The Pleasures Of Imagination - The First Book - Poem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCBEFBBGHBIJKLMNB OPBQPRSTUVWBXYZA2BB2 C2D2E2 BF2LXG2W H2BI2J2K2L2M2N2BO2P2 BQ2BR2G2S2ABKT2U2BV2 M2BW2X2BCH2WH2Y2Z2BB A3B3BC3D3LE3BBBF3BG3 H3BBOBPI3BJ3YWT2K3BB BL3M3C3N3BFW XO3W2PP3Q3P2A2R3S3BT 3BJ3T3U3BC3V3C2BBJ3A BRBW3X3 BY3Z3BO3BFBBA4B4BC4B C4I3BI3L3X2D4Y2BBY3E 4F4G4LH4 J3I4ZJ4BK4L4M4PN4O4P 4Q4R4 BBXC3Z3P3S4BT4BDBU4T 3XV4S2W4H3A4X4BBK2FE 2Y4VBBO3RBBZ4BBG3XP4 S3BJ2CA4T3WWBQPX3B4N 2WXJ2Q3WWA2WWN2WOBWB J3BEBS3WQBBEWBC3A2A WWWBL2WA4E4AY2Y3WA2W CWPWBWC3GBS3BZ3WXWBW GC3BBWGGBC3BBBWBWY4H WWBWBGC3WBC3BWY4WGA4 JB4WBGWBGBGL2GBB4J3G F4C3GC3WZJ3BBC3GGLBG BP2GWBC3GWQF4BWGWWWG XWWWC3CL3R4CGGA4C3B4 BL3BB GBGL3GBC3GL3M2BWWBW4 BWWWBS3L3BBBL3WJ2WBB K4WS3WWGL3L3WJ2H4BGB BWB4L3WWBQGGWJ2WBGL3 F4H4WL3BBC3CBA4BC3GW J2G L3WWWBBWWWBBL3GWL3BW WWWCBBGA4BGBQBBWL3BY 4BA4BGL3J2GWBJ2BBBBB BBWWBWWBWBBGVBBWGBGG C3BA4WC3WBBBGBH4WGWB BC3B4C3GVWWBBWWWBS3W WBWGWGBS3P2CC3L3BGWW BL3 L3BWBWL3L3S3BL3GC3WW L3C3WBWQWGBC3WL3BBGL 3WWGWWGBL3 WWBWWGWC3GWBBBGC3GWW L3WWWM2BBWY4WBJ2Y4VW GBBWBM2WL3With what inchantment nature's goodly scene | A |
Attracts the sense of mortals how the mind | B |
For its own eye doth objects nobler still | C |
Prepare how men by various lessons learn | D |
To judge of beauty's praise what raptures fill | C |
The breast with fancy's native arts indow'd | B |
And what true culture guides it to renown | E |
My verse unfolds Ye gods or godlike powers | F |
Ye guardians of the sacred task attend | B |
Propitious Hand in hand around your bard | B |
Move in majestic measures leading on | G |
His doubtful step through many a solemn path | H |
Conscious of secrets which to human sight | B |
Ye only can reveal Be great in him | I |
And let your favor make him wise to speak | J |
Of all your wonderous empire with a voice | K |
So temper'd to his theme that those who hear | L |
May yield perpetual homage to yourselves | M |
Thou chief o daughter of eternal Love | N |
Whate'er thy name or Muse or Grace ador'd | B |
By Grecian prophets to the sons of heaven | O |
Known while with deep amazement thou dost there | P |
The perfect counsels read the ideas old | B |
Of thine omniscient father known on earth | Q |
By the still horror and the blissful tear | P |
With which thou seizest on the soul of man | R |
Thou chief Poetic Spirit from the banks | S |
Of Avon whence thy holy fingers cull | T |
Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf | U |
Where Shakespear lies be present and with thee | V |
Let Fiction come on her a rial wings | W |
Wafting ten thousand colors which in sport | B |
By the light glances of her magic eye | X |
She blends and shifts at will through countless forms | Y |
Her wild creation Goddess of the lyre | Z |
Whose awful tones controul the moving sphere | A2 |
Wilt thou eternal Harmony descend | B |
And join this happy train for with thee comes | B2 |
The guide the guardian of their mystic rites | C2 |
Wise Order and where Order deigns to come | D2 |
Her sister Liberty will not be far | E2 |
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Be present all ye Genii who conduct | B |
Of youthful bards the lonely wandering step | F2 |
New to your springs and shades who touch their ear | L |
With finer sounds and heighten to their eye | X |
The pomp of nature and before them place | G2 |
The fairest loftiest countenance of things | W |
- | |
Nor thou my Dyson to the lay refuse | H2 |
Thy wonted partial audience What though first | B |
In years unseason'd haply ere the sports | I2 |
Of childhood yet were o'er the adventurous lay | J2 |
With many splendid prospects many charms | K2 |
Allur'd my heart nor conscious whence they sprung | L2 |
Nor heedful of their end yet serious truth | M2 |
Her empire o'er the calm sequester'd theme | N2 |
Asserted soon while falsehood's evil brood | B |
Vice and deceitful pleasure she at once | O2 |
Excluded and my fancy's careless toil | P2 |
Drew to the better cause Maturer aid | B |
Thy friendship added in the paths of life | Q2 |
The busy paths my unaccustom'd feet | B |
Preserving nor to truth's recess divine | R2 |
Through this wide argument's unbeaten space | G2 |
Witholding surer guidance while by turns | S2 |
We trac'd the sages old or while the queen | A |
Of sciences whom manners and the mind | B |
Acknowledge to my true companion's voice | K |
Not unattentive o'er the wintry lamp | T2 |
Inclin'd her scepter favoring Now the fates | U2 |
Have other tasks impos'd to thee my friend | B |
The ministry of freedom and the faith | V2 |
Of popular decrees in early youth | M2 |
