Marmion: Introduction To Canto Iii. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKK LL MMNNOOPQRRSSTTUVWWXX OOYYZA2OOB2B2C2C2GGD 2D2E2E2JJF2F2ZZG2G2D 2D2H2H2C2I2J2K2L2L2M 2T N2N2O2O2P2P2Q2R2L2L2 S2T2T2T2T2T2 U2U2V2V2O2JW2W2JJX2Y 2D V2V2Z2Z2T2T2T2T2E2E2 Z2Z2EET2T2DDZZLLB2A3 A2A2T2T2V2V2C2C2MMB3 B3B3J2J2V2V2 T2T2OOEEJJV2V2LLT2T2 D2D2T2T2B3B3C3C3B2B2 T2T2JJT2T2SSC3C3B2B2 V2V2D3D3E3E2F3F3T2T2 T2T2EEO2JT2T2O2O2 HHJJT2C3Like April morning clouds that pass | A |
With varying shadow o'er the grass | A |
And imitate on field and furrow | B |
Life's chequered scene of joy and sorrow | B |
Like streamlet of the mountain North | C |
Now in a torrent racing forth | C |
Now winding slow its silver train | D |
And almost slumbering on the plain | D |
Like breezes of the Autumn day | E |
Whose voice inconstant dies away | E |
And ever swells again as fast | F |
When the ear deems its murmur past | F |
Thus various my romantic theme | G |
Flits winds or sinks a morning dream | G |
Yet pleased our eye pursues the trace | H |
Of light and shade's inconstant race | H |
Pleased views the rivulet afar | I |
Weaving its maze irregular | J |
And pleased we listen as the breeze | K |
Heaves its wild sigh through Autumn trees | K |
Then wild as cloud or stream or gale | L |
Flow on flow unconfined my tale | L |
- | |
Need I to thee dear Erskine tell | M |
I love the license all too well | M |
In sounds now lowly and now strong | N |
To raise the desultory song | N |
Oft when mid such capricious chime | O |
Some transient fit of lofty rhyme | O |
To thy kind judgment seemed excuse | P |
For many an error of the muse | Q |
Oft hast thou said 'If still misspent | R |
Thine hours to poetry are lent | R |
Go and to tame thy wandering course | S |
Quaff from the fountain at the source | S |
Approach those masters o'er whose tomb | T |
Immortal laurels ever bloom | T |
Instructive of the feebler bard | U |
Still from the grave their voice is heard | V |
From them and from the paths they showed | W |
Choose honoured guide and practised road | W |
Nor ramble on through brake and maze | X |
With harpers rude of barbarous days | X |
- | |
'Or deem'st thou not our later time | O |
Yields topic meet for classic rhyme | O |
Hast thou no elegiac verse | Y |
For Brunswick's venerable hearse | Y |
What not a line a tear a sigh | Z |
When valour bleeds for liberty | A2 |
Oh hero of that glorious time | O |
When with unrivalled light sublime | O |
Though martial Austria and though all | B2 |
The might of Russia and the Gaul | B2 |
Though banded Europe stood her foes | C2 |
The star of Brandenburg arose | C2 |
Thou couldst not live to see her beam | G |
For ever quenched in Jena's stream | G |
Lamented chief it was not given | D2 |
To thee to change the doom of Heaven | D2 |
And crush that dragon in its birth | E2 |
Predestined scourge of guilty earth | E2 |
Lamented chief not thine the power | J |
To save in that presumptuous hour | J |
When Prussia hurried to the field | F2 |
And snatched the spear but left the shield | F2 |
Valour and skill 'twas thine to try | Z |
And tried in vain 'twas thine to die | Z |
Ill had it seemed thy silver hair | G2 |
The last the bitterest pang to share | G2 |
For princedom reft and scutcheons riven | D2 |
And birthrights to usurpers given | D2 |
Thy land's thy children's wrongs to feel | H2 |
And witness woes thou couldst not heal | H2 |
On thee relenting Heaven bestows | C2 |
For honoured life an honoured close | I2 |
And when revolves in time's sure change | J2 |
The hour of Germany's revenge | K2 |
When breathing fury for her sake | L2 |
Some new Arminius shall awake | L2 |
Her champion ere he strike shall come | M2 |
To whet his sword on Brunswick's tomb | T |
- | |
'Or of the red cross hero teach | N2 |
Dauntless in dungeon as on breach | N2 |
Alike to him the sea the shore | O2 |
The brand the bridle or the oar | O2 |
Alike to him the war that calls | P2 |
Its votaries to the shattered walls | P2 |
Which the grim Turk besmeared with blood | Q2 |
Against the invincible made good | R2 |
Or that whose thundering voice could wake | L2 |
The silence of the polar lake | L2 |
When stubborn Russ and mettled Swede | S2 |
On the warped wave their death game played | T2 |
Or that where vengeance and affright | T2 |
Howled round the father of the fight | T2 |
Who snatched on Alexandria's sand | T2 |
The conqueror's wreath with dying hand | T2 |
- | |
'Or if to touch such chord be thine | U2 |
Restore the ancient tragic line | U2 |
And emulate the notes that rung | V2 |
From the wild harp which silent hung | V2 |
By silver Avon's holy shore | O2 |
Till twice a hundred years rolled o'er | J |
When she the bold enchantress came | W2 |
With fearless hand and heart on flame | W2 |
From the pale willow snatched the treasure | J |
