Of Memory. From Proverbial Philosophy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMJNOPQ RDLJSJTULVWXXJMTYZTA 2JATH B2C2BLD2E2F2TLLG2M LTXB TH2TLI2GMJ2TBBLK2JXH 2HL2X M| Where art thou storehouse of the mind gamer of facts and fancies | A |
| In what strange firmament are laid the beams of thine airy chambers | B |
| Or art thou that small cavern the centre of the rolling brain | C |
| Where still one sandy morsel testifieth man's original | D |
| Or hast thou some grand globe some common hall of intellect | E |
| Some spacious market place for thought where all do bring their wares | F |
| And gladly rescued from the littleness the narrow closet of a self | G |
| The privileged soul hath large access coming in the livery of learning | H |
| Live we as isolated worlds perfect in substance and spirit | I |
| Each a sphere with a special mind prisoned in its shell of matter | J |
| Or rather as converging radiations parts of one majestic whole | K |
| Beams of the Sun streams from the River branches of the mighty Tree | L |
| Some bearing fruit some bearing leaves and some diseased and barren | M |
| Some for the feast some for the floor and some how many for the fire | J |
| Memory may be but a power of coming to the treasury of Fact | N |
| A momentary self desertion an absence in spirit from the now | O |
| An actual coursing hither and thither by the mind slipped from its leash | P |
| A life as in the mystery of dreams spent within the limits of a moment | Q |
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| A brutish man knoweth not this neither can a fool comprehend it | R |
| But there be secrets of the memory deep wondrous and fearful | D |
| Were I at Petra could I not declare My soul hath been here before me | L |
| Am I strange to the columned halls the calm dead grandeur of Palmyra | J |
| Know I not thy mount Cannel Have I not voyaged on the Danube | S |
| Nor seen the glare of Arctic snows nor the black tents of the Tartar | J |
| Is it then a dream that I remember the faces of them of old | T |
| While wandering in the grove with Plato and listening to Zeno in the porch | U |
| Paul have I seen and Pythagoras and the Stagyrite hath spoken me friendly | L |
| And His meek eye looked also upon me standing with Peter in the palace | V |
| Athens and Rome Persepolis and Sparta am I not a freeman of you all | W |
| And chiefly can my yearning heart forget thee O Jerusalem | X |
| For the strong magic of conception mingled with the fumes of memoiy | X |
| Giveth me a life in all past time yea and addeth substance to the future | J |
| Be ye my judges imaginative minds full fledged to soar into the sun | M |
| Whose grosser natural thoughts the chemistry of wisdom hath sublimed | T |
| Have ye not confessed to a feeling a consciousness strange and vague | Y |
| That ye have gone this way before and walk again your daily life | Z |
| Tracking an old routine and on some foreign strand | T |
| Where bodily ye have never stood finding your own footsteps | A2 |
| Hath not at times some recent friend looked out an old familiar | J |
| Some newest circumstance or place teemed as with ancient memories | A |
| A startling sudden flash lighteth up all for an instant | T |
| And then it is quenched as in darkness and leaveth the cold spirit trembling | H |
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| Memory is not wisdom idiots can rote volumes | B2 |
| Yet what is wisdom without memory a babe that is strangled in its birth | C2 |
| The path of the swallow in the air the path of the dolphan in the waters | B |
| A cask running out a bottomless chasm such is wisdom without memory | L |
| There be many wise who cannot store their knowledge | D2 |
| Yet from themselves are they satisfied for the fountain is within | E2 |
| There be many who store but have no wisdom of their own | F2 |
| Lumbering their armoury with weapons their muscles cannot lift | T |
| There be many thieves and robbers who glean and store unlawfully | L |
| Calling in to memory's help some cunningly devised Cabala | L |
| But to feed the mind with fatness to fill thy granary with corn | G2 |
| Nor clog with chaff and straw the threshing floor of reason | M |
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| Reap the ideas and house them well but leave the words high stubble | L |
| Strive to store up what was thought despising what was said | T |
| For the mind is a spirit and drinketh in ideas as flame melteth into flame | X |
| But for words it must pack them as on floors cumbrous and perishable merchandize | B |
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| To be pained for a minute to fear for an hour to hope for a week how long and weary ' | - |
| But to remember fourscore years is to look back upon a day | T |
| An avenue seemeth to lengthen in the eyes of the way faring man | H2 |
| But let him turn those stationed elms crowd up within a yard | T |
| Pace the lamp lit streets of some sleeping city | L |
| The multitude of cressets shall seem one in the false picture of perspective | I2 |
| Even so in sweet treachery dealeth the aged with himself | G |
| He gazeth on the green hill tops while the marshes beneath are hidden | M |
| And the partial telescope of memory pierceth the blank between | J2 |
| To look with lingering love at the fan star of childhood | T |
| Life is as the current spark on the miner's wheel of flints | B |
| Whiles it spinneth there is light stop it all is darkness | B |
| Life is as a morsel of frankincense burning in the hall of Eternity | L |
| It is gone but its odorous cloud curleth to the lofty roof | K2 |
| Life is as a lump of salt melting in the temple layer | J |
| It is gone yet its savour reacheth to the farthest atom | X |
| Even so for evil or for good is life the criterion of a man | H2 |
| For its memories of sanctity or sin pervade all the firmament of being | H |
| There is but the flitting moment wherein to hope or to enjoy | L2 |
| But in the calendar of memory that moment is all time | X |
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| Transcribed from Proverbial Philosophy by Mick Puttock August Spelling punctuation and grammer left mostly unchanged from the th edition | M |
Martin Farquhar Tupper
(1)
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