Pompeii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDEEFFGGHHEEIIJKLL FFMMNNOOPPNNPPOOJJPP NNIIQQNNPPOOPPPPRSPP NNBBTEPPPPUUMMVVOONN NNEENNNNPPNNNNKKWWXX PPYYSSZZXXPPAA2PPB2B 2NNC2BNNNNPPAAOOD2D2 CDE2E2NNPPAAPPF2F2OO OOPPOOPPJJPPPPG2G2OO H2H2I2D| A Poem Which Obtained the Chancellor's Medal at the Cambridge Commencement July | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| Oh land to Memory and to Freedom dear | B |
| Land of the melting lyre and conquering spear | B |
| Land of the vine clad hill the fragrant grove | C |
| Of arts and arms of Genius and of Love | D |
| Hear fairest Italy Though now no more | E |
| The glittering eagles awe the Atlantic shore | E |
| Nor at thy feet the gorgeous Orient flings | F |
| The blood bought treasures of her tawny Kings | F |
| Though vanished all that formed thine old renown | G |
| The laurel garland and the jewelled crown | G |
| The avenging poniard the victorious sword | H |
| Which reared thine empire or thy rights restored | H |
| Yet still the constant Muses haunt thy shore | E |
| And love to linger where they dwelt of yore | E |
| If e'er of old they deigned with favouring smile | I |
| To tread the sea girt shores of Albion's isle | I |
| To smooth with classic arts our rugged tongue | J |
| And warm with classic glow the British song | K |
| Oh bid them snatch their silent harps which wave | L |
| On the lone oak that shades thy Maro's grave | L |
| And sweep with magic hand the slumbering strings | F |
| To fire the poet For thy clime he sings | F |
| Thy scenes of gay delight and wild despair | M |
| Thy varied forms of awful and of fair | M |
| How rich that climate's sweets how wild its storms | N |
| What charms array it and what rage deforms | N |
| Well have they mouldering walls Pompeii known | O |
| Decked in those charms and by that rage o'erthrown | O |
| Sad City gayly dawned thy latest day | P |
| And poured its radiance on the scene as gay | P |
| The leaves scarce rustled in the sighing breeze | N |
| In azure dimples curled the sparkling seas | N |
| And as the golden tide of light they quaffed | P |
| Campania's sunny meads and vineyards laughed | P |
| While gleamed each lichened oak and giant pine | O |
| On the far sides of swarthy Apennine | O |
| Then mirth and music through Pompeii rung | J |
| Then verdant wreaths on all her portals hung | J |
| Her sons with solemn rite and jocund lay | P |
| Hailed the glad splendours of that festal day | P |
| With fillets bound the hoary priests advance | N |
| And rosy virgins braid the choral dance | N |
| The rugged warrior here unbends awhile | I |
| His iron front and deigns a transient smile | I |
| There frantic with delight the ruddy boy | Q |
| Scarce treads on earth and bounds and laughs with joy | Q |
| From every crowded altar perfumes rise | N |
| In billowy clouds of fragrance to the skies | N |
| The milk white monarch of the herd they lead | P |
| With gilded horns at yonder shrine to bleed | P |
| And while the victim crops the broidered plain | O |
| And frisks and gambols towards the destined fane | O |
| They little deem that like himself they stray | P |
| To death unconscious o'er a flowery way | P |
| Heedless like him the impending stroke await | P |
| And sport and wanton on the brink of fate | P |
| What 'vails it that where yonder heights aspire | R |
| With ashes piled and scathed with rills of fire | S |
| Gigantic phantoms dimly seem to glide | P |
| In misty files along the mountain's side | P |
| To view with threatening scowl your fated lands | N |
| And toward your city point their shadowy hands | N |
| In vain celestial omens prompted fear | B |
| And nature's signal spoke the ruin near | B |
| In vain through many a night ye viewed from far | T |
| The meteor flag of elemental war | E |
| Unroll its blazing folds from yonder height | P |
| In fearful sign of earth's intestine fight | P |
| In vain Vesuvius groaned with wrath supprest | P |
| And muttered thunder in his burning breast | P |
| Long since the Eagle from that flaming peak | U |
| Hath soared with screams a safer nest to seek | U |
| Awed by the infernal beacon's fitful glare | M |
| The howling fox hath left his wonted lair | M |
| Nor dares the browsing goat in venturous leap | V |
| To spring as erst from dizzy steep to steep | V |
| Man only mocks the peril Man alone | O |
| Defies the sulphurous flame the warning groan | O |
| While instinct humbler guardian wakes and saves | N |
| Proud reason sleeps nor knows the doom it braves | N |
| But see the opening theatre invites | N |
| The fates myriads to its gay delights | N |
| In in they swarm tumultuous as the roar | E |
| Of foaming breakers on a rocky shore | E |
| The enraptured throng in breathless transport views | N |
