On Recollection Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEDDFFGGHHII JJKKLLMNOOHHPPQRSSTT IIUUIIIIAAMneme begin Inspire ye sacred nine | A |
Your vent'rous Afric in her great design | A |
Mneme immortal pow'r I trace thy spring | B |
Assist my strains while I thy glories sing | B |
The acts of long departed years by thee | C |
Recover'd in due order rang'd we see | C |
Thy pow'r the long forgotten calls from night | D |
That sweetly plays before the fancy's sight | D |
Mneme in our nocturnal visions pours | E |
The ample treasure of her secret stores | E |
Swift from above the wings her silent flight | D |
Through Phoebe's realms fair regent of the night | D |
And in her pomp of images display'd | F |
To the high raptur'd poet gives her aid | F |
Through the unbounded regions of the mind | G |
Diffusing light celestial and refin'd | G |
The heav'nly phantom paints the actions done | H |
By ev'ry tribe beneath the rolling sun | H |
Mneme enthron'd within the human breast | I |
Has vice condemn'd and ev'ry virtue blest | I |
How sweet the sound when we her plaudit hear | J |
Sweeter than music to the ravish'd ear | J |
Sweeter than Maro's entertaining strains | K |
Resounding through the groves and hills and plains | K |
But how is Mneme dreaded by the race | L |
Who scorn her warnings and despise her grace | L |
By her unveil'd each horrid crime appears | M |
Her awful hand a cup of wormwood bears | N |
Days years mispent O what a hell of woe | O |
Hers the worst tortures that our souls can know | O |
Now eighteen years their destin'd course have run | H |
In fast succession round the central sun | H |
How did the follies of that period pass | P |
Unnotic'd but behold them writ in brass | P |
In Recollection see them fresh return | Q |
And sure 'tis mine to be asham'd and mourn | R |
O Virtue smiling in immortal green | S |
Do thou exert thy pow'r and change the scene | S |
Be thine employ to guide my future days | T |
And mine to pay the tribute of my praise | T |
Of Recollection such the pow'r enthron'd | I |
In ev'ry breast and thus her pow'r is own'd | I |
The wretch who dar'd the vengeance of the skies | U |
At last awakes in horror and surprise | U |
By her alarm'd he sees impending fate | I |
He howls in anguish and repents too late | I |
But O what peace what joys are hers t' impart | I |
To ev'ry holy ev'ry upright heart | I |
Thrice blest the man who in her sacred shrine | A |
Feels himself shelter'd from the wrath divine | A |
Phillis Wheatley
(1)
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