Not vainly they committed me they sent | B |
To wait on pain and silent arts to urge | W2 |
Inglorious not ignoble if my cares | X2 |
To such as languish on a grievous bed | B |
Ease and the sweet forgetfulness of ill | C |
Conciliate nor delightless if the Muse | H2 |
Her shades to visit and to taste her springs | W |
If some distinguish'd hours the bounteous Muse | H2 |
Impart and grant what she and she alone | Y2 |
Can grant to mortals that my hand those wreaths | Z2 |
Of fame and honest favor which the bless'd | B |
Wear in Elysium and which never felt | B |
The breath of envy or malignant tongues | A3 |
That these my hand for thee and for myself | B3 |
May gather Meanwhile o my faithful friend | B |
O early chosen ever found the same | C3 |
And trusted and belov'd once more the verse | D3 |
Long destin'd always obvious to thine ear | L |
Attend indulgent so in latest years | E3 |
When time thy head with honors shall have cloth'd | B |
Sacred to even virtue may thy mind | B |
Amid the calm review of seasons past | B |
Fair offices of friendship or kind peace | F3 |
Or public zeal may then thy mind well pleas'd | B |
Recall these happy studies of our prime | G3 |
- | |
From heaven my strains begin from heaven descends | H3 |
The flame of genius to the chosen breast | B |
And beauty with poetic wonder join'd | B |
And inspiration Ere the rising sun | O |
Shone o'er the deep or 'mid the vault of night | B |
The moon her silver lamp suspended ere | P |
The vales with springs were water'd or with groves | I3 |
Of oak or pine the ancient hills were crown'd | B |
Then the great spirit whom his works adore | J3 |
Within his own deep essence view'd the forms | Y |
The forms eternal of created things | W |
The radiant sun the moon's nocturnal lamp | T2 |
The mountains and the streams the ample stores | K3 |
Of earth of heaven of nature From the first | B |
On that full scene his love divine he fix'd | B |
His admiration till in time compleat | B |
What he admir'd and lov'd his vital power | L3 |
Unfolded into being Hence the breath | M3 |
Of life informing each organic frame | C3 |
Hence the green earth and wild resounding waves | N3 |
Hence light and shade alternate warmth and cold | B |
And bright autumnal skies and vernal showers | F |
And all the fair variety of things | W |
- | |
But not alike to every mortal eye | X |
Is this great scene unveil'd For while the claims | O3 |
Of social life to different labours urge | W2 |
The active powers of man with wisest care | P |
Hath nature on the multitude of minds | P3 |
Impress'd a various bias and to each | Q3 |
Decreed its province in the common toil | P2 |
To some she taught the fabric of the sphere | A2 |
The changeful moon the circuit of the stars | R3 |
The golden zones of heaven to some she gave | S3 |
To search the story of eternal thought | B |
Of space and time of fate's unbroken chain | T3 |
And will's quick movement others by the hand | B |
She led o'er vales and mountains to explore | J3 |
What healing virtue dwells in every vein | T3 |
Of herbs or trees But some to nobler hopes | U3 |
Were destin'd some within a finer mould | B |
She wrought and temper'd with a purer flame | C3 |
To these the sire omnipotent unfolds | V3 |
In fuller aspects and with fairer lights | C2 |
This picture of the world Through every part | B |
They trace the lofty sketches of his hand | B |
In earth or air the meadow's flowery store | J3 |
The moon's mild radiance or the virgin's mien | A |
Dress'd in attractive smiles they see portray'd | B |
As far as mortal eyes the portrait scan | R |
Those lineaments of beauty which delight | B |
The mind supreme They also feel their force | W3 |
Inamor'd they partake the eternal joy | X3 |
- | |
For as old Memnon's image long renown'd | B |
Through fabling Egypt at the genial touch | Y3 |
Of morning from its inmost frame sent forth | Z3 |
Spontaneous music so doth nature's hand | B |
To certain attributes which matter claims | O3 |
Adapt the finer organs of the mind | B |
So the glad impulse of those kindred powers | F |
Of form of colour's cheerful pomp of sound | B |
Melodious or of motion aptly sped | B |
Detains the inliven'd sense till soon the soul | A4 |
Feels the deep concord and assents through all | B4 |
Her functions Then the charm by fate prepar'd | B |
Diffuseth its inchantment fancy dreams | C4 |
Rapt into high discourse with prophets old | B |
And wandering through Elysium fancy dreams | C4 |
Of sacred fountains of o'ershadowing groves | I3 |
Whose walks with godlike harmony resound | B |
