To My Father. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGCCHICJCCKKCLM NOPKKKKQRSTCUVLWXPCY ZKA2CCCCZUCCKKKCB2CZ KKC2D2RMKKCFZKKCE2F2 CKCKG2ZCH2KCI2F2ICNJ 2KCCKK2KKCKZKL2KM2SK N2JO2ZCCP2KMZKCZQ2R2 CS2KZKC2K2J2ST2KKCCK KOKCU2UZCZZOV2Oh that Pieria's spring would thro' my breast | A |
Pour its inspiring influence and rush | B |
No rill but rather an o'erflowing flood | C |
That for my venerable Father's sake | D |
All meaner themes renounced my Muse on wings | E |
Of Duty borne might reach a loftier strain | F |
For thee my Father howsoe'er it please | G |
She frames this slender work nor know I aught | C |
That may thy gifts more suitably requite | C |
Though to requite them suitably would ask | H |
Returns much nobler and surpassing far | I |
The meagre stores of verbal gratitude | C |
But such as I possess I send thee all | J |
This page presents thee in their full amount | C |
With thy son's treasures and the sum is nought | C |
Naught save the riches that from airy dreams | K |
In secret grottos and in laurel bow'rs | K |
I have by golden Clio's gift acquir'd | C |
Verse is a work divine despise not thou | L |
Verse therefore which evinces nothing more | M |
Man's heav'nly source and which retaining still | N |
Some scintillations of Promethean fire | O |
Bespeaks him animated from above | P |
The Gods love verse the infernal Pow'rs themselves | K |
Confess the influence of verse which stirs | K |
The lowest Deep and binds in triple chains | K |
Of adamant both Pluto and the shades | K |
In verse the Delphic priestess and the pale | Q |
Tremulous Sybil make the Future known | R |
And He who sacrifices on the shrine | S |
Hangs verse both when he smites the threat'ning bull | T |
And when he spreads his reeking entrails wide | C |
To scrutinize the Fates envelop'd there | U |
We too ourselves what time we seek again | V |
Our native skies and one eternal Now | L |
Shall be the only measure of our Being | W |
Crown'd all with gold and chanting to the lyre | X |
Harmonious verse shall range the courts above | P |
And make the starry firmament resound | C |
And even now the fiery Spirit pure | Y |
That wheels yon circling orbs directs himself | Z |
Their mazy dance with melody of verse | K |
Unutt'rable immortal hearing which | A2 |
Huge Ophiuchus holds his hiss suppress'd | C |
Orion soften'd drops his ardent blade | C |
And Atlas stands unconscious of his load | C |
Verse graced of old the feasts of kings ere yet | C |
Luxurious dainties destin'd to the gulph | Z |
Immense of gluttony were known and ere | U |
Lyaeus deluged yet the temp'rate board | C |
Then sat the bard a customary guest | C |
To share the banquet and his length of locks | K |
With beechen honours bound proposed in verse | K |
The characters of Heroes and their deeds | K |
To imitation sang of Chaos old | C |
Of Nature's birth of Gods that crept in search | B2 |
Of acorns fall'n and of the thunderbolt | C |
Not yet produc'd from Aetna's fiery cave | Z |
And what avails at last tune without voice | K |
Devoid of matter Such may suit perhaps | K |
The rural dance but such was ne'er the song | C2 |
Of Orpheus whom the streams stood still to hear | D2 |
And the oaks follow'd Not by chords alone | R |
Well touch'd but by resistless accents more | M |
To sympathetic tears the Ghosts themselves | K |
He mov'd these praises to his verse he owes | K |
Nor Thou persist I pray thee still to slight | C |
The sacred Nine and to imagine vain | F |
And useless Pow'rs by whom inspir'd thyself | Z |
Art skillfill to associate verse with airs | K |
Harmonious and to give the human voice | K |
A thousand modulations heir by right | C |
Indisputable of Arion's fame | E2 |
Now say what wonder is it if a son | F2 |
Of thine delight in verse if so conjoin'd | C |
In close affinity we sympathize | K |
In social arts and kindred studies sweet | C |
Such distribution of himself to us | K |
Was Phoebus' choice thou hast thy gift and I | G2 |
Mine also and between us we receive | Z |
Father and son the whole inspiring God | C |
No Howsoe'er the semblance thou assume | H2 |
Of hate thou hatest not the gentle Muse | K |
My Father for thou never bad'st me tread | C |
The beaten path and broad that leads right on | I2 |
To opulence nor did'st condemn thy son | F2 |
To the insipid clamours of the bar | I |
To laws voluminous and ill observ'd | C |
But wishing to enrich me more to fill | N |
My mind with treasure led'st me far away | J2 |
From city din to deep retreats to banks | K |
And streams Aonian and with free consent | C |
Didst place me happy at Apollo's side | C |
I speak not now on more important themes | K |
Intent of common benefits and such | K2 |
As Nature bids but of thy larger gifts | K |
My Father who when I had open'd once | K |
The stores of Roman rhetoric and learn'd | C |
The full ton'd language of the eloquent Greeks | K |
Whose lofty music grac'd the lips of Jove | Z |
Thyself did'st counsel me to add the flow'rs | K |
That Gallia boasts those too with which the smooth | L2 |
Italian his degentrate speech adorns | K |
That witnesses his mixture with the Goth | M2 |
And Palestine's prophetic songs divine | S |
To sum the whole whate'er the Heav'n contains | K |
The Earth beneath it and the Air between | N2 |
The Rivers and the restless deep may all | J |
Prove intellectual gain to me my wish | O2 |
Concurring with thy will Science herself | Z |
All cloud removed inclines her beauteous head | C |
And offers me the lip if dull of heart | C |
I shrink not and decline her gracious boon | P2 |
Go now and gather dross ye sordid minds | K |
That covet it what could my Father more | M |
What more could Jove himself unless he gave | Z |
His own abode the heav'n in which he reigns | K |
More eligible gifts than these were not | C |
Apollo's to his son had they been safe | Z |
As they were insecure who made the boy | Q2 |
The world's vice luminary bade him rule | R2 |
The radiant chariot of the day and bind | C |
To his young brows his own all dazzling wreath | S2 |
I therefore although last and least my place | K |
Among the Learned in the laurel grove | Z |
Will hold and where the conqu'ror's ivy twines | K |
Henceforth exempt from th'unletter'd throng | C2 |
Profane nor even to be seen by such | K2 |
Away then sleepless Care Complaint away | J2 |
And Envy with thy jealous leer malign | S |
Nor let the monster Calumny shoot forth | T2 |
Her venom'd tongue at me Detested foes | K |
Ye all are impotent against my peace | K |
For I am privileged and bear my breast | C |
Safe and too high for your viperean wound | C |
But thou my Father since to render thanks | K |
Equivalent and to requite by deeds | K |
Thy liberality exceeds my power | O |
Sufffice it that I thus record thy gifts | K |
And bear them treasur'd in a grateful mind | C |
Ye too the favourite pastime of my youth | U2 |
My voluntary numbers if ye dare | U |
To hope longevity and to survive | Z |
Your master's funeral pile not soon absorb'd | C |
In the oblivious Lethaean gulph | Z |
Shall to Futurity perhaps convey | Z |
This theme and by these praises of my sire | O |
Improve the Fathers of a distant age | V2 |
John Milton
(1)
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