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 KKNNAANNSSE2E2DDNNRude winter's come the sky's o'ercast | A |
The night is cold and loud the blast | A |
The mingling snow comes driving down | B |
Fast whitening o'er the flinty ground | A |
Severe their lots whose crazy sheds | C |
Hang tottering o'er their trembling heads | C |
Whilst blows through walls and chinky door | D |
The drifting snow across the floor | D |
Where blinking embers scarcely glow | E |
And rushlight only serves to show | E |
What well may move the deepest sigh | F |
And force a tear from pity's eye | F |
You there may see a meagre pair | G |
Worn out with labour grief and care | G |
Whose naked babes in hungry mood | A |
Complain of cold and cry for food | A |
Whilst tears bedew the mother's cheek | H |
And sighs the father's grief bespeak | H |
For fire or raiment bed or board | A |
Their dreary shed cannot afford | A |
- | |
Will no kind hand confer relief | I |
And wipe away the tear of grief | I |
A little boon it well might spare | G |
Would kindle joy dispel their care | G |
Abate the rigour of the night | A |
And warm each heart achievement bright | A |
Yea brighter far than such as grace | J |
The annals of a princely race | J |
Where kings bestow a large domain | K |
But to receive as much again | L |
Or e'en corrupt the purest laws | M |
Or fan the breath of vain applause | M |
- | |
Peace to the man who stoops his head | A |
To enter the most wretched shed | A |
Who with his condescending smiles | N |
Poor diffidence and awe beguiles | N |
Till all encouraged soon disclose | N |
The different causes of their woes | N |
The moving tale dissolves his heart | A |
He liberally bestows a part | A |
Of God's donation From above | O |
Approving Heaven in smiles of love | O |
Looks on and through the shining skies | N |
The great Recording Angel flies | N |
The doors of mercy to unfold | A |
And write the deed in lines of gold | A |
There if a fruit of Faith's fair tree | P |
To shine throughout eternity | P |
In honour of that Sovereign dread | A |
Who had no place to lay His head | A |
Yet opened wide sweet Mercy's door | D |
To all the desolate and poor | Q |
Who stung with guilt and hard oppressed | A |
Groaned to be with Him and at rest | A |
- | |
Now pent within the city wall | R |
They throng to theatre and hall | R |
Where gesture look and words conspire | S |
To stain the mind the passions fire | S |
Whence sin polluted streams abound | A |
That whelm the country all around | A |
Ah Modesty should you be here | T |
Close up the eye and stop the ear | T |
Oppose your fan nor peep beneath | U |
And blushing shun their tainted breath | V |
- | |
Here every rake exerts his art | A |
T' ensnare the unsuspecting heart | A |
The prostitute with faithless smiles | N |
Remorseless plays her tricks and wiles | N |
Her gesture bold and ogling eye | F |
Obtrusive speech and pert reply | F |
And brazen front and stubborn tone | W |
Show all her native virtue's flown | W |
By her the thoughtless youth is ta'en | L |
Impoverished disgraced or slain | K |
Through her the marriage vows are broke | X |
And Hymen proves a galling yoke | X |
Diseases come destruction's dealt | A |
Where'er her poisonous breath is felt | A |
Whilst she poor wretch dies in the flame | Y |
That runs through her polluted frame | Y |
- | |
Once she was gentle fair and kind | A |
To no seducing schemes inclined | A |
Would blush to hear a smutty tale | Z |
Nor ever strolled o'er hill or dale | Z |
But lived a sweet domestic maid | A |
To lend her aged parents aid | A |
And oft they gazed and oft they smiled | A |
On this their loved and only child | A |
They thought they might in her be blest | A |
And she would see them laid at rest | A |
- | |
A blithesome youth of courtly mien | A2 |
Oft called to see this rural queen | A2 |
His oily tongue and wily art | A |
Soon gained Maria's yielding heart | A |
The aged pair too liked the youth | B2 |
And thought him naught but love and truth | B2 |
The village feast at length is come | C2 |
Maria by the youth's undone | D2 |
The youth is gone so is her fame | Y |
And with it all her sense of shame | Y |
And now she practises the art | A |
Which snared her unsuspecting heart | A |
And vice with a progressive sway | E2 |
More hardened makes her every day | E2 |
Averse to good and prone to ill | F2 |
And dexterous in seducing skill | F2 |
To look as if her eyes would melt | A |
T' affect a love she never felt | A |
To half suppress the rising sigh | F |
Mechanically to weep and cry | F |
To vow eternal truth and then | L |
To break her vow and vow again | L |
Her ways are darkness death and hell | G2 |
Remorse and shame and passions fell | G2 |
And short lived joy with endless pain | K |
Pursues her in a gloomy train | K |
- | |
O Britain fair thou queen of isles | N |
Nor hostile arms nor hostile wiles | N |
Could ever shake thy solid throne | W |
But for thy sins Thy sins alone | W |
Can make thee stoop thy royal head | A |
And lay thee prostrate with the dead | A |
In vain colossal England mows | N |
With ponderous strength the yielding foes | N |
In vain fair Scotia by her side | A |
With courage flushed and Highland pride | A |
Whirls her keen blade with horrid whistle | H2 |
And lops off heads like tops of thistle | H2 |
In vain brave Erin famed afar | I2 |
The flaming thunderbolt of war | D |