Fountains which Homer visits happy groves | I3 |
Where Milton dwells the intellectual power | L3 |
On the mind's throne suspends his graver cares | X2 |
And smiles the passions to divine repose | D4 |
Persuaded yield and love and joy alone | Y2 |
Are waking love and joy such as await | B |
An angel's meditation O attend | B |
Whoe'er thou art whom these delights can touch | Y3 |
Whom nature's aspect nature's simple garb | E4 |
Can thus command o listen to my song | F4 |
And I will guide thee to her blissful walks | G4 |
And teach thy solitude her voice to hear | L |
And point her gracious features to thy view | H4 |
- | |
Know then whate'er of the world's ancient store | J3 |
Whate'er of mimic art's reflected scenes | I4 |
With love and admiration thus inspire | Z |
Attentive fancy her delighted sons | J4 |
In two illustrious orders comprehend | B |
Self taught from him whose rustic toil the lark | K4 |
Cheers warbling to the bard whose daring thoughts | L4 |
Range the full orb of being still the form | M4 |
Which fancy worships or sublime or fair | P |
Her votaries proclaim I see them dawn | N4 |
I see the radiant visions where they rise | O4 |
More lovely than when Lucifer displays | P4 |
His glittering forehead through the gates of morn | Q4 |
To lead the train of Phoebus and the spring | R4 |
- | |
Say why was man so eminently rais'd | B |
Amid the vast creation why impower'd | B |
Through life and death to dart his watchful eye | X |
With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame | C3 |
But that the omnipotent might send him forth | Z3 |
In sight of angels and immortal minds | P3 |
As on an ample theatre to join | S4 |
In contest with his equals who shall best | B |
The task atchieve the course of noble toils | T4 |
By wisdom and by mercy preordain'd | B |
Might send him forth the sovran good to learn | D |
To chace each meaner purpose from his breast | B |
And through the mists of passion and of sense | U4 |
And through the pelting storms of chance and pain | T3 |
To hold strait on with constant heart and eye | X |
Still fix'd upon his everlasting palm | V4 |
The approving smile of heaven Else wherefore burns | S2 |
In mortal bosoms this unquenched hope | W4 |
That seeks from day to day sublimer ends | H3 |
Happy though restless Why departs the soul | A4 |
Wide from the track and journey of her times | X4 |
To grasp the good she knows not in the field | B |
Of things which may be in the spacious field | B |
Of science potent arts or dreadful arms | K2 |
To raise up scenes in which her own desires | F |
Contented may repose when things which are | E2 |
Pall on her temper like a twice told tale | Y4 |
Her temper still demanding to be free | V |
Spurning the rude controul of willful might | B |
Proud of her dangers brav'd her griefs indur'd | B |
Her strength severely prov'd To these high aims | O3 |
Which reason and affection prompt in man | R |
Not adverse nor unapt hath nature fram'd | B |
His bold imagination For amid | B |
The various forms which this full world presents | Z4 |
Like rivals to his choice what human breast | B |
E'er doubts before the transient and minute | B |
To prize the vast the stable the sublime | G3 |
Who that from heights a rial sends his eye | X |
Around a wild horizon and surveys | P4 |
Indus or Ganges rolling his broad wave | S3 |
Through mountains plains through spacious cities old | B |
And regions dark with woods will turn away | J2 |
To mark the path of some penurious rill | C |
Which murmureth at his feet Where does the soul | A4 |
Consent her soaring fancy to restrain | T3 |
Which bears her up as on an eagle's wings | W |
Destin'd for highest heaven or which of fate's | W |
Tremendous barriers shall confine her flight | B |
To any humbler quarry The rich earth | Q |
Cannot detain her nor the ambient air | P |
With all its changes For a while with joy | X3 |
She hovers o'er the sun and views the small | B4 |
Attendant orbs beneath his sacred beam | N2 |
Emerging from the deep like cluster'd isles | W |
Whose rocky shores to the glad sailor's eye | X |
Reflect the gleams of morning for a while | |
With pride she sees his firm paternal sway | J2 |
Bend the reluctant planets to move each | Q3 |
Round its perpetual year But soon she quits | W |
That prospect meditating loftier views | W |
She darts adventurous up the long career | A2 |
Of comets through the constellations holds | W |
Her course and now looks back on all the stars | W |
Whose blended flames as with a milky stream | N2 |
Part the blue region Empyrean tracts | W |
Where happy souls beyond this concave heaven | O |
