Vignettes 26: Elegy On Edward Betham, Lost In The Duchess Of Gordon East Indiaman, Off The Cape Of G Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGH DIJKLFMNOPMQRSTUVWXY MZMWWMA2 WWWWVB2C2D2ME2MWF2DG 2H2WVMWMMMI2IWC2 MWWWJ2WYYK2L2WZMM2WM 2WN2WM WMMM2MMO2WWWN2MMWPMW I2ME2 WSWVIMVWWP P2TWWWC2Q2MR2M2MS2WM MMMT2IMU2MV2WWWW2MX2 ZS2DMMW S2VY2GWVTM2VMWZ2DLovely as are the wide and sudden calms | A |
Upon a lake when all the waters rise | B |
To smooth each undulation and present | C |
A plain of molten silver is the hope | D |
Dear Edward of thy safety which now comes | E |
To fill expand and elevate my heart | F |
String every nerve and give to every vein | G |
A warmer and a sweeter sense of life | H |
- | |
Welcome oh welcome that most healing hope | D |
Pouring abroad an efficacious ray | I |
Into the aching bosom Tidings sweet | J |
Those of such prompt return with wisdom gain'd | K |
By suffering but with all thy innocence | L |
All thy accustomed gaiety of heart | F |
And all thy deep quick sensibilities | M |
Those gems of virtue which concentre still | N |
In narrow limits stores of moral wealth | O |
Beyond all estimate whose value known | P |
The dealer sells his other merchandize | M |
His ivory and curious workmanship | Q |
The silkworm's product and the cloth of gold | R |
To purchase that imperishable store | S |
More highly prized than all Possessing all | T |
The properties most precious of the rest | U |
In a superior measure and degree | V |
Without alloy sparkling with inward light | W |
Unseen untraced the process of his growth | X |
No aid from any human hand or care | Y |
No nourishment from any earthly dews | M |
No ripening from our bright material sun | Z |
But secretly supplied by Providence | M |
With some more pure diviner aliment | W |
And with more heavenly searching radiance fill'd | W |
For the superior comfort higher bliss | M |
Of that in drinking eye the soul of man | A2 |
- | |
Thus sang I when fallacious hopes were rais'd | W |
Of his dear safety whom howe'er belov'd | W |
However strong in health and firmly built | W |
Like a fine statue of the antique world | W |
As if he might have reach'd a century | V |
Without decrepitude we ne'er again | B2 |
Nor we alone no other human eye | C2 |
Can e'er behold Then had I painted him | D2 |
Returning as he lately left our shores | M |
With all the fairness and the bloom of youth | E2 |
The light brown hair and its soft yellow gleams | M |
Brightened with silver thickening into shade | W |
Now with a dove like now a chesnut hue | F2 |
The smile of Peace and Love and joyful Hope | D |
And those blue eyes through whose dark lash the soul | G2 |
Rejoicing from its kind and happy home | H2 |
Look'd forth with rapture artless and uncheck'd | W |
Eyes where Delight in careless luxury | V |
Lay nestling and indulging blissful thoughts | M |
With every day dream for whose food the world | W |
Offers magnificence and loveliness | M |
All graceful motions and all graceful forms | M |
The ripened nectar of delicious sounds | M |
The social haunt the lonely quiet hour | I2 |
The Hopes embodying innocent and gay | I |
As those of Childhood whose soft footstep past | W |
Not long before not yet forgotten by | C2 |
- | |
The letter dearest blotted with thy tears | M |
In answer to a caution fear express'd | W |
By much too strongly often gives my heart | W |
A secret pang but of remorse for nought | W |
But paining thee too tender to endure | J2 |
The thought that self indulgence or neglect | W |
Causing increas'd disquietude and care | Y |
Might by increased disquietude and care | Y |
Open the grave for him who gave thee birth | K2 |
How often and how warmly did'st thou ask | L2 |
With epithets of fondness how I dar'd | W |
Imagine such a horror and to one | Z |
Present who would have died or borne extremes | M |
Of any hard endurance not to give | M2 |
The slightest anguish to a parent's breast | W |
