A Toccata Of Galuppi's Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBB A CCC A DED FFF GGG HHH III F FFF F JJJ F F KKK F FFF LLL MMM

IA
-
Oh Galuppi Baldassaro this is very sad to findB
I can hardly misconceive you it would prove me deaf and blindB
But although I give you credit 'tis with such a heavy mindB
-
IIA
-
Here you come with your old music and here's all the good it bringsC
What they lived once thus at Venice where the merchants were the kingsC
Where Saint Mark's is where the Doges used to wed the sea with ringsC
-
IIIA
-
Ay because the sea's the street there and 'tis arched by what you callD
Shylock's bridge with houses on it where they kept the carnivalE
I was never out of England it's as if I saw it allD
-
IV-
-
Did young people take their pleasure when the sea was warm in MayF
Balls and masks begun at midnight burning ever to mid dayF
When they made up fresh adventures for the morrow do you sayF
-
V-
-
Was a lady such a lady cheeks so round and lips so redG
On her neck the small face buoyant like a bell flower on its bedG
O'er the breast's superb abundance where a man might base his headG
-
VI-
-
Well and it was graceful of them they'd break talk off and affordH
She to bite her mask's black velvet he to finger on his swordH
While you sat and played Toccatas stately at the clavichordH
-
VII-
-
What Those lesser thirds so plaintive sixths diminished sigh on sigh-
Told them something Those suspensions those solutions Must we die-
Those commiserating sevenths Life might last we can but try-
-
VIII-
-
Were you happy Yes And are you still as happy Yes and youI
Then more kisses Did I stop them when a million seemed so fewI
Hark the dominant's persistence till it must be answered toI
-
IXF
-
So an octave struck the answer Oh they praised you I dare sayF
Brave Galuppi that was music good alike at grave and gayF
I can always leave off talking when I hear a master playF
-
XF
-
Then they left you for their pleasure till in due time one by oneJ
Some with lives that came to nothing some with deeds as well undoneJ
Death stepped tacitly and took them where they never see the sunJ
-
XIF
-
But when I sit down to reason think to take my stand nor swerve-
While I triumph o'er a secret wrung from nature's close reserve-
In you come with your cold music till I creep thro' every nerve-
-
XIIF
-
Yes you like a ghostly cricket creaking where a house was burnedK
Dust and ashes dead and done with Venice spent what Venice earnedK
The soul doubtless is immortal where a soul can be discernedK
-
XIIIF
-
Yours for instance you know physics something of geologyF
Mathematics are your pastime souls shall rise in their degreeF
Butterflies may dread extinction you'll not die it cannot beF
-
XIV-
-
As for Venice and its people merely born to bloom and dropL
Here on earth they bore their fruitage mirth and folly were the cropL
What of soul was left I wonder when the kissing had to stopL
-
XV-
-
Dust and ashes So you creak it and I want the heart to scoldM
Dear dead women with such hair too what's become of all the goldM
Used to hang and brush their bosoms I feel chilly and grown oldM

Robert Browning



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