Abide she then explores whence purer light | B |
For countless ages travels through the abyss | W |
Nor hath in sight of mortals yet arriv'd | B |
Upon the wide creation's utmost shore | J3 |
At length she stands and the dread space beyond | B |
Contemplates half recoiling nathless down | E |
The gloomy void astonish'd yet unquell'd | B |
She plungeth down the unfathomable gulph | S3 |
Where God alone hath being There her hopes | W |
Rest at the fated goal For from the birth | Q |
Of human kind the sovran maker said | B |
That not in humble nor in brief delight | B |
Not in the fleeting echos of renown | E |
Power's purple robes nor pleasure's flowery lap | |
The soul should find contentment but from these | W |
Turning disdainful to an equal good | B |
Through nature's opening walks inlarge her aim | C3 |
Till every bound at length should disappear | A2 |
And infinite perfection fill the scene | A |
- | |
But lo where beauty dress'd in gentler pomp | |
With comely steps advancing claims the verse | W |
Her charms inspire O beauty source of praise | W |
Of honour even to mute and lifeless things | W |
O thou that kindlest in each human heart | B |
Love and the wish of poets when their tongue | L2 |
Would teach to other bosoms what so charms | W |
Their own o child of nature and the soul | A4 |
In happiest hour brought forth the doubtful garb | E4 |
Of words of earthly language all too mean | A |
Too lowly I account in which to clothe | |
Thy form divine for thee the mind alone | Y2 |
Beholds nor half thy brightness can reveal | |
Through those dim organs whose corporeal touch | Y3 |
O'ershadoweth thy pure essence Yet my Muse | W |
If fortune call thee to the task wait thou | |
Thy favorable seasons then while fear | A2 |
And doubt are absent through wide nature's bounds | W |
Expatiate with glad step and choose at will | C |
Whate'er bright spoils the florid earth contains | W |
Whate'er the waters or the liquid air | P |
To manifest unblemish'd beauty's praise | W |
And o'er the breasts of mortals to extend | B |
Her gracious empire Wilt thou to the isles | W |
Atlantic to the rich Hesperian clime | C3 |
Fly in the train of Autumn and look on | G |
And learn from him while as he roves around | B |
Where'er his fingers touch the fruitful grove | S3 |
The branches bloom with gold where'er his foot | B |
Imprints the soil the ripening clusters swell | |
Turning aside their foliage and come forth | Z3 |
In purple lights till every hilloc glows | W |
As with the blushes of an evening sky | X |
Or wilt thou that Thessalian landscape trace | W |
Where slow Peneus his clear glassy tide | B |
Draws smooth along between the winding cliffs | W |
Of Ossa and the pathless woods unshorn | G |
That wave o'er huge Olympus Down the stream | C3 |
Look how the mountains with their double range | |
Imbrace the vale of Tempe from each side | B |
Ascending steep to heaven a rocky mound | B |
Cover'd with ivy and the laurel boughs | W |
That crown'd young Phoebus for the Python slain | G |
Fair Tempe on whose primrose banks the morn | G |
Awoke most fragrant and the noon repos'd | B |
In pomp of lights and shadows most sublime | C3 |
Whose lawns whose glades ere human footsteps yet | B |
Had trac'd an entrance were the hallow'd haunt | B |
Of sylvan powers immortal where they sate | B |
Oft in the golden age the Nymphs and Fauns | W |
Beneath some arbor branching o'er the flood | B |
And leaning round hung on the instructive lips | W |
Of hoary Pan or o'er some open dale | Y4 |
Danc'd in light measures to his sevenfold pipe | |
While Zephyr's wanton hand along their path | H |
Flung showers of painted blossoms fertile dews | W |
And one perpetual spring But if our task | |
More lofty rites demand with all good vows | W |
Then let us hasten to the rural haunt | B |
Where young Melissa dwells Nor thou refuse | W |
The voice which calls thee from thy lov'd retreat | B |
But hither gentle maid thy footsteps turn | G |
Here to thy own unquestionable theme | C3 |
O fair o graceful bend thy polish'd brow | |
Assenting and the gladness of thy eyes | W |
Impart to me like morning's wished light | B |
Seen through the vernal air By yonder stream | C3 |
Where beech and elm along the bordering mead | B |
Send forth wild melody from every bough | |
Together let us wander where the hills | W |
Cover'd with fleeces to the lowing vale | Y4 |
Reply where tidings of content and peace | W |
Each echo brings Lo how the western sun | G |
O'er fields and floods o'er every living soul | A4 |
Diffuseth glad repose There while I speak | J |
