Winter-night Meditations Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABACCDDEEFFGGAAHHAA IIGGAAJJKLMM AANNNNAAOONNAAPPAADQ AA RRSSAATTUV AANNFFWWLKXXAAYY AAZZAAAAAA A2A2AAB2B2C2D2YYAAE2 E2F2F2AAFFLLG2G2KK NNWWAANNAAH2H2I2DAAD DJ2J2AA NNYYK2K2AAL2L2KK NNE2E2AAM2M2N2N2 AAO2O2P2P2Q2Q2AAAE2E 2R2R2NNAAP2P2 KKFS2DDT2T2 KKAAEEE2E2GGAA TL2FFEEAANN U2U2AAPPSSV2V2NNAAN2 N2 E2E2NNEE NNKKPPWWAA KKNNAANNSSE2E2DDNN

Rude winter's come the sky's o'ercastA
The night is cold and loud the blastA
The mingling snow comes driving downB
Fast whitening o'er the flinty groundA
Severe their lots whose crazy shedsC
Hang tottering o'er their trembling headsC
Whilst blows through walls and chinky doorD
The drifting snow across the floorD
Where blinking embers scarcely glowE
And rushlight only serves to showE
What well may move the deepest sighF
And force a tear from pity's eyeF
You there may see a meagre pairG
Worn out with labour grief and careG
Whose naked babes in hungry moodA
Complain of cold and cry for foodA
Whilst tears bedew the mother's cheekH
And sighs the father's grief bespeakH
For fire or raiment bed or boardA
Their dreary shed cannot affordA
-
Will no kind hand confer reliefI
And wipe away the tear of griefI
A little boon it well might spareG
Would kindle joy dispel their careG
Abate the rigour of the nightA
And warm each heart achievement brightA
Yea brighter far than such as graceJ
The annals of a princely raceJ
Where kings bestow a large domainK
But to receive as much againL
Or e'en corrupt the purest lawsM
Or fan the breath of vain applauseM
-
Peace to the man who stoops his headA
To enter the most wretched shedA
Who with his condescending smilesN
Poor diffidence and awe beguilesN
Till all encouraged soon discloseN
The different causes of their woesN
The moving tale dissolves his heartA
He liberally bestows a partA
Of God's donation From aboveO
Approving Heaven in smiles of loveO
Looks on and through the shining skiesN
The great Recording Angel fliesN
The doors of mercy to unfoldA
And write the deed in lines of goldA
There if a fruit of Faith's fair treeP
To shine throughout eternityP
In honour of that Sovereign dreadA
Who had no place to lay His headA
Yet opened wide sweet Mercy's doorD
To all the desolate and poorQ
Who stung with guilt and hard oppressedA
Groaned to be with Him and at restA
-
Now pent within the city wallR
They throng to theatre and hallR
Where gesture look and words conspireS
To stain the mind the passions fireS
Whence sin polluted streams aboundA
That whelm the country all aroundA
Ah Modesty should you be hereT
Close up the eye and stop the earT
Oppose your fan nor peep beneathU
And blushing shun their tainted breathV
-
Here every rake exerts his artA
T' ensnare the unsuspecting heartA
The prostitute with faithless smilesN
Remorseless plays her tricks and wilesN
Her gesture bold and ogling eyeF
Obtrusive speech and pert replyF
And brazen front and stubborn toneW
Show all her native virtue's flownW
By her the thoughtless youth is ta'enL
Impoverished disgraced or slainK
Through her the marriage vows are brokeX
And Hymen proves a galling yokeX
Diseases come destruction's dealtA
Where'er her poisonous breath is feltA
Whilst she poor wretch dies in the flameY
That runs through her polluted frameY
-
Once she was gentle fair and kindA
To no seducing schemes inclinedA
Would blush to hear a smutty taleZ
Nor ever strolled o'er hill or daleZ
But lived a sweet domestic maidA
To lend her aged parents aidA
And oft they gazed and oft they smiledA
On this their loved and only childA
They thought they might in her be blestA
And she would see them laid at restA
-
A blithesome youth of courtly mienA2
Oft called to see this rural queenA2
His oily tongue and wily artA
Soon gained Maria's yielding heartA
The aged pair too liked the youthB2
And thought him naught but love and truthB2
The village feast at length is comeC2
Maria by the youth's undoneD2
The youth is gone so is her fameY
And with it all her sense of shameY
And now she practises the artA
Which snared her unsuspecting heartA
And vice with a progressive swayE2
More hardened makes her every dayE2
Averse to good and prone to illF2
And dexterous in seducing skillF2
To look as if her eyes would meltA
T' affect a love she never feltA
To half suppress the rising sighF
Mechanically to weep and cryF
To vow eternal truth and thenL
To break her vow and vow againL
Her ways are darkness death and hellG2
Remorse and shame and passions fellG2
And short lived joy with endless painK
Pursues her in a gloomy trainK
-
O Britain fair thou queen of islesN
Nor hostile arms nor hostile wilesN
Could ever shake thy solid throneW
But for thy sins Thy sins aloneW
Can make thee stoop thy royal headA
And lay thee prostrate with the deadA
In vain colossal England mowsN
With ponderous strength the yielding foesN
In vain fair Scotia by her sideA
