The Pleasures Of Imagination: Book The First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST UVWXYZA2PB2N HC2D2E2EF2G2H2NI2J2K 2L2M2N2O2NP2I2Q2R2S2 FT2I2 U2IV2W2X2Y2Z2I2A3QNY 2Z2B3C3C3D3G2AE3C3FN PF3G3C3H3I3ESJ3K3NHC 3I2L3M3C3N3C3AO3C3C3 C3CP3C3Q3R3V2 C3S3GOC3NC3FP3C3AT3U 3GC3HV3W3X3A2Y3V2Z3C 3S3P2M2A4A2B4 CQAC4C3C3D4E4F4G4M3G C3C3PAH4FW2C3I4C3J4H K4C3C3L4M4NC3N4MC3O4 L4B4APY3K3C3G4P4U3GQ 4R4With what attractive charms this goodly frame | A |
Of nature touches the consenting hearts | B |
Of mortal men and what the pleasing stores | C |
Which beauteous imitation thence derives | D |
To deck the poet's or the painter's toil | E |
My verse unfolds Attend ye gentle powers | F |
Of musical delight and while i sing | G |
Your gifts your honours dance around my strain | H |
Thou smiling queen of every tuneful breast | I |
Indulgent Fancy from the fruitful banks | J |
Of Avon whence thy rosy fingers cull | K |
Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf | L |
Where Shakespeare lies be present and with thee | M |
Let Fiction come upon her vagrant wings | N |
Wafting ten thousand colours through the air | O |
Which by the glances of her magic eye | P |
She blends and shifts at will through countless forms | Q |
Her wild creation Goddess of the lyre | R |
Which rules the accents of the moving sphere | S |
Wilt thou eternal Harmony descend | T |
And join this festive train for with thee comes | U |
The guide the guardian of their lovely sports | V |
Majestic Truth and where Truth deigns to come | W |
Her sister Liberty will not be far | X |
Be present all ye Genii who conduct | Y |
The wandering footsteps of the youthful bard | Z |
New to your springs and shades who touch his ear | A2 |
With finer sounds who heighten to his eye | P |
The bloom of nature and before him turn | B2 |
The gayest happiest attitude of things | N |
- | |
Oft have the laws of each poetic strain | H |
The critic verse imploy'd yet still unsung | C2 |
Lay this prime subject though importing most | D2 |
A poet's name for fruitless is the attempt | E2 |
By dull obedience and by creeping toil | E |
Obscure to conquer the severe ascent | F2 |
Of high Parnassus Nature's kindling breath | G2 |
Must fire the chosen genius nature's hand | H2 |
Must string his nerves and imp his eagle wings | N |
Impatient of the painful steep to soar | I2 |
High as the summit there to breathe at large | J2 |
thereal air with bards and sages old | K2 |
Immortal sons of praise These flattering scenes | L2 |
To this neglected labour court my song | M2 |
Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task | N2 |
To paint the finest features of the mind | O2 |
And to most subtile and mysterious things | N |
Give colour strength and motion But the love | P2 |
Of nature and the muses bids explore | I2 |
Through secret paths erewhile untrod by man | Q2 |
The fair poetic region to detect | R2 |
Untasted springs to drink inspiring draughts | S2 |
And shade my temples with unfading flowers | F |
Cull'd from the laureate vale's profound recess | T2 |
Where never poet gain'd a wreath before | I2 |
- | |
From heaven my strains begin from heaven descends | U2 |
The flame of genius to the human breast | I |
And love and beauty and poetic joy | V2 |
And inspiration Ere the radiant sun | W2 |
Sprang from the east or 'mid the vault of night | X2 |
The moon suspended her serener lamp | Y2 |
Ere mountains woods or streams adorn'd the globe | Z2 |
Or wisdom taught the sons of men her lore | I2 |
Then liv'd the almighty One then deep retir'd | A3 |
In his unfathom'd essence view'd the forms | Q |
The forms eternal of created things | N |
The radiant sun the moon's nocturnal lamp | Y2 |
The mountains woods and streams the rowling globe | Z2 |
And wisdom's mien celestial From the first | B3 |
Of days on them his love divine he fix'd | C3 |
His admiration till in time compleat | C3 |
What he admir'd and lov'd his vital smile | D3 |
Unfolded into being Hence the breath | G2 |
Of life informing each organic frame | A |
Hence the green earth and wild resounding waves | E3 |
Hence light and shade alternate warmth and cold | C3 |
And clear autumnal skies and vernal showers | F |
And all the fair variety of things | N |
- | |
But not alike to every mortal eye | P |
Is this great scene unveil'd For since the claims | F3 |
Of social life to different labours urge | G3 |
The active powers of man with wise intent | C3 |
The hand of nature on peculiar minds | H3 |
Imprints a different byass and to each | I3 |
Decrees its province in the common toil | E |
To some she taught the fabric of the sphere | S |
The changeful moon the circuit of the stars | J3 |
The golden zones of heaven to some she gave | K3 |
To weigh the moment of eternal things | N |
Of time and space and fate's unbroken chain | H |
