The Pleasures Of Imagination: Book The Second Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLGMNOPQRS TM UVWXUYZA2GB2GC2D2GGZ ZE2 ZF2G2GZLWGZG2ZH2I2ZB 2J2ZGGNGZLGK2L2B2ZM2 GA2ZN2O2ZSP2GGQ2ZN2 LZZUAH2ZGYZR2LW EN2S2EI2T2GZGU2GV2UZ GGW2YX2Y2I2GZS A2ZS2P2GZZZ2I2ZJ2MQZ G A3X2ZZGGGB3S2ZC3V2ZZ D3ZZE3Z ZE2ZZZZSA3ZGB2F3GZGU LJ2GYC2G3H3GZZZS2ZYWhen shall the laurel and the vocal string | A |
Resume their honours When shall we behold | B |
The tuneful tongue the Prometh an hand | C |
Aspire to ancient praise Alas how faint | D |
How slow the dawn of beauty and of truth | E |
Breaks the reluctant shades of Gothic night | F |
Which yet involve the nations Long they groan'd | G |
Beneath the furies of rapacious force | H |
Oft as the gloomy north with iron swarms | I |
Tempestuous pouring from her frozen caves | J |
Blasted the Italian shore and swept the works | K |
Of liberty and wisdom down the gulph | L |
Of all devouring night As long immur'd | G |
In noon tide darkness by the glimmering lamp | M |
Each muse and each fair science pin'd away | N |
The sordid hours while foul barbarian hands | O |
Their mysteries profan'd unstrung the lyre | P |
And chain'd the soaring pinion down to earth | Q |
At last the muses rose and spurn'd their bonds | R |
And wildly warbling scatter'd as they flew | S |
Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa's bowers | T |
Arno's myrtle border and the shore of soft Parthenope | M |
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But still the rage of dire ambition and gigantic power | U |
From public aims and from the busy walk | V |
Of civil commerce drove the bolder train | W |
Of penetrating science to the cells | X |
Where studious ease consumes the silent hour | U |
In shadowy searches and unfruitful care | Y |
Thus from their guardians torn the tender arts | Z |
Of mimic fancy and harmonious joy | A2 |
To priestly domination and the lust | G |
Of lawless courts their amiable toil | B2 |
For three inglorious ages have resign'd | G |
In vain reluctant and Torquato's tongue | C2 |
Was tun'd for slavish p ans at the throne | D2 |
Of tinsel pomp and Raphael's magic hand | G |
Effus'd its fair creation to enchant | G |
The fond adoring herd in Latian fanes | Z |
To blind belief while on their prostrate necks | Z |
The sable tyrant plants his heel secure | E2 |
- | |
But now behold the radiant ra dawns | Z |
When freedom's ample fabric fix'd at length | F2 |
For endless years on Albion's happy shore | G2 |
In full proportion once more shall extend | G |
To all the kindred powers of social bliss | Z |
A common mansion a parental roof | L |
There shall the virtues there shall wisdom's train | W |
Their long lost friends rejoining as of old | G |
Embrace the smiling family of arts | Z |
The muses and the graces Then no more | G2 |
Shall vice distracting their delicious gifts | Z |
To aims abhorr'd with high distaste and scorn | H2 |
Turn from their charms the philosophic eye | I2 |
The patriot bosom then no more the paths | Z |
Of public care or intellectual toil | B2 |
Alone by footsteps haughty and severe | J2 |
In gloomy state be trod the harmonious Muse | Z |
And her persuasive sisters then shall plant | G |
Their sheltering laurels o'er the bleak ascent | G |
And scatter flowers along the rugged way | N |
Arm'd with the lyre already have we dar'd | G |
To pierce divine philosophy's retreats | Z |
And teach the Muse her lore already strove | L |
Their long divided honours to unite | G |
While tempering this deep argument we sang | K2 |
Of truth and beauty Now the same glad task | L2 |
Impends now urging our ambitious toil | B2 |
We hasten to recount the various springs | Z |
Of adventitious pleasure which adjoin | M2 |
Their grateful influence to the prime effect | G |
Of objects grand or beauteous and inlarge | A2 |
The complicated joy The sweets of sense | Z |
Do they not oft with kind accession flow | N2 |
To raise harmonious fancy's native charm | O2 |
So while we taste the fragrance of the rose | Z |
Glows not her blush the fairer While we view | S |
Amid the noontide walk a limpid rill | P2 |
Gush through the trickling herbage to the thirst | G |
Of summer yielding the delicious draught | G |
Of cool refreshment o'er the mossy brink | Q2 |
Shines not the surface clearer and the waves | Z |
With sweeter music murmur as they flow | N2 |
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Nor this alone the various lot of life | L |
Oft from external circumstance assumes | Z |
A moment's disposition to rejoice | Z |
In those delights which at a different hour | U |
Would pass unheeded Fair the face of spring | A |
When rural songs and odours wake the morn | H2 |
To every eye but how much more to his | Z |