Of beauty's honors thou Melissa thou | |
Shalt hearken not unconscious while I tell | |
How first from heaven she came how after all | B4 |
The works of life the elemental scenes | W |
The hours the seasons she had oft explor'd | B |
At length her favorite mansion and her throne | G |
She fix'd in woman's form what pleasing ties | W |
To virtue bind her what effectual aid | B |
They lend each other's power and how divine | G |
Their union should some unambitious maid | B |
To all the inchantment of the Idalian queen | G |
Add sanctity and wisdom while my tongue | L2 |
Prolongs the tale Melissa thou may'st feign | G |
To wonder whence my rapture is inspir'd | B |
But soon the smile which dawns upon thy lip | |
Shall tell it and the tenderer bloom o'er all | B4 |
That soft cheek springing to the marble neck | |
Which bends aside in vain revealing more | J3 |
What it would thus keep silent and in vain | G |
The sense of praise dissembling Then my song | F4 |
Great nature's winning arts which thus inform | C3 |
With joy and love the rugged breast of man | G |
Should sound in numbers worthy of such a theme | C3 |
While all whose souls have ever felt the force | W |
Of those inchanting passions to my lyre | Z |
Should throng attentive and receive once more | J3 |
Their influence unobscur'd by any cloud | B |
Of vulgar care and purer than the hand | B |
Of fortune can bestow nor to confirm | C3 |
Their sway should awful contemplation scorn | G |
To join his dictates to the genuine strain | G |
Of pleasure's tongue nor yet should pleasure's ear | L |
Be much averse Ye chiefly gentle band | B |
Of youths and virgins who through many a wish | |
And many a fond pursuit as in some scene | G |
Of magic bright and fleeting are allur'd | B |
By various beauty if the pleasing toil | P2 |
Can yield a moment's respite hither turn | G |
Your favorable ear and trust my words | W |
I do not mean on bless'd religion's seat | B |
Presenting superstition's gloomy form | C3 |
To dash your soothing hopes I do not mean | G |
To bid the jealous thunderer fire the heavens | W |
Or shapes infernal rend the groaning earth | Q |
And scare you from your joys my cheerful song | F4 |
With happier omens calls you to the field | B |
Pleas'd with your generous ardor in the chace | W |
And warm like you Then tell me for ye know | G |
Doth beauty ever deign to dwell where use | W |
And aptitude are strangers is her praise | W |
Confess'd in aught whose most peculiar ends | W |
Are lame and fruitless or did nature mean | G |
This pleasing call the herald of a lye | X |
To hide the shame of discord and disease | W |
And win each fond admirer into snares | W |
Foil'd baffled No with better providence | W |
The general mother conscious how infirm | C3 |
Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill | C |
Thus to the choice of credulous desire | L3 |
Doth objects the completest of their tribe | |
Distinguish and commend Yon flowery bank | |
Cloth'd in the soft magnificence of spring | R4 |
Will not the flocks approve it will they ask | |
The reedy fen for pasture That clear rill | C |
Which trickleth murmuring from the mossy rock | |
Yields it less wholesome beverage to the worn | G |
And thirsty traveler than the standing pool | |
With muddy weeds o'ergrown Yon ragged vine | G |
Whose lean and sullen clusters mourn the rage | |
Of Eurus will the wine press or the bowl | A4 |
Report of her as of the swelling grape | |
Which glitters through the tendrils like a gem | C3 |
When first it meets the sun Or what are all | B4 |
The various charms to life and sense adjoin'd | B |
Are they not pledges of a state intire | L3 |
Where native order reigns with every part | B |
In health and every function well perform'd | B |
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Thus then at first was beauty sent from heaven | G |
The lovely ministress of truth and good | B |
In this dark world for truth and good are one | G |
And beauty dwells in them and they in her | L3 |
With like participation Wherefore then | G |
O sons of earth would ye dissolve the tie | B |
O wherefore with a rash and greedy aim | C3 |
Seek ye to rove through every flattering scene | G |
Which beauty seems to deck nor once inquire | L3 |
Where is the suffrage of eternal truth | M2 |
Or where the seal of undeceitful good | B |
To save your search from folly Wanting these | W |
Lo beauty withers in your void embrace | W |
And with the glittering of an idiot's toy | B |
Did fancy mock your vows Nor yet let hope | W4 |
That kindliest inmate of the youthful breast | B |
