The Wanderer: A Vision: Canto Iv Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDDEEFFAAGGHHIIJJKK LLMMNNOOAAPPFFQQKK PPAARRST UUVVWWLL TTAAXXYY ZZYY TTZZYYAATT AADD QQTTYYA2A2TTLB2TTTTT TC2D2YYTTE2E2YYTTTT AATT YY YYYYTTTTF2F2 ZZYY YY TTG2G2DD TTAA LLTTYYH2H2 YYAATTI2I2 YYTTTTTStill o'er my mind wild Fancy holds her sway | A |
Still on strange visionary land I stray | A |
Now scenes crowd thick now indistinct appear | B |
Swift glide the months and turn the varying year | B |
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Near the Bull's horn light's rising monarch draws | C |
Now on its back the Pleiades he thaws | C |
From vernal heat pale winter forc'd to fly | D |
Northward retires yet turns a wat'ry eye | D |
Then with an aguish breath nips infant blooms | E |
Deprives unfolding spring of rich perfumes | E |
Shakes the slow circling blood of human race | F |
And in sharp livid looks contracts the face | F |
Now o'er Norwegian hills he strides away | A |
Such slipp'ry paths Ambition's steps betray | A |
Turning with sighs far spiral firs he sees | G |
Which bow obedient to the southern breeze | G |
Now from yon Zemblan rock his crest he shrouds | H |
Like Fame's obscur'd amid the whitening clouds | H |
Thence his lost empire is with tears deplor'd | I |
Such tyrants shed o'er liberty restor'd | I |
Beneath his eye that throws malignant light | J |
Ten times the measur'd round of mortal sight | J |
A waste pale glimm'ring like a moon that wanes | K |
A wild expanse of frozen sea contains | K |
It cracks vast floating mountains beat the shore | L |
Far off he hears those icy ruins roar | L |
And from the hideous crash distracted flies | M |
Like one who feels his dying infant's cries | M |
Near and more near the rushing torrents sound | N |
And one great rift runs thro' the vast profound | N |
Swift as a shooting meteor groaning loud | O |
Like deep roll'd thunder thro' a rending cloud | O |
The late dark Pole now feels unsetting day | A |
In hurricanes of wrath he whirls his way | A |
O'er many a polar Alp to Frost he goes | P |
O'er crackling vales embrown'd with melting snows | P |
Here bears stalk tenants of the barren space | F |
Few men unsocial those a barb'rous race | F |
At length the cave appears the race is run | Q |
Now he recounts vast conquests lost and won | Q |
And taleful in th' embrace of Frost remains | K |
Barr'd from our climes and bound in icy chains | K |
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Meanwhile the sun his beams on Cancer throws | P |
Which now beneath his warmest influence glows | P |
From glowing Cancer fall'n the King of day | A |
Red thro' the kindling Lion shoots his ray | A |
The tawny harvest pays the earlier plough | R |
And mellowing fruitage loads the bending bough | R |
'Tis day spring Now green lab'rinths I frequent | S |
Where Wisdom oft retires to meet Content | T |
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The mounting lark her warbling anthem lends | U |
From note to note the ravish'd soul ascends | U |
As thus it would the patriarch's ladder climb | V |
By some good angel led to worlds sublime | V |
Oft legends say the snake with waken'd ire | W |
Like Envy rears in many a scaly spire | W |
Then songsters droop then yield their vital gore | L |
And innocence and music are no more | L |
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Mild rides the morn in orient beauty drest | T |
An azure mantle and a purple vest | T |
Which blown by gales her gemmy feet display | A |
Her amber tresses negligently gay | A |
Collected now her rosy hand they fill | X |
And gently wrung the pearly dew distil | X |
The songful zephyrs and the laughing hours | Y |
Breathe sweet and strew her op'ning way with flow'rs | Y |
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The chatt'ring swallows leave their nested care | Z |
Each promising return with plenteous fare | Z |
So the fond swain who to the market hies | Y |
Stills with big hopes his infant's tender cries | Y |
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Yonder two turtles o'er their callow brood | T |
Hang hov'ring ere they seek their guiltless food | T |
Fondly they bill Now to their morning care | Z |
Like our first parents part the am'rous pair | Z |
But ah a pair no more With spreading wings | Y |
From the high sounding cliff a vulture springs | Y |
Steady he sails along th' aerial grey | A |
Swoops down and bears yon tim'rous dove away | A |
Start we who worse than vultures Nimrods find | T |
Men meditating prey on human kind | T |
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Wild beasts to gloomy dens repace their way | A |
Where their couch'd young demand the slaughter'd prey | A |
Rooks from their nodding nests black swarming fly | D |
And in hoarse uproar tell the fowler nigh | D |
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Now in his tabernacle rous'd the sun | Q |
