At Lenno Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBB CCCDDD EEEAAA FFFGHG IIIJJJ KKKLLM NNNOOO AAABBBBy Lake Como's sylvan shore | A |
Where the wavelets evermore | A |
Seem to rhythmically murmur of the classic days of yore | A |
Cease O boatman now to row | B |
While the Alpine summits glow | B |
Let me dream that I am floating on the lake of long ago | B |
- | |
Where the Tremezzina ends | C |
And the bay of Lenno bends | C |
Till the shadow of the mountain to its placid wave descends | C |
On this strand of silver foam | D |
Stood the Younger Pliny's home | D |
When the world at last lay subject to the dominance of Rome | D |
- | |
Here he passed his sweetest hours | E |
'Mid his statues books and flowers | E |
With a life and list of pleasures not dissimilar to ours | E |
For the city's rush and roar | A |
Never reached this tranquil shore | A |
And his writings prove completely that he yearned for them no more | A |
- | |
Here as scholar poet sage | F |
He filled many a pliant page | F |
With the philosophic wisdom and refinement of his age | F |
And his letters to his peers | G |
Through a life of smiles and tears | H |
Make me often quite forgetful of the intervening years | G |
- | |
For the beauty of the bay | I |
And the magical display | I |
Of its coronet of mountains have not altered since his day | I |
And the lake of which he wrote | J |
At that epoch so remote | J |
With the same caressing murmur laps my undulating boat | J |
- | |
Hence the subtle tender spell | K |
Of the place he loved so well | K |
Holds me captive and enchanted as these waters gently swell | K |
And a vague and nameless pain | L |
Makes me long for though in vain | L |
That delightful classic era which will never come again | M |
- | |
Since the Goths' invading tide | N |
Wrecked Rome's potency and pride | N |
Something wonderful has vanished something exquisite has died | N |
And in spite of modern fame | O |
And the lustre of its name | O |
Even beautiful Lake Como can be never quite the same | O |
- | |
So beside its sylvan shore | A |
Where the wavelets evermore | A |
Seem to rythmically murmur of the classic days of yore | A |
Cease O boatman now to row | B |
For while Alpine summits glow | B |
I would dream that I am floating on the lake of long ago | B |
John L. Stoddard
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about At Lenno poem by John L. Stoddard
Best Poems of John L. Stoddard