With courage flushed and Highland prideA
Whirls her keen blade with horrid whistleH2
And lops off heads like tops of thistleH2
In vain brave Erin famed afarI2
The flaming thunderbolt of warD
Profuse of life through blood does wadeA
To lend her sister kingdom aidA
Our conquering thunders vainly roarD
Terrific round the Gallic shoreD
Profoundest statesmen vainly schemeJ2
'Tis all a vain delusive dreamJ2
If treacherously within our breastA
We foster sin the deadly pestA
-
Where Sin abounds Religion diesN
And Virtue seeks her native skiesN
Chaste Conscience hides for very shameY
And Honour's but an empty nameY
Then like a flood with fearful dinK2
A gloomy host comes pouring inK2
First Bribery with her golden shieldA
Leads smooth Corruption o'er the fieldA
Dissension wild with brandished spearL2
And Anarchy bring up the rearL2
Whilst Care and Sorrow Grief and PainK
Run howling o'er the bloody plainK
-
O Thou whose power resistless fillsN
The boundless whole avert those illsN
We richly merit purge awayE2
The sins which on our vitals preyE2
Protect with Thine almighty shieldA
Our conquering arms by flood and fieldA
Wheel round the time when Peace shall smileM2
O'er Britain's highly favoured IsleM2
When all shall loud hosannas singN2
To Thee the great Eternal KingN2
-
But hark the bleak loud whistling windA
Its crushing blast recalls to mindA
The dangers of the troubled deepO2
Where with a fierce and thundering sweepO2
The winds in wild distraction raveP2
And push along the mountain waveP2
With dreadful swell and hideous curlQ2
Whilst hung aloft in giddy whirlQ2
Or drop beneath the ocean's bedA
The leaky bark without a shredA
Of rigging sweeps through dangers dreadA
The flaring beacon points the wayE2
And fast the pumps loud clanking playE2
It 'vails not hark with crashing shockR2
She's shivered 'gainst the solid rockR2
Or by the fierce incessant wavesN
Is beaten to a thousand stavesN
Or bilging at her crazy sideA
Admits the thundering hostile tideA
And down she sinks triumphant raveP2
The winds and close her wat'ry graveP2
-
The merchant's care and toil are vainK
His hopes He buried in the mainK
In vain the mother's tearful eyeF
Looks for its sole remaining joyS2
In vain fair Susan walks the shoreD
And sighs for him she'll see no moreD
For deep they lie in ocean's wombT2
And fester in a wat'ry tombT2
-
Now from the frothy thundering mainK
My meditations seek the plainK
Where with a swift fantastic flightA
They scour the regions of the nightA
Free as the winds that wildly blowE
O'er hill and dale the blinding snowE
Or through the woods their frolics playE2
And whirling sweep the dusty wayE2
When summer shines with burning glareG
And sportive breezes skim the airG
And Ocean's glassy breast is fannedA
To softest curl by Zephyr blandA
-
But Summer's gone and Winter's hereT
With iron sceptre rules the yearL2
Beneath this dark inclement skyF
How many wanderers faint and dieF
One flouncing o'er the treacherous snowE
Sinks in the pit that yawns belowE
Another numbed with panting liftA
Inhales the suffocating driftA
And creeping cold with stiffening forceN
Extends a third a pallid corseN
-
Thus death in varied dreadful formU2
Triumphant rides along the stormU2
With shocking scenes assails the sightA
And makes more sad the dismal nightA
How blest the man whose lot is freeP
From such distress and miseryP
Who sitting by his blazing fireS
Is closely wrapt in warm attireS
Whose sparkling glasses blush with wineV2
Of mirthful might and flavour fineV2
Whose house compact and strong defiesN
The rigour of the angry skiesN
The ruffling winds may blow their lastA
And snows come driving on the blastA
And frosts their icy morsels flingN2
But all within is mild as springN2
-
How blest is he blest did I sayE2
E'en sorrow here oft finds its wayE2
The senses numbed by frequent useN
Of criminal absurd abuseN
Of heaven's blessings listless growE
And life is but a dream of woeE
-
Oft fostered on the lap of easeN
Grow racking pain and foul diseaseN
And nervous whims a ghastly trainK
Inflicting more than corp'ral painK
Oft gold and shining pedigreeP
Prove only splendid miseryP
The king who sits upon his throneW
And calls the kneeling world his ownW
Has oft of cares a greater loadA
Than he who feels his iron rodA
-
No state is free from care and painK
Where fiery passions get the reinK
Or soft indulgence joined with easeN
Begets a thousand ills to teaseN
Where fair Religion heavenly maidA
Has slighted still her offered aidA
Her matchless power the will subduesN
And gives the judgment clearer viewsN
Denies no source of real pleasureS
And yields us blessings out of measureS
Our prospect brightens proves our stayE2
December turns to smiling MayE2
Conveys us to that peaceful shoreD
By raging billows lashed no moreD
Where endless happiness remainsN
And one eternal summer reignsN

Patrick Bronte



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