Be hence appall'd be turn'd to coward sloth | |
Sitting in silence with dejected eyes | W |
Incurious and with folded hands far less | W |
Let scorn of wild fantastic folly's dreams | W |
Or hatred of the bigot's savage pride | B |
Persuade you e'er that beauty or the love | S3 |
Which waits on beauty may not brook to hear | L3 |
The sacred lore of undeceitful good | B |
And truth eternal From the vulgar croud | B |
Though superstition tyranness abhorr'd | B |
The reverence due to this majestic pair | L3 |
With threats and execration still demands | W |
Though the tame wretch who asks of her the way | J2 |
To their celestial dwelling she constrains | W |
To quench or set at nought the lamp of God | B |
Within his frame through many a cheerless wild | B |
Though forth she leads him credulous and dark | K4 |
And aw'd with dubious notion though at length | |
Haply she plunge him into cloister'd cells | W |
And mansions unrelenting as the grave | S3 |
Of midnight there amid the screaming owl's | W |
Dire song with spectres or with guilty shades | W |
To talk of pangs and everlasting woe | G |
Yet be not ye dismay'd a gentler star | L3 |
Presides o'er your adventure From the bower | L3 |
Where wisdom sate with her Athenian sons | W |
Could but my happy hand intwine a wreath | |
Of Plato's olive with the Mantuan bay | J2 |
Then for what need of cruel fear to you | H4 |
To you whom godlike love can well command | B |
Then should my powerful voice at once dispell | |
Those monkish horrors should in words divine | G |
Relate how favor'd minds like you inspir'd | B |
And taught their inspiration to conduct | B |
By ruling heaven's decree through various walks | W |
And prospects various but delightful all | B4 |
Move onward while now myrtle groves appear | L3 |
Now arms and radiant trophies now the rods | W |
Of empire with the curule throne or now | |
The domes of contemplation and the Muse | W |
Led by that hope sublime whose cloudless eye | B |
Through the fair toils and ornaments of earth | Q |
Discerns the nobler life reserv'd for heaven | G |
Favor'd alike they worship round the shrine | G |
Where truth conspicuous with her sister twins | W |
The undivided partners of her sway | J2 |
With good and beauty reigns O let not us | W |
By pleasure's lying blandishments detain'd | B |
Or crouching to the frowns of bigot rage | |
O let not us one moment pause to join | G |
That chosen band And if the gracious power | L3 |
Who first awaken'd my untutor'd song | F4 |
Will to my invocation grant anew | H4 |
The tuneful spirit then through all our paths | W |
Ne'er shall the sound of this devoted lyre | L3 |
Be wanting whether on the rosy mead | B |
When summer smiles to warn the melting heart | B |
Of luxury's allurement whether firm | C3 |
Against the torrent and the stubborn hill | C |
To urge free virtue's steps and to her side | B |
Summon that strong divinity of soul | A4 |
Which conquers chance and fate or on the height | B |
The goal assign'd her haply to proclaim | C3 |
Her triumph on her brow to place the crown | G |
Of uncorrupted praise through future worlds | W |
To follow her interminated way | J2 |
And bless heaven's image in the heart of man | G |
- | |
Such is the worth of beauty such her power | L3 |
So blameless so rever'd It now remains | W |
In just gradation through the various ranks | W |
Of being to contemplate how her gifts | W |
Rise in due measure watchful to attend | B |
The steps of rising nature Last and least | B |
In colors mingling with a random blaze | W |
Doth beauty dwell Then higher in the forms | W |
Of simplest easiest measure in the bounds | W |
Of circle cube or sphere The third ascent | B |
To symmetry adds color thus the pearl | |
Shines in the concave of its purple bed | B |
And painted shells along some winding shore | L3 |
Catch with indented folds the glancing sun | G |
Next as we rise appear the blooming tribes | W |
Which clothe the fragrant earth which draw from her | L3 |
Their own nutrition which are born and die | B |
Yet in their seed immortal such the flowers | W |
With which young Maia pays the village maids | W |
That hail her natal morn and such the groves | W |
Which blithe Pomona rears on Vaga's bank | |
To feed the bowl of Ariconian swains | W |
Who quaff beneath her branches Nobler still | C |
Is beauty's name where to the full consent | B |
Of members and of features to the pride | B |
Of color and the vital change of growth | |
Life's holy flame with piercing sense is given | G |
While active motion speaks the temper'd soul | A4 |