And will's quick impulse others by the hand | C3 |
She led o'er vales and mountains to explore | I2 |
What healing virtue swells the tender veins | L3 |
Of herbs and flowers or what the beams of morn | M3 |
Draw forth distilling from the clifted rind | C3 |
In balmy tears But some to higher hopes | N3 |
Were destin'd some within a finer mould | C3 |
She wrought and temper'd with a purer flame | A |
To these the sire omnipotent unfolds | O3 |
The world's harmonious volume there to read | C3 |
The transcript of himself On every part | C3 |
They trace the bright impressions of his hand | C3 |
In earth or air the meadow's purple stores | C |
The moon's mild radiance or the virgin's form | P3 |
Blooming with rosy smiles they see portray'd | C3 |
That uncreated beauty which delights | Q3 |
The mind supreme They also feel her charms | R3 |
Enamour'd they partake the eternal joy | V2 |
- | |
For as old Memnon's image long renown'd | C3 |
By fabling Nilus to the quivering touch | S3 |
Of Titan's ray with each repulsive string | G |
Consenting sounded through the warbling air | O |
Unbidden strains even so did nature's hand | C3 |
To certain species of external things | N |
Attune the finer organs of the mind | C3 |
So the glad impulse of congenial powers | F |
Or of sweet sound or fair proportion'd form | P3 |
The grace of motion or the bloom of light | C3 |
Thrills through imagination's tender frame | A |
From nerve to nerve all naked and alive | T3 |
They catch the spreading rays till now the soul | U3 |
At length discloses every tuneful spring | G |
To that harmonious movement from without | C3 |
Responsive Then the inexpressive strain | H |
Diffuses its inchantment fancy dreams | V3 |
Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves | W3 |
And vales of bliss the intellectual power | X3 |
Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear | A2 |
And smiles the passions gently sooth'd away | Y3 |
Sink to divine repose and love and joy | V2 |
Alone are waking love and joy serene | Z3 |
As airs that fan the summer O attend | C3 |
Whoe'er thou art whom these delights can touch | S3 |
Whose candid bosom the refining love | P2 |
Of nature warms o listen to my song | M2 |
And i will guide thee to her favourite walks | A4 |
And teach thy solitude her voice to hear | A2 |
And point her loveliest features to thy view | B4 |
- | |
Know then whate'er of nature's pregnant stores | C |
Whate'er of mimic art's reflected forms | Q |
With love and admiration thus inflame | A |
The powers of fancy her delighted sons | C4 |
To three illustrious orders have referr'd | C3 |
Three sister graces whom the painter's hand | C3 |
The poet's tongue confesses the sublime | D4 |
The wonderful the fair I see them dawn | E4 |
I see the radiant visions where they rise | F4 |
More lovely than when Lucifer displays | G4 |
His beaming forehead through the gates of morn | M3 |
To lead the train of Ph bus and the spring | G |
- | |
Say why was man so eminently rais'd | C3 |
Amid the vast creation why ordain'd | C3 |
Through life and death to dart his piercing eye | P |
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame | A |
But that the omnipotent might send him forth | H4 |
In sight of mortal and immortal powers | F |
As on a boundless theatre to run | W2 |
The great career of justice to exalt | C3 |
His generous aim to all diviner deeds | I4 |
To chase each partial purpose from his breast | C3 |
And through the mists of passion and of sense | J4 |
And through the tossing tide of chance and pain | H |
To hold his course unfaultering while the voice | K4 |
Of truth and virtue up the steep ascent | C3 |
Of nature calls him to his high reward | C3 |
The applauding smile of heaven Else wherefore burns | L4 |
In mortal bosoms this unquenched hope | M4 |
That breathes from day to day sublimer things | N |
And mocks possession wherefore darts the mind | C3 |
With such resistless ardour to embrace | N4 |
Majestic forms impatient to be free | M |
Spurning the gross controul of wilful might | C3 |
Proud of the strong contention of her toils | O4 |
Proud to be daring Who but rather turns | L4 |
To heaven's broad fire his unconstrained view | B4 |
Than to the glimmering of a waxen flame | A |
Who that from Alpine heights his labouring eye | P |
Shoots round the wide horizon to survey | Y3 |
Nilus or Ganges rowling his bright wave | K3 |
Through mountains plains through empires black with shade | C3 |
And continents of sand will turn his gaze | G4 |
To mark the windings of a scanty rill | P4 |
That murmurs at his feet The high born soul | U3 |
Disdains to rest her heaven aspiring wing | G |
Beneath its native quarry Tir'd of earth | Q4 |
And th | R4 |
Mark Akenside
(1)
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