The Retrospect: Cwm Elan, 1812 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEFGGHHIIJJKKGG JJIILMLMNOPOQQ BCRRSTUUVWVWKKXXYLYL EFZA2ZZA2JJ LLB2B2PPKKC2C2XXPP D2D2E2E2GGF2F2G2H2VI 2PPJ2BGGK2K2 L2L2M2M2N2IN2I EFO2O2 P2P2PPQQOOQ2R2H2H2S2 S2PPT2T2U2U2H2G2V2W2 X2EEX2FW2W2PPB2N2B2N 2A2A2B2B2Y2Y2GGA scene which 'wildered fancy viewed | A |
In the soul's coldest solitude | A |
With that same scene when peaceful love | B |
Flings rapture's colour o'er the grove | C |
When mountain meadow wood and stream | D |
With unalloying glory gleam | D |
And to the spirit's ear and eye | E |
Are unison and harmony | F |
The moonlight was my dearer day | G |
Then would I wander far away | G |
And lingering on the wild brook's shore | H |
To hear its unremitting roar | H |
Would lose in the ideal flow | I |
All sense of overwhelming woe | I |
Or at the noiseless noon of night | J |
Would climb some heathy mountain's height | J |
And listen to the mystic sound | K |
That stole in fitful gasps around | K |
I joyed to see the streaks of day | G |
Above the purple peaks decay | G |
And watch the latest line of light | J |
Just mingling with the shades of night | J |
For day with me was time of woe | I |
When even tears refused to flow | I |
Then would I stretch my languid frame | L |
Beneath the wild woods' gloomiest shade | M |
And try to quench the ceaseless flame | L |
That on my withered vitals preyed | M |
Would close mine eyes and dream I were | N |
On some remote and friendless plain | O |
And long to leave existence there | P |
If with it I might leave the pain | O |
That with a finger cold and lean | Q |
Wrote madness on my withering mien | Q |
- | |
It was not unrequited love | B |
That bade my wildered spirit rove | C |
'Twas not the pride disdaining life | R |
That with this mortal world at strife | R |
Would yield to the soul's inward sense | S |
Then groan in human impotence | T |
And weep because it is not given | U |
To taste on Earth the peace of Heaven | U |
'Twas not that in the narrow sphere | V |
Where Nature fixed my wayward fate | W |
There was no friend or kindred dear | V |
Formed to become that spirit's mate | W |
Which searching on tired pinion found | K |
Barren and cold repulse around | K |
Oh no yet each one sorrow gave | X |
New graces to the narrow grave | X |
For broken vows had early quelled | Y |
The stainless spirit's vestal flame | L |
Yes whilst the faithful bosom swelled | Y |
Then the envenomed arrow came | L |
And Apathy's unaltering eye | E |
Beamed coldness on the misery | F |
And early I had learned to scorn | Z |
The chains of clay that bound a soul | A2 |
Panting to seize the wings of morn | Z |
And where its vital fires were born | Z |
To soar and spur the cold control | A2 |
Which the vile slaves of earthly night | J |
Would twine around its struggling flight | J |
- | |
Oh many were the friends whom fame | L |
Had linked with the unmeaning name | L |
Whose magic marked among mankind | B2 |
The casket of my unknown mind | B2 |
Which hidden from the vulgar glare | P |
Imbibed no fleeting radiance there | P |
My darksome spirit sought it found | K |
A friendless solitude around | K |
For who that might undaunted stand | C2 |
The saviour of a sinking land | C2 |
Would crawl its ruthless tyrant's slave | X |
And fatten upon Freedom's grave | X |
Though doomed with her to perish where | P |
The captive clasps abhorred despair | P |
- | |
They could not share the bosom's feeling | D2 |
Which passion's every throb revealing | D2 |
Dared force on the world's notice cold | E2 |
Thoughts of unprofitable mould | E2 |
Who bask in Custom's fickle ray | G |
Fit sunshine of such wintry day | G |
They could not in a twilight walk | F2 |
Weave an impassioned web of talk | F2 |
Till mysteries the spirits press | G2 |
In wild yet tender awfulness | H2 |
Then feel within our narrow sphere | V |
How little yet how great we are | I2 |
But they might shine in courtly glare | P |
Attract the rabble's cheapest stare | P |
And might command where'er they move | J2 |
A thing that bears the name of love | B |
They might be learned witty gay | G |
Foremost in fashion's gilt array | G |
On Fame's emblazoned pages shine | K2 |
Be princes' friends but never mine | K2 |
- | |
Ye jagged peaks that frown sublime | L2 |
Mocking the blunted scythe of Time | L2 |
Whence I would watch its lustre pale | M2 |
Steal from the moon o'er yonder vale | M2 |
Thou rock whose bosom black and vast | N2 |
Bared to the stream's unceasing flow | I |
Ever its giant shade doth cast | N2 |
On the tumultuous surge below | I |
- | |
Woods to whose depths retires to die | E |
The wounded Echo's melody | F |
And whither this lone spirit bent | O2 |
The footstep of a wild intent | O2 |
- | |
Meadows whose green and spangled breast | P2 |
These fevered limbs have often pressed | P2 |
Until the watchful fiend Despair | P |
Slept in the soothing coolness there | P |
Have not your varied beauties seen | Q |
The sunken eye the withering mien | Q |
Sad traces of the unuttered pain | O |
That froze my heart and burned my brain | O |
How changed since Nature's summer form | Q2 |
Had last the power my grief to charm | R2 |
Since last ye soothed my spirit's sadness | H2 |
Strange chaos of a mingled madness | H2 |
Changed not the loathsome worm that fed | S2 |
In the dark mansions of the dead | S2 |
Now soaring through the fields of air | P |
And gathering purest nectar there | P |
A butterfly whose million hues | T2 |
The dazzled eye of wonder views | T2 |
Long lingering on a work so strange | U2 |
Has undergone so bright a change | U2 |
How do I feel my happiness | H2 |
I cannot tell but they may guess | G2 |
Whose every gloomy feeling gone | V2 |
Friendship and passion feel alone | W2 |
Who see mortality's dull clouds | X2 |
Before affection's murmur fly | E |
Whilst the mild glances of her eye | E |
Pierce the thin veil of flesh that shrouds | X2 |
The spirit's inmost sanctuary | F |
O thou whose virtues latest known | W2 |
First in this heart yet claim'st a throne | W2 |
Whose downy sceptre still shall share | P |
The gentle sway with virtue there | P |
Thou fair in form and pure in mind | B2 |
Whose ardent friendship rivets fast | N2 |
The flowery band our fates that bind | B2 |
Which incorruptible shall last | N2 |
When duty's hard and cold control | A2 |
Has thawed around the burning soul | A2 |
The gloomiest retrospects that bind | B2 |
With crowns of thorn the bleeding mind | B2 |
The prospects of most doubtful hue | Y2 |
That rise on Fancy's shuddering view | Y2 |
Are gilt by the reviving ray | G |
Which thou hast flung upon my day | G |
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1)
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