So moves the bird of Juno so the steed | B |
With rival swiftness beats the dusty plain | G |
And faithful dogs with eager airs of joy | B |
Salute their fellows What sublimer pomp | |
Adorns the seat where virtue dwells on earth | Q |
And truth's eternal day light shines around | B |
What palm belongs to man's imperial front | B |
And woman powerful with becoming smiles | W |
Chief of terrestrial natures need we now | |
Strive to inculcate Thus hath beauty there | L3 |
Her most conspicuous praise to matter lent | B |
Where most conspicuous through that shadowy veil | Y4 |
Breaks forth the bright expression of a mind | B |
By steps directing our inraptur'd search | |
To him the first of minds the chief the sole | A4 |
From whom through this wide complicated world | B |
Did all her various lineaments begin | G |
To whom alone consenting and intire | L3 |
At once their mutual influence all display | J2 |
He God most high bear witness earth and heaven | G |
The living fountains in himself contains | W |
Of beauteous and sublime with him inthron'd | B |
Ere days or years trod their ethereal way | J2 |
In his supreme intelligence inthron'd | B |
The queen of love holds her unclouded state | B |
Urania Thee o father this extent | B |
Of matter thee the sluggish earth and tract | B |
Of seas the heavens and heavenly splendors feel | |
Pervading quickening moving From the depth | |
Of thy great essence forth did'st thou conduct | B |
Eternal Form and there where Chaos reign'd | B |
Gav'st her dominion to erect her seat | B |
And sanctify the mansion All her works | W |
Well pleas'd thou did'st behold the gloomy fires | W |
Of storm or earthquake and the purest light | B |
Of summer soft Campania's new born rose | W |
And the slow weed which pines on Russian hills | W |
Comely alike to thy full vision stand | B |
To thy surrounding vision which unites | W |
All essences and powers of the great world | B |
In one sole order fair alike they stand | B |
As features well consenting and alike | |
Requir'd by nature ere she could attain | G |
Her just resemblance to the perfect shape | |
Of universal beauty which with thee | V |
Dwelt from the first Thou also ancient mind | B |
Whom love and free beneficence await | B |
In all thy doings to inferior minds | W |
Thy offspring and to man thy youngest son | G |
Refusing no convenient gift nor good | B |
Their eyes did'st open in this earth yon heaven | G |
Those starry worlds the countenance divine | G |
Of beauty to behold But not to them | C3 |
Didst thou her awful magnitude reveal | |
Such as before thine own unbounded sight | B |
She stands for never shall created soul | A4 |
Conceive that object nor to all their kinds | W |
The same in shape or features didst thou frame | C3 |
Her image Measuring well their different spheres | W |
Of sense and action thy paternal hand | B |
Hath for each race prepar'd a different test | B |
Of beauty own'd and reverenc'd as their guide | B |
Most apt most faithful Thence inform'd they scan | G |
The objects that surround them and select | B |
Since the great whole disclaims their scanty view | H4 |
Each for himself selects peculiar parts | W |
Of nature what the standard fix'd by heaven | G |
Within his breast approves acquiring thus | W |
A partial beauty which becomes his lot | B |
A beauty which his eye may comprehend | B |
His hand may copy leaving o supreme | C3 |
O thou whom none hath utter'd leaving all | B4 |
To thee that infinite consummate form | C3 |
Which the great powers the gods around thy throne | G |
And nearest to thy counsels know with thee | V |
For ever to have been but who she is | W |
Or what her likeness know not Man surveys | W |
A narrower scene where by the mix'd effect | B |
Of things corporeal on his passive mind | B |
He judgeth what is fair Corporeal things | W |
The mind of man impell with various powers | W |
And various features to his eye disclose | W |
The powers which move his sense with instant joy | B |
The features which attract his heart to love | S3 |
He marks combines reposits other powers | W |
And features of the self same thing unless | W |
The beauteous form the creature of his mind | B |
Request their close alliance he o'erlooks | W |
Forgotten or with self beguiling zeal | |
Whene'er his passions mingle in the work | |
Half alters half disowns The tribes of men | G |
Thus from their different functions and the shapes | W |
Familiar to their eye with art obtain | G |
Unconscious of their purpose yet with art | B |
Obtain the beauty fitting man to love | S3 |
Whose proud desires from nature's homely toil | P2 |
