Queen Mab: Part V. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMMNMOPQR SMTSMUVWKMXYMMUZY CA2HYQB2C2ZHD2E2MF2G 2H2 MI2D2J2K2MI2XML2M2 F2UN2O2RMP2YQ2R2XEVC 2S2 T2MN2YMG2EQMOMU2D2V2 X W2MX2Y2Z2UA3B3A2C3N2 MMMOMD3RQ2Q2T2KYE3MY VMJ2L2MMI2X MS2YF3BMYMG3A3YOKH3I 3YI3XQ2J3 F3AM2K3L3XQG2YM3N3XO 3F2XMMP3YY XAT2Q3YYXXYXX Q2QMR3U2B2T2QXXMG2Y2 S3MK

'Thus do the generations of the earthA
Go to the grave and issue from the wombB
Surviving still the imperishable changeC
That renovates the world even as the leavesD
Which the keen frost wind of the waning yearE
Has scattered on the forest soil and heapedF
For many seasons there though long they chokeG
Loading with loathsome rottenness the landH
All germs of promise yet when the tall treesI
From which they fell shorn of their lovely shapesJ
Lie level with the earth to moulder thereK
They fertilize the land they long deformedL
Till from the breathing lawn a forest springsM
Of youth integrity and lovelinessM
Like that which gave it life to spring and dieN
Thus suicidal selfishness that blightsM
The fairest feelings of the opening heartO
Is destined to decay whilst from the soilP
Shall spring all virtue all delight all loveQ
And judgment cease to wage unnatural warR
With passion's unsubduable arrayS
Twin sister of Religion SelfishnessM
Rival in crime and falsehood aping allT
The wanton horrors of her bloody playS
Yet frozen unimpassioned spiritlessM
Shunning the light and owning not its nameU
Compelled by its deformity to screenV
With flimsy veil of justice and of rightW
Its unattractive lineaments that scareK
All save the brood of ignorance at onceM
The cause and the effect of tyrannyX
Unblushing hardened sensual and vileY
Dead to all love but of its abjectnessM
With heart impassive by more noble powersM
Than unshared pleasure sordid gain or fameU
Despising its own miserable beingZ
Which still it longs yet fears to disenthrallY
-
'Hence commerce springs the venal interchangeC
Of all that human art or Nature yieldA2
Which wealth should purchase not but want demandH
And natural kindness hasten to supplyY
From the full fountain of its boundless loveQ
Forever stifled drained and tainted nowB2
Commerce beneath whose poison breathing shadeC2
No solitary virtue dares to springZ
But poverty and wealth with equal handH
Scatter their withering curses and unfoldD2
The doors of premature and violent deathE2
To pining famine and full fed diseaseM
To all that shares the lot of human lifeF2
Which poisoned body and soul scarce drags the chainG2
That lengthens as it goes and clanks behindH2
-
'Commerce has set the mark of selfishnessM
The signet of its all enslaving powerI2
Upon a shining ore and called it goldD2
Before whose image bow the vulgar greatJ2
The vainly rich the miserable proudK2
The mob of peasants nobles priests and kingsM
And with blind feelings reverence the powerI2
That grinds them to the dust of miseryX
But in the temple of their hireling heartsM
Gold is a living god and rules in scornL2
All earthly things but virtueM2
-
'Since tyrants by the sale of human lifeF2
Heap luxuries to their sensualism and fameU
To their wide wasting and insatiate prideN2
Success has sanctioned to a credulous worldO2
The ruin the disgrace the woe of warR
His hosts of blind and unresisting dupesM
The despot numbers from his cabinetP2
These puppets of his schemes he moves at willY
Even as the slaves by force or famine drivenQ2
Beneath a vulgar master to performR2
A task of cold and brutal drudgeryX
Hardened to hope insensible to fearE
Scarce living pulleys of a dead machineV
Mere wheels of work and articles of tradeC2
That grace the proud and noisy pomp of wealthS2
-
'The harmony and happiness of manT2
Yields to the wealth of nations that which liftsM
His nature to the heaven of its prideN2
Is bartered for the poison of his soulY
The weight that drags to earth his towering hopesM
Blighting all prospect but of selfish gainG2
Withering all passion but of slavish fearE
Extinguishing all free and generous loveQ
Of enterprise and daring even the pulseM
That fancy kindles in the beating heartO
To mingle with sensation it destroysM
Leaves nothing but the sordid lust of selfU2
The grovelling hope of interest and goldD2
Unqualified unmingled unredeemedV2