| The gorgeous temple of the Tragic Muse | N |
| There while her wand in shadowy pomp arrays | N |
| Ideal scenes and forms of other days | N |
| Fair as the hopes of youth a radiant band | P |
| The sister arts around her footstool stand | P |
| To deck their Queen and lend a milder grace | N |
| To the stern beauty of that awful face | N |
| Far far around the ravished eye surveys | N |
| The sculptured forms of Gods and heroes blaze | N |
| Above the echoing roofs the peal prolong | K |
| Of lofty converse or melodious song | K |
| While as the tones of passion sink or swell | W |
| Admiring thousands own the moral spell | W |
| Melt with the melting strains of fancied wo | X |
| With terror sicken or with transport glow | X |
| Oh for a voice like that which pealed of old | P |
| Through Salem's cedar courts and shrines of gold | P |
| And in wild accents round the trembling dome | Y |
| Proclaimed the havoc of avenging Rome | Y |
| While every palmy arch and sculptured tower | S |
| Shook with the footsteps of the parting power | S |
| Such voice might check your tears which idly stream | Z |
| For the vain phantoms of the poet's dream | Z |
| Might bid those terrors rise those sorrows flow | X |
| For other perils and for nearer wo | X |
| The hour is come Even now the sulphurous cloud | P |
| Involves the city in its funeral shroud | P |
| And far along Campania's azure sky | A |
| Expands its dark and boundless canopy | A2 |
| The Sun though throned on heaven's meridian height | P |
| Burns red and rayless through that sickly night | P |
| Each bosom felt at once the shuddering thrill | B2 |
| At once the music stopped The song was still | B2 |
| None in that cloud's portentous shade might trace | N |
| The fearful changes of another's face | N |
| But through that horrid stillness each could hear | C2 |
| His neighbour's throbbing heart beat high with fear | B |
| A moment's pause succeeds Then wildly rise | N |
| Grief's sobbing plaints and terror's frantic cries | N |
| The gates recoil and towards the narrow pass | N |
| In wild confusion rolls the living mass | N |
| Death when thy shadowy sceptre waves away | P |
| From his sad couch the prisoner decay | P |
| Though friendship view the close with glistening eye | A |
| And love's fond lips imbibe the parting sigh | A |
| By torture racked by kindness soothed in vain | O |
| The soul still clings to being and to pain | O |
| But when have wilder terrors clothed thy brow | D2 |
| Or keener torments edged thy dart than now | D2 |
| When with thy regal horrors vainly strove | C |
| The law of Nature and the power of Love | D |
| On mothers babes in vain for mercy call | E2 |
| Beneath the feet of brothers brothers call | E2 |
| Behold the dying wretch in vain upraise | N |
| Towards yonder well known face the accusing gaze | N |
| See trampled to the earth the expiring maid | P |
| Clings round her lover's feet and shrieks for aid | P |
| Vain is the imploring glance the frenzied cry | A |
| All all is fear to succour is to die | A |
| Saw ye how wild how red how broad a light | P |
| Burst on the darkness of that mid day night | P |
| As fierce Vesuvius scatter'd o'er the vale | F2 |
| Her drifted flames and sheets of burning hail | F2 |
| Shook hell's wan lightnings from his blazing cone | O |
| And gilded heaven with meteors not its own | O |
| The morn all blushing rose but sought in vain | O |
| The snowy villas and the flowery plain | O |
| The purpled hills with marshalled vineyards gay | P |
| The domes that sparkled in the sunny ray | P |
| Where art or nature late hath deck'd the scene | O |
| With blazing marble or with spangled green | O |
| There streaked by many a fiery torrent's bed | P |
| A boundless waste of hoary ashes spread | P |
| Along that dreary waste where lately rung | J |
| The festal lay which smiling virgins sung | J |
| Where rapture echoed from the warbling lute | P |
| And the gay dance resounded all is mute | P |
| Mute Is it Fancy shapes that wailing sound | P |
| Which faintly murmurs from the blasted ground | P |
| Or live there still who breathing in the tomb | G2 |
| Curse the dark refuge which delays their doom | G2 |
| In massive vaults on which the incumbent plain | O |
| And ruined city heap their weight in vain | O |
| Oh who may sing that hour of mortal strife | H2 |
| When Nature calls on Death yet clings to life | H2 |
| Who paint the wretch that draws sepulchral breath | I2 |
| A living prisoner in the house of | D |
Thomas Babbington Macaulay
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About Pompeii
Pompeii is a poem by Thomas Babbington Macaulay. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about Pompeii poem by Thomas Babbington Macaulay
Best Poems of Thomas Babbington Macaulay