
Such an attempt required an inspiration | Q |
Of a peculiar sort a consummation | Q |
Which had I felt these scribblings might have been | Q |
Verses from which the soul would never wean | Q |
But many days have past since last my heart | A2 |
Was warm d luxuriously by divine Mozart | A2 |
By Arne delighted or by Handel madden'd | A2 |
Or by the song of Erin pierc d and sadden'd | A2 |
What time you were before the music sitting | A |
And the rich notes to each sensation fitting | A |
Since I have walk'd with you through shady lanes | U |
That freshly terminate in open plains | U |
And revel'd in a chat that ceased not | A2 |
When at night fall among your books we got | A2 |
No nor when supper came nor after that | A2 |
Nor when reluctantly I took my hat | A2 |
No nor till cordially you shook my hand | A2 |
Mid way between our homes your accents bland | A2 |
Still sounded in my ears when I no more | L |
Could hear your footsteps touch the grav ly floor | L |
Sometimes I lost them and then found again | Q |
You chang'd the footpath for the grassy plain | Q |
In those still moments I have wish'd you joys | U |
That well you know to honour 'Life's very toys | U |
'With him ' said I 'will take a pleasant charm | B2 |
'It cannot be that ought will work him harm ' | - |
These thoughts now come o er me with all their might | A2 |
Again I shake your hand friend Charles good night | A2 |
John Keats
(1)
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