And swept it with a kindred measure | J |
Till Avon's swans while rung the grove | X2 |
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love | Y2 |
Awakening at the inspired strain | D |
Deemed their own Shakespeare lived again ' | - |
- | |
Thy friendship thus thy judgment wronging | V2 |
With praises not to me belonging | V2 |
In task more meet for mightiest powers | Z2 |
Wouldst thou engage my thriftless hours | Z2 |
But say my Erskine hast thou weighed | T2 |
That secret power by all obeyed | T2 |
Which warps not less the passive mind | T2 |
Its source concealed or undefined | T2 |
Whether an impulse that has birth | E2 |
Soon as the infant wakes on earth | E2 |
One with our feelings and our powers | Z2 |
And rather part of us than ours | Z2 |
Or whether fitlier termed the sway | E |
Of habit formed in early day | E |
Howe'er derived its force confessed | T2 |
Rules with despotic sway the breast | T2 |
And drags us on by viewless chain | D |
While taste and reason plead in vain | D |
Look east and ask the Belgian why | Z |
Beneath Batavia's sultry sky | Z |
He seeks not eager to inhale | L |
The freshness of the mountain gale | L |
Content to rear his whitened wall | B2 |
Beside the dank and dull canal | A3 |
He'll say from youth he loved to see | A2 |
The white sail gliding by the tree | A2 |
Or see yon weather beaten hind | T2 |
Whose sluggish herds before him wind | T2 |
Whose tattered plaid and rugged cheek | V2 |
His northern clime and kindred speak | V2 |
Through England's laughing meads he goes | C2 |
And England's wealth around him flows | C2 |
Ask if it would content him well | M |
At ease in those gay plains to dwell | M |
Where hedgerows spread a verdant screen | B3 |
And spires and forests intervene | B3 |
And the neat cottage peeps between | B3 |
No not for these would he exchange | J2 |
His dark Lochaber's boundless range | J2 |
Nor for fair Devon's meads forsake | V2 |
Ben Nevis grey and Garry's lake | V2 |
- | |
Thus while I ape the measure wild | T2 |
Of tales that charmed me yet a child | T2 |
Rude though they be still with the chime | O |
Return the thoughts of early time | O |
And feelings roused in life's first day | E |
Glow in the line and prompt the lay | E |
Then rise those crags that mountain tower | J |
Which charmed my fancy's wakening hour | J |
Though no broad river swept along | V2 |
To claim perchance heroic song | V2 |
Though sighed no groves in summer gale | L |
To prompt of love a softer tale | L |
Though scarce a puny streamlet's speed | T2 |
Claimed homage from a shepherd's reed | T2 |
Yet was poetic impulse given | D2 |
By the green hill and clear blue heaven | D2 |
It was a barren scene and wild | T2 |
Where naked cliffs were rudely piled | T2 |
But ever and anon between | B3 |
Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green | B3 |
And well the lonely infant knew | C3 |
Recesses where the wallflower grew | C3 |
And honeysuckle loved to crawl | B2 |
Up the low crag and ruined wall | B2 |
I deemed such nooks the sweetest shade | T2 |
The sun in all its round surveyed | T2 |
And still I thought that shattered tower | J |
The mightiest work of human power | J |
And marvelled as the aged hind | T2 |
With some strange tale bewitched my mind | T2 |
Of forayers who with headlong force | S |
Down from that strength had spurred their horse | S |
Their southern rapine to renew | C3 |
Far in the distant Cheviots blue | C3 |
And home returning filled the hall | B2 |
With revel wassail rout and brawl | B2 |
Methought that still with trump and clang | V2 |
The gateway's broken arches rang | V2 |
Methought grim features seamed with scars | D3 |
Glared through the window's rusty bars | D3 |
And ever by the winter hearth | E3 |
Old tales I heard of woe or mirth | E2 |
Of lovers' slights of ladies' charms | F3 |
Of witches' spells of warriors' arms | F3 |
Of patriot battles won of old | T2 |
By Wallace wight and Bruce the bold | T2 |
Of later fields of feud and fight | T2 |
When pouring from their Highland height | T2 |
The Scottish clans in headlong sway | E |
Had swept the scarlet ranks away | E |
While stretched at length upon the floor | O2 |
Again I fought each combat o'er | J |
Pebbles and shells in order laid | T2 |
The mimic ranks of war displayed | T2 |
And onward still the Scottish Lion bore | O2 |
And still the scattered Southron fled before | O2 |
- | |
Still with vain fondness could I trace | H |
Anew each kind familiar face | H |
That brightened at our evening fire | J |
From the thatched mansion's grey haired sire | J |
Wise without learning plain and good | T2 |
And sprun | C3 |
Sir Walter Scott
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Marmion: Introduction To Canto Iii. poem by Sir Walter Scott
Best Poems of Sir Walter Scott