Oft turn away fastidious asking still | C |
His mind's high aid to purify the form | C3 |
From matter's gross communion to secure | L3 |
For ever from the meddling hand of change | |
Or rude decay her features and to add | B |
Whatever ornaments may suit her mien | G |
Where'er he finds them scatter'd through the paths | W |
Of nature or of fortune Then he seats | W |
The accomplish'd image deep within his breast | B |
Reviews it and accounts it good and fair | L3 |
- | |
Thus the one beauty of the world intire | L3 |
The universal Venus far beyond | B |
The keenest effort of created eyes | W |
And their most wide horizon dwells inthron'd | B |
In ancient silence At her footstool stands | W |
An altar burning with eternal fire | L3 |
Unsullied unconsum'd Here every hour | L3 |
Here every moment in their turns arrive | S3 |
Her offspring an innumerable band | B |
Of sisters comely all but differing far | L3 |
In age in stature and expressive mien | G |
More than bright Helen from her new born babe | |
To this maternal shrine in turns they come | C3 |
Each with her sacred lamp that from the source | W |
Of living flame which here immortal flows | W |
Their portions of its lustre they may draw | L3 |
For days or months or years for ages some | C3 |
As their great parent's discipline requires | W |
Then to their several mansions they depart | B |
In stars in planets through the unknown shores | W |
Of yon ethereal ocean Who can tell | |
Even on the surface of this rowling earth | Q |
How many make abode The fields the groves | W |
The winding rivers and the azure main | G |
Are render'd solemn by their frequent feet | B |
Their rites sublime There each her destin'd home | C3 |
Informs with that pure radiance from the skies | W |
Brought down and shines throughout her little sphere | L3 |
Exulting Strait as travellers by night | B |
Turn toward a distant flame so some sit eye | B |
Among the various tenants of the scene | G |
Discerns the heaven born phantom seated there | L3 |
And owns her charms Hence the wide universe | W |
Through all the seasons of revolving worlds | W |
Bears witness with its people gods and men | G |
To beauty's blissful power and with the voice | W |
Of grateful admiration still resounds | W |
That voice to which is beauty's frame divine | G |
As is the cunning of the master's hand | B |
To the sweet accent of the well tun'd lyre | L3 |
- | |
Genius of ancient Greece whose faithful steps | W |
Have led us to these awful solitudes | W |
Of nature and of science nurse rever'd | B |
Of generous counsels and heroic deeds | W |
O let some portion of thy matchless praise | W |
Dwell in my breast and teach me to adorn | G |
This unattempted theme Nor be my thoughts | W |
Presumptuous counted if amid the calm | C3 |
Which Hesper sheds along the vernal heaven | G |
If I from vulgar superstition's walk | |
Impatient steal and from the unseemly rites | W |
Of splendid adulation to attend | B |
With hymns thy presence in the sylvan shade | B |
By their malignant footsteps unprofan'd | B |
Come o renowned power thy glowing mien | G |
Such and so elevated all thy form | C3 |
As when the great barbaric lord again | G |
And yet again diminish'd hid his face | W |
Among the herd of satraps and of kings | W |
And at the lightning of thy lifted spear | L3 |
Crouch'd like a slave Bring all thy martial spoils | W |
Thy palms thy laurels thy triumphal songs | W |
Thy smiling band of arts thy godlike sires | W |
Of civil wisdom thy unconquer'd youth | M2 |
After some glorious day rejoicing round | B |
Their new erected trophy Guide my feet | B |
Through fair Lyceum's walk the olive shades | W |
Of Academus and the sacred vale | Y4 |
Haunted by steps divine where once beneath | |
That ever living platane's ample boughs | W |
Ilissus by Socratic sounds detain'd | B |
On his neglected urn attentive lay | J2 |
While Boreas lingering on the neighboring steep | |
With beauteous Orithy a his love tale | Y4 |
In silent awe suspended There let me | V |
With blameless hand from thy unenvious fields | W |
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn | G |
My native clime while far beyond the meed | B |
Of fancy's toil aspiring I unlock | |
The springs of antient wisdom while I add | B |
What cannot be disjoin'd from beauty's praise | W |
Thy name and native dress thy works belov'd | B |
And honor'd while to my compatriot youth | M2 |
I point the great example of thy sons | W |
And tune to Attic themes the British lyre | L3 |
Mark Akenside
(1)
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