Even by hypocrisyX
-
And statesmen boastW2
Of wealth The wordy eloquence that livesM
After the ruin of their hearts can gildX2
The bitter poison of a nation's woeY2
Can turn the worship of the servile mobZ2
To their corrupt and glaring idol fameU
From virtue trampled by its iron treadA3
Although its dazzling pedestal be raisedB3
Amid the horrors of a limb strewn fieldA2
With desolated dwellings smoking roundC3
The man of ease who by his warm firesideN2
To deeds of charitable intercourseM
And bare fulfilment of the common lawsM
Of decency and prejudice confinesM
The struggling nature of his human heartO
Is duped by their cold sophistry he shedsM
A passing tear perchance upon the wreckD3
Of earthly peace when near his dwelling's doorR
The frightful waves are driven when his sonQ2
Is murdered by the tyrant or religionQ2
Drives his wife raving mad But the poor manT2
Whose life is misery and fear and careK
Whom the morn wakens but to fruitless toilY
Who ever hears his famished offspring's screamE3
Whom their pale mother's uncomplaining gazeM
Forever meets and the proud rich man's eyeY
Flashing command and the heart breaking sceneV
Of thousands like himself he little heedsM
The rhetoric of tyranny his hateJ2
Is quenchless as his wrongs he laughs to scornL2
The vain and bitter mockery of wordsM
Feeling the horror of the tyrant's deedsM
And unrestrained but by the arm of powerI2
That knows and dreads his enmityX
-
'The iron rod of penury still compelsM
Her wretched slave to bow the knee to wealthS2
And poison with unprofitable toilY
A life too void of solace to confirmF3
The very chains that bind him to his doomB
Nature impartial in munificenceM
Has gifted man with all subduing willY
Matter with all its transitory shapesM
Lies subjected and plastic at his feetG3
That weak from bondage tremble as they treadA3
How many a rustic Milton has passed byY
Stifling the speechless longings of his heartO
In unremitting drudgery and careK
How many a vulgar Cato has compelledH3
His energies no longer tameless thenI3
To mould a pin or fabricate a nailY
How many a Newton to whose passive kenI3
Those mighty spheres that gem infinityX
Were only specks of tinsel fixed in heavenQ2
To light the midnights of his native townJ3
-
'Yet every heart contains perfection's germF3
The wisest of the sages of the earthA
That ever from the stores of reason drewM2
Science and truth and virtue's dreadless toneK3
Were but a weak and inexperienced boyL3
Proud sensual unimpassioned unimbuedX
With pure desire and universal loveQ
Compared to that high being of cloudless brainG2
Untainted passion elevated willY
Which death who even would linger long in aweM3
Within his noble presence and beneathN3
His changeless eye beam might alone subdueX
Him every slave now dragging through the filthO3
Of some corrupted city his sad lifeF2
Pining with famine swoln with luxuryX
Blunting the keenness of his spiritual senseM
With narrow schemings and unworthy caresM
Or madly rushing through all violent crimeP3
To move the deep stagnation of his soulY
Might imitate and equalY
-
But mean lustX
Has bound its chains so tight about the earthA
That all within it but the virtuous manT2
Is venal gold or fame will surely reachQ3
The price prefixed by Selfishness to allY
But him of resolute and unchanging willY
Whom nor the plaudits of a servile crowdX
Nor the vile joys of tainting luxuryX
Can bribe to yield his elevated soulY
To Tyranny or Falsehood though they wieldX
With blood red hand the sceptre of the worldX
-
'All things are sold the very light of heavenQ2
Is venal earth's unsparing gifts of loveQ
The smallest and most despicable thingsM
That lurk in the abysses of the deepR3
All objects of our life even life itselfU2
And the poor pittance which the laws allowB2
Of liberty the fellowship of manT2
Those duties which his heart of human loveQ
Should urge him to perform instinctivelyX
Are bought and sold as in a public martX
Of undisguising Selfishness that setsM
On each its price the stamp mark of her reignG2
Even love is sold the solace of all woeY2
Is turned to deadliest agony old ageS3
Shivers in selfish beauty's loathing armsM
And youth's corrupted impulses prepareK

Percy Bysshe Shelley



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