Alas the cruel rashness of reproof | M2 |
The busy vigilance of human pride | W |
Like a too eager partizan may strike | N2 |
To ward off danger from his chieftain's head | W |
A fellow soldier zealous in the cause | M |
- | |
As of this world this visible wide world | W |
This earth with all its forests all its plants | M |
All its deep mines its rivers and its seas | M |
Yea all that breathes and moves and clings to life | M2 |
By any subtler impulse which eludes | M |
Our blunted observation as of this | M |
All that appears and all that is so much | O2 |
Remains in scorn of science unexplor'd | W |
So in the not less wond'rous moral world | W |
The innermost recesses of the mind | W |
We see as little save Phoenician like | N2 |
By petty trade and parley on its coasts | M |
Talk by interpreters impatient guess | M |
Or careless resting in incertitude | W |
At meanings in a tongue almost unknown | P |
Or so corrupted by this intercourse | M |
That all its native harmony is lost | W |
Its irresistible persuasions o'er | I2 |
The clearness and the sweetness of its tones | M |
Its loftiness simplicity and truth | E2 |
- | |
All that we hear is coarse and limited | W |
And yet we sail along and search no more | S |
And look no farther though the ear is pall'd | W |
With the vile din of tame monotony | V |
The taste perverted judgment led astray | I |
By soul annihilating idleness | M |
By universal strengthless poverty | V |
Which leans upon its neighbour for support | W |
And lifts the eye for sanction or assent | W |
To weakness still more helpless than its own | P |
- | |
Two thousand years the sanctuary's veil | P2 |
Has now been rent asunder shewing all | T |
That to the patient and unsandall'd foot | W |
Egress and regress freely are allowed | W |
Through that most glorious temple where abstract | W |
And long a stranger to the vulgar eye | C2 |
Thought held her silent rule and mission'd forth | Q2 |
Her sealed and unquestion'd messengers | M |
Yet those who follow nature when the track | R2 |
Is finer than a hair those who can cleave | M2 |
The subtile and combined elements | M |
That form a drop of water those can shrink | S2 |
From the more holy alchemy enjoin'd | W |
Call'd for by that disgust the heart conceives | M |
At the usurping empire of pretence | M |
At all those useless and disgraceful chains | M |
Which tie us down and imp with aptest wings | M |
Falsehood and selfishness who ought to creep | T2 |
In their own reptile slime and dart away | I |
When eyes perceiv'd their presence Oh could those | M |
Adventure in too perilous a path | U2 |
If without other guide than the bright stars | M |
The love of what is lofty and divine | V2 |
Or the desire of gaining for mankind | W |
Now fettered and held down to poison'd food | W |
Its unpolluted birth right | W |
they dared on | W2 |
Plunging at once into untravelled realms | M |
And bringing as the harvest of their toil | X2 |
Arms which will make each potent talisman | Z |
Each charm and spell and dire enchantment sink | S2 |
In endless infamy without a hope | D |
To trick their bloated and their wither'd limbs | M |
In any Proteus vestment of disguise | M |
Again to awe and ruinate the world | W |
- | |
Oh my dear brother little did I think | S2 |
These lines would be prophetic yet to me | V |
They seem so for I since have felt deep woe | Y2 |
And passed through seas of anguish to attain | G |
A view of mysteries wonderful and sad | W |
Since they are rivetted through every clime | V |
With shame and guilt and wretchedness on all | T |
That bear what only is the curse of life | M2 |
Whilst they remain which have confronted time | V |
Wearing the semblance sporting with the names | M |
Of truth and valour liberty and God | W |
Successfully through each recorded age | Z2 |
But yet may fall and will I trust and hope | D |
Matilda Betham
(1)
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