Profuse of life through blood does wade | A |
To lend her sister kingdom aid | A |
Our conquering thunders vainly roar | D |
Terrific round the Gallic shore | D |
Profoundest statesmen vainly scheme | J2 |
'Tis all a vain delusive dream | J2 |
If treacherously within our breast | A |
We foster sin the deadly pest | A |
- | |
Where Sin abounds Religion dies | N |
And Virtue seeks her native skies | N |
Chaste Conscience hides for very shame | Y |
And Honour's but an empty name | Y |
Then like a flood with fearful din | K2 |
A gloomy host comes pouring in | K2 |
First Bribery with her golden shield | A |
Leads smooth Corruption o'er the field | A |
Dissension wild with brandished spear | L2 |
And Anarchy bring up the rear | L2 |
Whilst Care and Sorrow Grief and Pain | K |
Run howling o'er the bloody plain | K |
- | |
O Thou whose power resistless fills | N |
The boundless whole avert those ills | N |
We richly merit purge away | E2 |
The sins which on our vitals prey | E2 |
Protect with Thine almighty shield | A |
Our conquering arms by flood and field | A |
Wheel round the time when Peace shall smile | M2 |
O'er Britain's highly favoured Isle | M2 |
When all shall loud hosannas sing | N2 |
To Thee the great Eternal King | N2 |
- | |
But hark the bleak loud whistling wind | A |
Its crushing blast recalls to mind | A |
The dangers of the troubled deep | O2 |
Where with a fierce and thundering sweep | O2 |
The winds in wild distraction rave | P2 |
And push along the mountain wave | P2 |
With dreadful swell and hideous curl | Q2 |
Whilst hung aloft in giddy whirl | Q2 |
Or drop beneath the ocean's bed | A |
The leaky bark without a shred | A |
Of rigging sweeps through dangers dread | A |
The flaring beacon points the way | E2 |
And fast the pumps loud clanking play | E2 |
It 'vails not hark with crashing shock | R2 |
She's shivered 'gainst the solid rock | R2 |
Or by the fierce incessant waves | N |
Is beaten to a thousand staves | N |
Or bilging at her crazy side | A |
Admits the thundering hostile tide | A |
And down she sinks triumphant rave | P2 |
The winds and close her wat'ry grave | P2 |
- | |
The merchant's care and toil are vain | K |
His hopes He buried in the main | K |
In vain the mother's tearful eye | F |
Looks for its sole remaining joy | S2 |
In vain fair Susan walks the shore | D |
And sighs for him she'll see no more | D |
For deep they lie in ocean's womb | T2 |
And fester in a wat'ry tomb | T2 |
- | |
Now from the frothy thundering main | K |
My meditations seek the plain | K |
Where with a swift fantastic flight | A |
They scour the regions of the night | A |
Free as the winds that wildly blow | E |
O'er hill and dale the blinding snow | E |
Or through the woods their frolics play | E2 |
And whirling sweep the dusty way | E2 |
When summer shines with burning glare | G |
And sportive breezes skim the air | G |
And Ocean's glassy breast is fanned | A |
To softest curl by Zephyr bland | A |
- | |
But Summer's gone and Winter's here | T |
With iron sceptre rules the year | L2 |
Beneath this dark inclement sky | F |
How many wanderers faint and die | F |
One flouncing o'er the treacherous snow | E |
Sinks in the pit that yawns below | E |
Another numbed with panting lift | A |
Inhales the suffocating drift | A |
And creeping cold with stiffening force | N |
Extends a third a pallid corse | N |
- | |
Thus death in varied dreadful form | U2 |
Triumphant rides along the storm | U2 |
With shocking scenes assails the sight | A |
And makes more sad the dismal night | A |
How blest the man whose lot is free | P |
From such distress and misery | P |
Who sitting by his blazing fire | S |
Is closely wrapt in warm attire | S |
Whose sparkling glasses blush with wine | V2 |
Of mirthful might and flavour fine | V2 |
Whose house compact and strong defies | N |
The rigour of the angry skies | N |
The ruffling winds may blow their last | A |
And snows come driving on the blast | A |
And frosts their icy morsels fling | N2 |
But all within is mild as spring | N2 |
- | |
How blest is he blest did I say | E2 |
E'en sorrow here oft finds its way | E2 |
The senses numbed by frequent use | N |
Of criminal absurd abuse | N |
Of heaven's blessings listless grow | E |
And life is but a dream of woe | E |
- | |
Oft fostered on the lap of ease | N |
Grow racking pain and foul disease | N |
And nervous whims a ghastly train | K |
Inflicting more than corp'ral pain | K |
Oft gold and shining pedigree | P |
Prove only splendid misery | P |
The king who sits upon his throne | W |
And calls the kneeling world his own | W |
Has oft of cares a greater load | A |
Than he who feels his iron rod | A |
- | |
No state is free from care and pain | K |
Where fiery passions get the rein | K |
Or soft indulgence joined with ease | N |
Begets a thousand ills to tease | N |
Where fair Religion heavenly maid | A |
Has slighted still her offered aid | A |
Her matchless power the will subdues | N |
And gives the judgment clearer views | N |
Denies no source of real pleasure | S |
And yields us blessings out of measure | S |
Our prospect brightens proves our stay | E2 |
December turns to smiling May | E2 |
Conveys us to that peaceful shore | D |
By raging billows lashed no more | D |
Where endless happiness remains | N |
And one eternal summer reigns | N |
Patrick Bronte
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