The Harp Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDBBEFGHIIJKIKII ILJLMILINIIOOPP QQ RRR STOOUUIVRRWCRXXYZA2C CB2B2C2C2OOD2D2OOIIE 2E2F2F2F2F2TTIIIIPPR RF2F2IIG2G2H2H2I2D2C 2C2TTRRPP RROOIIIIJ2RRK2K2J2F2 F2L2L2M2M2M2

One musician is sureA
His wisdom will not failB
He has not tasted wine impureA
Nor bent to passion frailB
Age cannot cloud his memoryC
Nor grief untune his voiceD
Ranging down the ruled scaleB
From tone of joy to inward wailB
Tempering the pitch of allE
In his windy caveF
He all the fables knowsG
And in their causes tellsH
Knows Nature's rarest moodsI
Ever on her secret broodsI
The Muse of men is coyJ
Oft courted will not comeK
In palaces and market squaresI
Entreated she is dumbK
But my minstrel knows and tellsI
The counsel of the godsI
Knows of Holy Book the spellsI
Knows the law of Night and DayL
And the heart of girl and boyJ
The tragic and the gayL
And what is writ on Table RoundM
Of Arthur and his peersI
What sea and land discoursing sayL
In sidereal yearsI
He renders all his loreN
In numbers wild as dreamsI
Modulating all extremesI
What the spangled meadow saithO
To the children who have faithO
Only to children children singP
Only to youth will spring be springP
-
Who is the Bard thus magnifiedQ
When did he sing and where abideQ
-
Chief of song where poets feastR
Is the wind harp which thou seestR
In the casement at my sideR
-
Aeolian harpS
How strangely wise thy strainT
Gay for youth gay for youthO
Sweet is art but sweeter truthO
In the hall at summer eveU
Fate and Beauty skilled to weaveU
From the eager opening stringsI
Rung loud and bold the songV
Who but loved the wind harp's noteR
How should not the poet doatR
On its mystic tongueW
With its primeval memoryC
Reporting what old minstrels toldR
Of Merlin locked the harp withinX
Merlin paying the pain of sinX
Pent in a dungeon made of airY
And some attain his voice to hearZ
Words of pain and cries of fearA2
But pillowed all on melodyC
As fits the griefs of bards to beC
And what if that all echoing shellB2
Which thus the buried Past can tellB2
Should rive the Future and revealC2
What his dread folds would fain concealC2
It shares the secret of the earthO
And of the kinds that owe her birthO
Speaks not of self that mystic toneD2
But of the Overgods aloneD2
It trembles to the cosmic breathO
As it heareth so it saithO
Obeying meek the primal CauseI
It is the tongue of mundane lawsI
And this at least I dare affirmE2
Since genius too has bound and termE2
There is no bard in all the choirF2
Not Homer's self the poet sireF2
Wise Milton's odes of pensive pleasureF2
Or Shakspeare whom no mind can measureF2
Nor Collins' verse of tender painT
Nor Byron's clarion of disdainT
Scott the delight of generous boysI
Or Wordsworth Pan's recording voiceI
Not one of all can put in verseI
Or to this presence could rehearseI
The sights and voices ravishingP
The boy knew on the hills in springP
When pacing through the oaks he heardR
Sharp queries of the sentry birdR
The heavy grouse's sudden whirF2
The rattle of the kingfisherF2
Saw bonfires of the harlot fliesI
In the lowland when day diesI
Or marked benighted and forlornG2
The first far signal fire of mornG2
These syllables that Nature spokeH2
And the thoughts that in him wokeH2
Can adequately utter noneI2
Save to his ear the wind harp loneD2
Therein I hear the Parcae reelC2
The threads of man at their humming wheelC2
The threads of life and power and painT
So sweet and mournful falls the strainT
And best can teach its Delphian chordR
How Nature to the soul is mooredR
If once again that silent stringP
As erst it wont would thrill and ringP
-
Not long ago at eventideR
It seemed so listening at my sideR
A window rose and to say soothO
I looked forth on the fields of youthO
I saw fair boys bestriding steedsI
I knew their forms in fancy weedsI
Long long concealed by sundering fatesI
Mates of my youth yet not my matesI
Stronger and bolder far than IJ2
With grace with genius well attiredR
And then as now from far admiredR
Followed with loveK2
They knew not ofK2
With passion cold and shyJ2
O joy for what recoveries rareF2
Renewed I breathe Elysian airF2
See youth's glad mates in earliest bloomL2
Break not my dream obtrusive tombL2
Or teach thou Spring the grand recoilM2
Of life resurgent from the soilM2
Wherein was dropped the mortal spoilM2

Ralph Waldo Emerson



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