A Rhymed Lesson (urania) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH IIJJCCKKLLMMNNKKCCOO PP QQMMAARRBBSSTT UUVVFFWWXXYYZA2B2B2C C C2C2MMD2D2FF E2F2XXZA2KK D2D2G2G2 IIH2H2XXI2I2 FFJ2J2A2ZK2K2L2L2 XXG2G2XXXXM2M2FFXXH2 H2 N2N2O2O2P2P2Q2Q2XXCC HH R2R2G2G2S2S2XXXXXXT2 T2U2U2G2G2G2G2 XXFFV2V2W2W2XXS2S2X2 X2Y2Yes dear Enchantress wandering far and long | A |
In realms unperfumed by the breath of song | A |
Where flowers ill flavored shed their sweets around | B |
And bitterest roots invade the ungenial ground | B |
Whose gems are crystals from the Epsom mine | C |
Whose vineyards flow with antimonial wine | C |
Whose gates admit no mirthful feature in | D |
Save one gaunt mocker the Sardonic grin | D |
Whose pangs are real not the woes of rhyme | E |
That blue eyed misses warble out of time | E |
Truant not recreant to thy sacred claim | F |
Older by reckoning but in heart the same | F |
Freed for a moment from the chains of toil | G |
I tread once more thy consecrated soil | G |
Here at thy feet my old allegiance own | H |
Thy subject still and loyal to thy throne | H |
- | |
My dazzled glance explores the crowded hall | I |
Alas how vain to hope the smiles of all | I |
I know my audience All the gay and young | J |
Love the light antics of a playful tongue | J |
And these remembering some expansive line | C |
My lips let loose among the nuts and wine | C |
Are all impatience till the opening pun | K |
Proclaims the witty shamfight is begun | K |
Two fifths at least if not the total half | L |
Have come infuriate for an earthquake laugh | L |
I know full well what alderman has tied | M |
His red bandanna tight about his side | M |
I see the mother who aware that boys | N |
Perform their laughter with superfluous noise | N |
Beside her kerchief brought an extra one | K |
To stop the explosions of her bursting son | K |
I know a tailor once a friend of mine | C |
Expects great doings in the button line | C |
For mirth s concussions rip the outward case | O |
And plant the stitches in a tenderer place | O |
I know my audience these shall have their due | P |
A smile awaits them ere my song is through | P |
- | |
I know myself Not servile for applause | Q |
My Muse permits no deprecating clause | Q |
Modest or vain she will not be denied | M |
One bold confession due to honest pride | M |
And well she knows the drooping veil of song | A |
Shall save her boldness from the caviller s wrong | A |
Her sweeter voice the Heavenly Maid imparts | R |
To tell the secrets of our aching hearts | R |
For this a suppliant captive prostrate bound | B |
She kneels imploring at the feet of sound | B |
For this convulsed in thought s maternal pains | S |
She loads her arms with rhyme s resounding chains | S |
Faint though the music of her fetters be | T |
It lends one charm her lips are ever free | T |
- | |
Think not I come in manhood s fiery noon | U |
To steal his laurels from the stage buffoon | U |
His sword of lath the harlequin may wield | V |
Behold the star upon my lifted shield | V |
Though the just critic pass my humble name | F |
And sweeter lips have drained the cup of fame | F |
While my gay stanza pleased the banquet s lords | W |
The soul within was tuned to deeper chords | W |
Say shall my arms in other conflicts taught | X |
To swing aloft the ponderous mace of thought | X |
Lift in obedience to a school girl s law | Y |
Mirth s tinsel wand or laughter s tickling straw | Y |
Say shall I wound with satire s rankling spear | Z |
The pure warm hearts that bid me welcome here | A2 |
No while I wander through the land of dreams | B2 |
To strive with great and play with trifling themes | B2 |
Let some kind meaning fill the varied line | C |
You have your judgment will you trust to mine | C |
- | |
Between two breaths what crowded mysteries lie | C2 |
The first short gasp the last and long drawn sigh | C2 |
Like phantoms painted on the magic slide | M |
Forth from the darkness of the past we glide | M |
As living shadows for a moment seen | D2 |
In airy pageant on the eternal screen | D2 |
Traced by a ray from one unchanging flame | F |
Then seek the dust and stillness whence we came | F |
- | |
But whence and why our trembling souls inquire | E2 |
Caught these dim visions their awakening fire | F2 |
Oh who forgets when first the piercing thought | X |
Through childhood s musings found its way unsought | X |
I am I live The mystery and the fear | Z |
When the dread question what has brought me here | A2 |
