Mont Blanc: Lines Written In The Vale Of Chamouni Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDBBEDEFFCA GHHGIEJAKLJKMNHNHMLJ LOMPMMMPOMQQMAMQRA SFFASANAMNMAGMGMTMEE AAGUAVWUXAXAYYAA MAZZMNONA2AOAOAA2MNM MFAFMLAAAIEOMAB2MAC2 MC2AFFMRA RMD2MORLOD2E2MMME2AA AA

IA
The everlasting universe of thingsB
Flows through the mind and rolls its rapid wavesC
Now dark now glittering now reflecting gloomD
Now lending splendour where from secret springsB
The source of human thought its tribute bringsB
Of waters with a sound but half its ownE
Such as a feeble brook will oft assumeD
In the wild woods among the mountains loneE
Where waterfalls around it leap for everF
Where woods and winds contend and a vast riverF
Over its rocks ceaselessly bursts and ravesC
IIA
-
Thus thou Ravine of Arve dark deep RavineG
Thou many colour'd many voiced valeH
Over whose pines and crags and caverns sailH
Fast cloud shadows and sunbeams awful sceneG
Where Power in likeness of the Arve comes downI
From the ice gulfs that gird his secret throneE
Bursting through these dark mountains like the flameJ
Of lightning through the tempest thou dost lieA
Thy giant brood of pines around thee clingingK
Children of elder time in whose devotionL
The chainless winds still come and ever cameJ
To drink their odours and their mighty swingingK
To hear an old and solemn harmonyM
Thine earthly rainbows stretch'd across the sweepN
Of the aethereal waterfall whose veilH
Robes some unsculptur'd image the strange sleepN
Which when the voices of the desert failH
Wraps all in its own deep eternityM
Thy caverns echoing to the Arve's commotionL
A loud lone sound no other sound can tameJ
Thou art pervaded with that ceaseless motionL
Thou art the path of that unresting soundO
Dizzy Ravine and when I gaze on theeM
I seem as in a trance sublime and strangeP
To muse on my own separate fantasyM
My own my human mind which passivelyM
Now renders and receives fast influencingsM
Holding an unremitting interchangeP
With the clear universe of things aroundO
One legion of wild thoughts whose wandering wingsM
Now float above thy darkness and now restQ
Where that or thou art no unbidden guestQ
In the still cave of the witch PoesyM
Seeking among the shadows that pass byA
Ghosts of all things that are some shade of theeM
Some phantom some faint image till the breastQ
From which they fled recalls them thou art thereR
IIIA
-
Some say that gleams of a remoter worldS
Visit the soul in sleep that death is slumberF
And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumberF
Of those who wake and live I look on highA
Has some unknown omnipotence unfurl'dS
The veil of life and death or do I lieA
In dream and does the mightier world of sleepN
Spread far around and inaccessiblyA
Its circles For the very spirit failsM
Driven like a homeless cloud from steep to steepN
That vanishes among the viewless galesM
Far far above piercing the infinite skyA
Mont Blanc appears still snowy and sereneG
Its subject mountains their unearthly formsM
Pile around it ice and rock broad vales betweenG
Of frozen floods unfathomable deepsM
Blue as the overhanging heaven that spreadT
And wind among the accumulated steepsM
A desert peopled by the storms aloneE
Save when the eagle brings some hunter's boneE
And the wolf tracks her there how hideouslyA
Its shapes are heap'd around rude bare and highA
Ghastly and scarr'd and riven Is this the sceneG
Where the old Earthquake daemon taught her youngU
Ruin Were these their toys or did a seaA
Of fire envelop once this silent snowV
None can reply all seems eternal nowW
The wilderness has a mysterious tongueU
Which teaches awful doubt or faith so mildX
So solemn so serene that man may beA
But for such faith with Nature reconcil'dX
Thou hast a voice great Mountain to repealA
Large codes of fraud and woe not understoodY
By all but which the wise and great and goodY
Interpret or make felt or deeply feelA
IVA
-
The fields the lakes the forests and the streamsM
Ocean and all the living things that dwellA
Within the daedal earth lightning and rainZ
Earthquake and fiery flood and hurricaneZ
The torpor of the year when feeble dreamsM
Visit the hidden buds or dreamless sleepN
Holds every future leaf and flower the boundO
With which from that detested trance they leapN
The works and ways of man their death and birthA2
And that of him and all that his may beA
All things that move and breathe with toil and soundO
Are born and die revolve subside and swellA
Power dwells apart in its tranquillityO
Remote serene and inaccessibleA
And this the naked countenance of earthA2
On which I gaze even these primeval mountainsM
Teach the adverting mind The glaciers creepN
Like snakes that watch their prey from their far fountainsM
Slow rolling on there many a precipiceM
Frost and the Sun in scorn of mortal powerF
Have pil'd dome pyramid and pinnacleA
A city of death distinct with many a towerF
And wall impregnable of beaming iceM
Yet not a city but a flood of ruinL
Is there that from the boundaries of the skyA
Rolls its perpetual stream vast pines are strewingA
Its destin'd path or in the mangled soilA
Branchless and shatter'd stand the rocks drawn downI
From yon remotest waste have overthrownE
The limits of the dead and living worldO
Never to be reclaim'd The dwelling placeM
Of insects beasts and birds becomes its spoilA
Their food and their retreat for ever goneB2
So much of life and joy is lost The raceM
Of man flies far in dread his work and dwellingA
Vanish like smoke before the tempest's streamC2
And their place is not known Below vast cavesM
Shine in the rushing torrents' restless gleamC2
Which from those secret chasms in tumult wellingA
Meet in the vale and one majestic RiverF
The breath and blood of distant lands for everF
Rolls its loud waters to the ocean wavesM
Breathes its swift vapours to the circling airR
VA
-
-
Mont Blanc yet gleams on high the power is thereR
The still and solemn power of many sightsM
And many sounds and much of life and deathD2
In the calm darkness of the moonless nightsM
In the lone glare of day the snows descendO
Upon that Mountain none beholds them thereR
Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sunL
Or the star beams dart through them Winds contendO
Silently there and heap the snow with breathD2
Rapid and strong but silently Its homeE2
The voiceless lightning in these solitudesM
Keeps innocently and like vapour broodsM
Over the snow The secret Strength of thingsM
Which governs thought and to the infinite domeE2
Of Heaven is as a law inhabits theeA
And what were thou and earth and stars and seaA
If to the human mind's imaginingsA
Silence and solitude were vacancyA

Percy Bysshe Shelley



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation


Write your comment about Mont Blanc: Lines Written In The Vale Of Chamouni poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley


 

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 13 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets