The Triumph Of Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABACDCDEDEFEGHFHIHIJ IJKJKLKLMLMNMNHNHIHI EOEOPOPQPQRDSTSUVUWX WXMXMXMXXXXEXEYEYXYX HXHZHZA2ZA2UA2UOUODO DHDHB2HB2XC2XDXDDDDH DHXHXHXHPHPD2PD2YD2Y JB2TE2JE2DE2DHDHB2HB 2HB2HF2HPXPXG2XG2H2G 2H2XH2XXXXI2XI2DI2DQ D

Swift as a spirit hastening to his taskA
Of glory of good the Sun sprang forthB
Rejoicing in his splendour the maskA
Of darkness fell from the awakened EarthC
The smokeless altars of the mountain snowsD
Flamed above crimson clouds at the birthC
Of light the Ocean's orison aroseD
To which the birds tempered their matin layE
All flowers in field or forest which uncloseD
Their trembling eyelids to the kiss of dayE
Swinging their censers in the elementF
With orient incense lit by the new rayE
Burned slow inconsumably sentG
Their odorous sighs up to the smiling airH
And in succession due did ContinentF
Isle Ocean all things that in them wearH
The form character of mortal mouldI
Rise as the Sun their father rose to bearH
Their portion of the toil which he of oldI
Took as his own then imposed on themJ
But I whom thoughts which must remain untoldI
Had kept as wakeful as the stars that gemJ
The cone of night now they were laid asleepK
Stretched my faint limbs beneath the hoary stemJ
Which an old chestnut flung athwart the steepK
Of a green Apennine before me fledL
The night behind me rose the day the DeepK
Was at my feet Heaven above my headL
When a strange trance over my fancy grewM
Which was not slumber for the shade it spreadL
Was so transparent that the scene came throughM
As clear as when a veil of light is drawnN
O'er evening hills they glimmer and I knewM
That I had felt the freshness of that dawnN
Bathed in the same cold dew my brow hairH
And sate as thus upon that slope of lawnN
Under the self same bough heard as thereH
The birds the fountains the Ocean holdI
Sweet talk in music through the enamoured airH
And then a Vision on my brain was rolledI
-
As in that trance of wondrous thought I layE
This was the tenour of my waking dreamO
Methought I sate beside a public wayE
Thick strewn with summer dust a great streamO
Of people there was hurrying to froP
Numerous as gnats upon the evening gleamO
All hastening onward yet none seemed to knowP
Whither he went or whence he came or whyQ
He made one of the multitude yet soP
Was borne amid the crowd as through the skyQ
One of the million leaves of summer's bierR
Old age youth manhood infancyD
Mixed in one mighty torrent did appearS
Some flying from the thing they feared someT
Seeking the object of another's fearS
And others as with steps towards the tombU
Pored on the trodden worms that crawled beneathV
And others mournfully within the gloomU
Of their own shadow walked and called it deathW
And some fled from it as it were a ghostX
Half fainting in the affliction of vain breathW
But more with motions which each other crostX
Pursued or shunned the shadows the clouds threwM
Or birds within the noonday ether lostX
Upon that path where flowers never grewM
And weary with vain toil faint for thirstX
Heard not the fountains whose melodious dewM
Out of their mossy cells forever burstX
Nor felt the breeze which from the forest toldX
Of grassy paths wood lawns interspersedX
With overarching elms caverns coldX
And violet banks where sweet dreams brood but theyE
Pursued their serious folly as of oldX
And as I gazed methought that in the wayE
The throng grew wilder as the woods of JuneY
When the South wind shakes the extinguished dayE
And a cold glare intenser than the noonY
But icy cold obscured with blank lightX
The Sun as he the stars Like the young moonY
When on the sunlit limits of the nightX
Her white shell trembles amid crimson airH
And whilst the sleeping tempest gathers mightX
Doth as a herald of its coming bearH
The ghost of her dead Mother whose dim formZ
Bends in dark ether from her infant's chairH
So came a chariot on the silent stormZ
Of its own rushing splendour and a ShapeA2
So sate within as one whom years deformZ
Beneath a dusky hood double capeA2
Crouching within the shadow of a tombU
And o'er what seemed the head a cloud like crapeA2
Was bent a dun faint etherial gloomU
Tempering the light upon the chariot's beamO
A Janus visaged Shadow did assumeU
The guidance of that wonder winged teamO
The Shapes which drew it in thick lightningsD
Were lost I heard alone on the air's soft streamO
The music of their ever moving wingsD
All the four faces of that charioteerH
Had their eyes banded little profit bringsD
Speed in the van blindness in the rearH
Nor then avail the beams that quench the SunB2
Or that his banded eyes could pierce the sphereH
Of all that is has been or will be doneB2
So ill was the car guided but it pastX
With solemn speed majestically onC2
The crowd gave way I arose aghastX
Or seemed to rise so mighty was the tranceD
And saw like clouds upon the thunder blastX
The million with fierce song and maniac danceD
Raging around such seemed the jubileeD
As when to greet some conqueror's advanceD
Imperial Rome poured forth her living seaD
From senatehouse prison theatreH
When Freedom left those who upon the freeD
Had bound a yoke which soon they stooped to bearH
Nor wanted here the true similitudeX
Of a triumphal pageant for where'erH
The chariot rolled a captive multitudeX
Was driven althose who had grown old in powerH
Or misery all who have their age subduedX
By action or by suffering and whose hourH
Was drained to its last sand in weal or woeP
So that the trunk survived both fruit flowerH
All those whose fame or infamy must growP
Till the great winter lay the form nameD2
Of their own earth with them forever lowP
All but the sacred few who could not tameD2
Their spirits to the Conqueror but as soonY
As they had touched the world with living flameD2
Fled back like eagles to their native noonY
Of those who put aside the diademJ
Of earthly thrones or gems till the last oneB2
Were there for they of Athens JerusalemT
Were neither mid the mighty captives seenE2
Nor mid the ribald crowd that followed themJ
Or fled before Now swift fierce obsceneE2
The wild dance maddens in the van thoseD
Who lead it fleet as shadows on the greenE2
Outspeed the chariot without reposeD
Mix with each other in tempestuous measureH
To savage music Wilder as it growsD
They tortured by the agonizing pleasureH
Convulsed on the rapid whirlwinds spunB2
Of that fierce spirit whose unholy leisureH
Was soothed by mischief since the world begunB2
Throw back their heads loose their streaming hairH
And in their dance round her who dims the SunB2
Maidens youths fling their wild arms in airH
As their feet twinkle they recede and nowF2
Bending within each other's atmosphereH
Kindle invisibly and as they glowP
Like moths by light attracted repelledX
Oft to new bright destruction come goP
Till like two clouds into one vale impelledX
That shake the mountains when their lightnings mingleG2
And die in rain the fiery band which heldX
Their natures snaps ere the shock cease to tingleG2
One falls and then another in the pathH2
Senseless nor is the desolation singleG2
Yet ere I can say where the chariot hathH2
Past over them nor other trace I findX
But as of foam after the Ocean's wrathH2
Is spent upon the desert shore BehindX
Old men and women foully disarrayedX
Shake their grey hair in the insulting windX
Limp in the dance strain with limbs decayedX
Seeking to reach the light which leaves them stillI2
Farther behind deeper in the shadeX
But not the less with impotence of willI2
They wheel though ghastly shadows interposeD
Round them round each other and fulfillI2
Their work and to the dust whence they aroseD
Sink corruption veils them as they lieQ
And frost in these pD

Percy Bysshe Shelley



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