Round whom the bed of sickness long diffus'd | G |
Its melancholy gloom how doubly fair | Y |
When first with fresh born vigour he inhales | Z |
The balmy breeze and feels the blessed sun | R2 |
Warm at his bosom from the springs of life | L |
Chasing oppressive damps and languid pain | W |
- | |
Or shall i mention where c lestial truth | E |
Her awful light discloses to bestow | N2 |
A more majestic pomp on beauty's frame | S2 |
For man loves knowledge and the beams of truth | E |
More welcome touch his understanding's eye | I2 |
Than all the blandishments of sound his ear | T2 |
Than all of taste his tongue Nor ever yet | G |
The melting rainbow's vernal tinctur'd hues | Z |
To me have shone so pleasing as when first | G |
The hand of science pointed out the path | U2 |
In which the sun beams gleaming from the west | G |
Fall on the watry cloud whose darksome veil | V2 |
Involves the orient and that trickling shower | U |
Piercing through every crystalline convex | Z |
Of clustering dew drops to their flight oppos'd | G |
Recoil at length where concave all behind | G |
The internal surface of each glassy orb | W2 |
Repells their forward passage into air | Y |
That thence direct they seek the radiant goal | X2 |
From which their course began and as they strike | Y2 |
In different lines the gazer's obvious eye | I2 |
Assume a different lustre through the brede | G |
Of colours changing from the splendid rose | Z |
To the pale violet's dejected hue | S |
- | |
Or shall we touch that kind access of joy | A2 |
That springs to each fair object while we trace | Z |
Through all its fabric wisdom's artful aim | S2 |
Disposing every part and gaining still | P2 |
By means proportion'd her benignant end | G |
Speak ye the pure delight whose favour'd steps | Z |
The lamp of science through the jealous maze | Z |
Of nature guides when haply you reveal | Z2 |
Her secret honours whether in the sky | I2 |
The beauteous laws of light the central powers | Z |
That wheel the pensile planets round the year | J2 |
Whether in wonders of the rowling deep | M |
Or the rich fruits of all sustaining earth | Q |
Or fine adjusted springs of life and sense | Z |
Ye scan the counsels of their author's hand | G |
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What when to raise the meditated scene | A3 |
The flame of passion through the struggling soul | X2 |
Deep kindled shows across that sudden blaze | Z |
The object of its rapture vast of size | Z |
With fiercer colours and a night of shade | G |
What like a storm from their capacious bed | G |
The sounding seas o'erwhelming when the might | G |
Of these eruptions working from the depth | B3 |
Of man's strong apprehension shakes his frame | S2 |
Even to the base from every naked sense | Z |
Of pain or pleasure dissipating all | C3 |
Opinion's feeble coverings and the veil | V2 |
Spun from the cobweb fashion of the times | Z |
To hide the feeling heart Then nature speaks | Z |
Her genuine language and the words of men | D3 |
Big with the very motion of their souls | Z |
Declare with what accumulated force | Z |
The impetuous nerve of passion urges on | E3 |
The native weight and energy of things | Z |
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Yet more her honours where nor beauty claims | Z |
Nor shews of good the thirsty sense allure | E2 |
From passion's power alone our nature holds | Z |
Essential pleasure Passion's fierce illapse | Z |
Rouzes the mind's whole fabric with supplies | Z |
Of daily impulse keeps the elastic powers | Z |
Intensely poiz'd and polishes anew | S |
By that collision all the fine machine | A3 |
Else rust would rise and foulness by degrees | Z |
Incumbering choak at last what heaven design'd | G |
For ceaseless motion and a round of toil | B2 |
But say does every passion thus to man | F3 |
Administer delight That name indeed | G |
Becomes the rosy breath of love becomes | Z |
The radiant smiles of joy the applauding hand | G |
Of admiration but the bitter shower | U |
That sorrow sheds upon a brother's grave | L |
But the dumb palsy of nocturnal fear | J2 |
Or those consuming fires that gnaw the heart | G |
Of panting indignation find we there | Y |
To move delight Then listen while my tongue | C2 |
The unalter'd will of heaven with faithful awe | G3 |
Reveals what old Harmodius wont to teach | H3 |
My early age Harmodius who had weigh'd | G |
Within his learned mind whate'er the schools | Z |
Of wisdom or thy lonely whispering voice | Z |
O faithful nature dictate of the laws | Z |
Which govern and support this mighty frame | S2 |
Of universal being Oft the hours | Z |
Fr | Y |
Mark Akenside
(1)
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