Burst through life s twilight as before the sun | K |
Roll the deep thunders of the morning gun | K |
- | |
Are angel faces silent and serene | D2 |
Bent on the conflicts of this little scene | D2 |
Whose dream like efforts whose unreal strife | G2 |
Are but the preludes to a larger life | G2 |
- | |
Or does life s summer see the end of all | I |
These leaves of being mouldering as they fall | I |
As the old poet vaguely used to deem | H2 |
As WESLEY questioned in his youthful dream | H2 |
Oh could such mockery reach our souls indeed | X |
Give back the Pharaohs or the Athenian s creed | X |
Better than this a Heaven of man s device | I2 |
The Indian s sports the Moslem s paradise | I2 |
- | |
Or is our being s only end and aim | F |
To add new glories to our Maker s name | F |
As the poor insect shrivelling in the blaze | J2 |
Lends a faint sparkle to its streaming rays | J2 |
Does earth send upward to the Eternal s ear | A2 |
The mingled discords of her jarring sphere | Z |
To swell his anthem while creation rings | K2 |
With notes of anguish from its shattered strings | K2 |
Is it for this the immortal Artist means | L2 |
These conscious throbbing agonized machines | L2 |
- | |
Dark is the soul whose sullen creed can bind | X |
In chains like these the all embracing Mind | X |
No two faced bigot thou dost ill reprove | G2 |
The sensual selfish yet benignant Jove | G2 |
And praise a tyrant throned in lonely pride | X |
Who loves himself and cares for naught beside | X |
Who gave thee summoned from primeval night | X |
A thousand laws and not a single right | X |
A heart to feel and quivering nerves to thrill | M2 |
The sense of wrong the death defying will | M2 |
Who girt thy senses with this goodly frame | F |
Its earthly glories and its orbs of flame | F |
Not for thyself unworthy of a thought | X |
Poor helpless victim of a life unsought | X |
But all for him unchanging and supreme | H2 |
The heartless centre of thy frozen scheme | H2 |
- | |
Trust not the teacher with his lying scroll | N2 |
Who tears the charter of thy shuddering soul | N2 |
The God of love who gave the breath that warms | O2 |
All living dust in all its varied forms | O2 |
Asks not the tribute of a world like this | P2 |
To fill the measure of his perfect bliss | P2 |
Though winged with life through all its radiant shores | Q2 |
Creation flowed with unexhausted stores | Q2 |
Cherub and seraph had not yet enjoyed | X |
For this he called thee from the quickening void | X |
Nor this alone a larger gift was thine | C |
A mightier purpose swelled his vast design | C |
Thought conscience will to make them all thine own | H |
He rent a pillar from the eternal throne | H |
- | |
Made in his image thou must nobly dare | R2 |
The thorny crown of sovereignty to share | R2 |
With eye uplifted it is thine to view | G2 |
From thine own centre Heaven s o erarching blue | G2 |
So round thy heart a beaming circle lies | S2 |
No fiend can blot no hypocrite disguise | S2 |
From all its orbs one cheering voice is heard | X |
Full to thine ear it bears the Father s word | X |
Now as in Eden where his first born trod | X |
Seek thine own welfare true to man and God | X |
Think not too meanly of thy low estate | X |
Thou hast a choice to choose is to create | X |
Remember whose the sacred lips that tell | T2 |
Angels approve thee when thy choice is well | T2 |
Remember One a judge of righteous men | U2 |
Swore to spare Sodom if she held but ten | U2 |
Use well the freedom which thy Master gave | G2 |
Think st thou that Heaven can tolerate a slave | G2 |
And He who made thee to be just and true | G2 |
Will bless thee love thee ay respect thee too | G2 |
- | |
Nature has placed thee on a changeful tide | X |
To breast its waves but not without a guide | X |
Yet as the needle will forget its aim | F |
Jarred by the fury of the electric flame | F |
As the true current it will falsely feel | V2 |
Warped from its axis by a freight of steel | V2 |
So will thy conscience lose its balanced truth | W2 |
If passion s lightning fall upon thy youth | W2 |
So the pure effluence quit its sacred hold | X |
Girt round too deeply with magnetic gold | X |
Go to yon tower where busy science plies | S2 |
Her vast antennae feeling through the skies | S2 |
That little vernier on whose slender lines | X2 |
The midnight taper trembles as it shines | X2 |
A silent index | Y2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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