To A Friend Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A ABABBCBCC D EFEFFGFGG D HCHCCIJKK L MNONNPNPP L QRQSSTSTT L NUNUUJUCC L NVNWVXVXX L LYLYYZYZZ Y TA2TA2A2B2A2B2B2 Y C2YC2YYC2YC2C2 Y YYYYYYYYY Y YEYEED2ED2D2 Y YE2YE2E2F2E2F2F2 L BYBYYG2YG2G2| You damn me with faint praise | A |
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| Yes faint was my applause and cold my praise | A |
| Though soul was glowing in each polished line | B |
| But nobler subjects claim the poet's lays | A |
| A brighter glory waits a muse like thine | B |
| Let amorous fools in love sick measure pine | B |
| Let Strangford whimper on in fancied pain | C |
| And leave to Moore his rose leaves and his vine | B |
| Be thine the task a higher crown to gain | C |
| The envied wreath that decks the patriot's holy strain | C |
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| II | D |
| - | |
| Yet not in proud triumphal song alone | E |
| Or martial ode or sad sepulchral dirge | F |
| There needs no voice to make our glories known | E |
| There needs no voice the warrior's soul to urge | F |
| To tread the bounds of nature's stormy verge | F |
| Columbia still shall win the battle's prize | G |
| But be it thine to bid her mind emerge | F |
| To strike her harp until its soul arise | G |
| From the neglected shade where low in dust it lies | G |
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| III | D |
| - | |
| Are there no scenes to touch the poet's soul | H |
| No deeds of arms to wake the lordly strain | C |
| Shall Hudson's billows unregarded roll | H |
| Has Warren fought Montgomery died in vain | C |
| Shame that while every mountain stream and plain | C |
| Hath theme for truth's proud voice or fancy's wand | I |
| No native bard the patriot harp hath ta'en | J |
| But left to minstrels of a foreign strand | K |
| To sing the beauteous scenes of nature's loveliest land | K |
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| IV | L |
| - | |
| Oh for a seat on Appalachia's brow | M |
| That I might scan the glorious prospect round | N |
| Wild waving woods and rolling floods below | O |
| Smooth level glades and fields with grain embrown'd | N |
| High heaving hills with tufted forests crown'd | N |
| Rearing their tall tops to the heaven's blue dome | P |
| And emerald isles like banners green unwound | N |
| Floating along the lake while round them roam | P |
| Bright helms of billowy blue and plumes of dancing foam | P |
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| V | L |
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| 'Tis true no fairies haunt our verdant meads | Q |
| No grinning imps deform our blazing hearth | R |
| Beneath the kelpie's fang no traveller bleeds | Q |
| Nor gory vampyre taints our holy earth | S |
| Nor spectres stalk to frighten harmless mirth | S |
| Nor tortured demon howls adown the gale | T |
| Fair reason checks these monsters in their birth | S |
| Yet have we lay of love and horrid tale | T |
| Would dim the manliest eye and make the bravest pale | T |
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| VI | L |
| - | |
| Where is the stony eye that hath not shed | N |
| Compassion's heart drops o'er the sweet Mc Rea | U |
| Through midnight's wilds by savage bandits led | N |
| Her heart is sad her love is far away | U |
| Elate that lover waits the promised day | U |
| When he shall clasp his blooming bride again | J |
| Shine on sweet visions dreams of rapture play | U |
| Soon the cold corse of her he loved in vain | C |
| Shall blight his withered heart and fire his frenzied brain | C |
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| VII | L |
| - | |
| Romantic Wyoming could none be found | N |
| Of all that rove thy Eden groves among | V |
| To wake a native harp's untutored sound | N |
| And give thy tale of wo the voice of song | W |
| Oh if description's cold and nerveless tongue | V |
| From stranger harps such hallowed strains could call | X |
| How doubly sweet the descant wild had rung | V |
| From one who lingering round thy ruined wall | X |
| Had plucked thy mourning flowers and wept thy timeless fall | X |
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| VIII | L |
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| The Huron chief escaped from foemen nigh | L |
| His frail bark launches on Niagara's tides | Y |
| Pride in his port defiance in his eye | L |
| Singing his song of death the warrior glides | Y |
| In vain they yell along the river sides | Y |
| In vain the arrow from its sheaf is torn | Z |
| Calm to his doom the willing victim rides | Y |
| And till adown the roaring torrent borne | Z |
| Mocks them with gesture proud and laughs their rage to scorn | Z |
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| IX | Y |
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| But if the charms of daisied hill and vale | T |
| And rolling flood and towering rock sublime | A2 |
| If warrior deed or peasant's lowly tale | T |
| Of love or wo should fail to wake the rhyme | A2 |
| If to the wildest heights of song you climb | A2 |
| Tho' some who know you less might cry beware | B2 |
| Onward I say your strains shall conquer time | A2 |
| Give your bright genius wing and hope to share | B2 |
| Imagination's worlds the ocean earth and air | B2 |
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| X | Y |
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| Arouse my friend let vivid fancy soar | C2 |
| Look with creative eye on nature's face | Y |
| Bid airy sprites in wild Niagara roar | C2 |
| And view in every field a fairy race | Y |
| Spur thy good Pacolet to speed apace | Y |
| And spread a train of nymphs on every shore | C2 |
| Or if thy muse would woo a ruder grace | Y |
| The Indian's evil Manitou's explore | C2 |
| And rear the wondrous tale of legendary lore | C2 |
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| XI | Y |
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| Away to Susquehannah's utmost springs | Y |
| Where throned in mountain mist Areouski reigns | Y |
| Shrouding in lurid clouds his plumeless wings | Y |
| And sternly sorrowing o'er his tribes remains | Y |
| His was the arm like comet ere it wanes | Y |
| That tore the streamy lightnings from the skies | Y |
| And smote the mammoth of the southern plains | Y |
| Wild with dismay the Creek affrighted flies | Y |
| While in triumphant pride Kanawa's eagles rise | Y |
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| XII | Y |
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| Or westward far where dark Miami wends | Y |
| Seek that fair spot as yet to fame unknown | E |
| Where when the vesper dew of heaven descends | Y |
| Soft music breathes in many a melting tone | E |
| At times so sadly sweet it seems the moan | E |
| Of some poor Ariel penanced in the rock | D2 |
| Anon a louder burst a scream a groan | E |
| And now amid the tempest's reeling shock | D2 |
| Gibber and shriek and wail and fiend like laugh and mock | D2 |
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| XIII | Y |
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| Or climb the Pallisado's lofty brows | Y |
| Were dark Omana waged the war of hell | E2 |
| Till waked to wrath the mighty spirit rose | Y |
| And pent the demons in their prison cell | E2 |
| Full on their head the uprooted mountain fell | E2 |
| Enclosing all within its horrid womb | F2 |
| Straight from the teeming earth the waters swell | E2 |
| And pillared rocks arise in cheerless gloom | F2 |
| Around the drear abode their last eternal tomb | F2 |
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| XIV | L |
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| Be these your future themes no more resign | B |
| The soul of song to laud your lady's eyes | Y |
| Go kneel a worshipper at nature's shrine | B |
| For you her fields are green and fair her skies | Y |
| For you her rivers flow her hills arise | Y |
| And will you scorn them all to pour forth tame | G2 |
| And heartless lays of feigned or fancied sighs | Y |
| Still will you cloud the muse nor blush for shame | G2 |
| To cast away renown and hide your head from fame | G2 |
Joseph Rodman Drake
(1)
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