Is warn'd the blue etherial steep to run | Q |
While on his couch of floating jasper laid | T |
From his bright eye Sleep calls the dewy shade | T |
The crystal dome transparent pillars raise | Y |
Whence beam'd from saphires living azure plays | Y |
The liquid floor in wrought with pearls divine | A2 |
Where all his labours in mosaic shine | A2 |
His coronet a cloud of silver white | T |
His robe with unconsuming crimson bright | T |
Varied with gems all heaven's collected store | L |
While his loose locks descend a golden show'r | B2 |
If to his steps compar'd we tardy find | T |
The Grecian racers who out strip the wind | T |
Fleet to the glowing race behold him start | T |
His quick'ning eyes a quiv'ring radiance dart | T |
And while this last nocturnal flag is furl'd | T |
Swift into life and motion look the world | T |
The sun flow'r now averts her blooming cheek | C2 |
From west to view his eastern lustre break | D2 |
What gay creative pow'r his presence brings | Y |
Hills lawns lakes villages the face of things | Y |
All night beneath successive shadows miss'd | T |
Instant begins in colours to exist | T |
But absent these from sons of riot keep | E2 |
Lost in impure unmeditating sleep | E2 |
T'unlock his fence the new ris'n swain prepares | Y |
And ere forth driv'n recounts his fleecy cares | Y |
When lo an ambush'd wolf with hunger bold | T |
Springs at the prey and fierce invades the fold | T |
But by the pastor not in vain defy'd | T |
Like our arch foe by some celestial guide | T |
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Spread on yon rock the sea calf I survey | A |
Bask'd in the sun his skin reflects the day | A |
He sees yon tow'r like ship the waves divide | T |
And slips again beneath the glassy tide | T |
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The wat'ry herbs and shrubs and vines and flow'rs | Y |
Rear their bent heads o'ercharg'd with nightly show'rs | Y |
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Hail glorious sun to whose attractive fires | Y |
The waken'd vegetative life aspires | Y |
The juices wrought by thy directive force | Y |
Thro' plants and trees perform their genial course | Y |
Extend in root with bark unyielding bind | T |
The hearted trunk or weave the branching rind | T |
Expand in leaves in flow'ry blossoms shoot | T |
Bleed in rich gums and swell in ripen'd fruit | T |
From thee bright universal Pow'r began | F2 |
Instinct in brute and gen'rous love in man | F2 |
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Talk'd I of love Yon swain with am'rous air | Z |
Soft swells his pipe to charm the rural fair | Z |
She milks the flocks then list'ning as he plays | Y |
Steals in the running brook a conscious gaze | Y |
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The trout that deep in winter ooz'd remains | Y |
Up springs and sunward turns its crimson stains | Y |
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The tenants of the warren vainly chas'd | T |
Now lur'd to ambient fields for green repast | T |
Seek their small vaulted labyrinths in vain | G2 |
Entangling nets betray the skipping train | G2 |
Red massacres thro' their republic fly | D |
And heaps on heaps by ruthless spaniels die | D |
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The fisher who the lonely beech has stray'd | T |
And all the live long night his net work spread | T |
Drags in and bears the loaded snare away | A |
Where flounce deceiv'd th' expiring finny prey | A |
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Near Neptune's temple Neptune's now no more | L |
Whose statue plants a trident on the shore | L |
In sportive rings the gen'rous dolphins wind | T |
And eye and think the image human kind | T |
Dear pleasing friendship See the pile commands | Y |
The vale and grim as Superstition stands | Y |
Time's hand there leaves its print of mossy green | H2 |
With hollows carv'd for snakes and birds obscene | H2 |
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O Gibbs whose art the solemn fane can raise | Y |
Where God delights to dwell and man to praise | Y |
When moulder'd thus the column falls away | A |
Like some great prince majestic in decay | A |
When Ignorance and Scorn the ground shall tread | T |
Where Wisdom tutor'd and Devotion pray'd | T |
Where shall thy pompous work our wonder claim | I2 |
What but the Muse alone preserve thy name | I2 |
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The sun shines broken thro' yon arch that rears | Y |
This once round fabric half depriv'd by years | Y |
Which rose a stately colonnade and crown'd | T |
Encircling pillars now unfaithful found | T |
In fragments these the fall of those forbode | T |
Which nodding just up heave their crumbling load | T |
High on yon column which has batter'd st | T |
Richard Savage
(1)
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