Ode To Melancholy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDBCBEBFB GHGHIHIHGHGHJHHKHKLM LN OPQPIRGIRGII SIITUTGTSTTIVGV GIIIIIWIGICIIXIMYN ZGXGIGQGGIGI A2GIGIB2GGIGIGIGIGI HIGIC2IXIIHD2HE2H| Come let us set our careful breasts | A |
| Like Philomel against the thorn | B |
| To aggravate the inward grief | C |
| That makes her accents so forlorn | B |
| The world has many cruel points | D |
| Whereby our bosoms have been torn | B |
| And there are dainty themes of grief | C |
| In sadness to outlast the morn | B |
| True honor's dearth affection's death | E |
| Neglectful pride and cankering scorn | B |
| With all the piteous tales that tears | F |
| Have water'd since the world was born | B |
| - | |
| The world it is a wilderness | G |
| Where tears are hung on every tree | H |
| For thus my gloomy phantasy | G |
| Makes all things weep with me | H |
| Come let us sit and watch the sky | I |
| And fancy clouds where no clouds be | H |
| Grief is enough to blot the eye | I |
| And make heaven black with misery | H |
| Why should birds sing such merry notes | G |
| Unless they were more blest than we | H |
| No sorrow ever chokes their throats | G |
| Except sweet nightingale for she | H |
| Was born to pain our hearts the more | J |
| With her sad melody | H |
| Why shines the Sun except that he | H |
| Makes gloomy nooks for Grief to hide | K |
| And pensive shades for Melancholy | H |
| When all the earth is bright beside | K |
| Let clay wear smiles and green grass wave | L |
| Mirth shall not win us back again | M |
| Whilst man is made of his own grave | L |
| And fairest clouds but gilded rain | N |
| - | |
| I saw my mother in her shroud | O |
| Her cheek was cold and very pale | P |
| And ever since I've look'd on all | Q |
| As creatures doom'd to fail | P |
| Why do buds ope except to die | I |
| Ay let us watch the roses wither | R |
| And think of our loves' cheeks | G |
| And oh how quickly time doth fly | I |
| To bring death's winter hither | R |
| Minutes hours days and weeks | G |
| Months years and ages shrink to nought | I |
| An age past is but a thought | I |
| - | |
| Ay let us think of Him awhile | S |
| That with a coffin for a boat | I |
| Rows daily o'er the Stygian moat | I |
| And for our table choose a tomb | T |
| There's dark enough in any skull | U |
| To charge with black a raven plume | T |
| And for the saddest funeral thoughts | G |
| A winding sheet hath ample room | T |
| Where Death with his keen pointed style | S |
| Hath writ the common doom | T |
| How wide the yew tree spreads its gloom | T |
| And o'er the dead lets fall its dew | I |
| As if in tears it wept for them | V |
| The many human families | G |
| That sleep around its stem | V |
| - | |
| How cold the dead have made these stones | G |
| With natural drops kept ever wet | I |
| Lo here the best the worst the world | I |
| Doth now remember or forget | I |
| Are in one common ruin hurl'd | I |
| And love and hate are calmly met | I |
| The loveliest eyes that ever shone | W |
| The fairest hands and locks of jet | I |
| Is't not enough to vex our souls | G |
| And fill our eyes that we have set | I |
| Our love upon a rose's leaf | C |
| Our hearts upon a violet | I |
| Blue eyes red cheeks are frailer yet | I |
| And sometimes at their swift decay | X |
| Beforehand we must fret | I |
| The roses bud and bloom again | M |
| But Love may haunt the grave of Love | Y |
| And watch the mould in vain | N |
| - | |
| O clasp me sweet whilst thou art mine | Z |
| And do not take my tears amiss | G |
| For tears must flow to wash away | X |
| A thought that shows so stern as this | G |
| Forgive if somewhile I forget | I |
| In woe to come the present bliss | G |
| As frighted Proserpine let fall | Q |
| Her flowers at the sight of Dis | G |
| Ev'n so the dark and bright will kiss | G |
| The sunniest things throw sternest shade | I |
| And there is ev'n a happiness | G |
| That makes the heart afraid | I |
| - | |
| Now let us with a spell invoke | A2 |
| The full orb'd moon to grieve our eyes | G |
| Not bright not bright but with a cloud | I |
| Lapp'd all about her let her rise | G |
| All pale and dim as if from rest | I |
| The ghost of the late buried sun | B2 |
| Had crept into the skies | G |
| The Moon she is the source of sighs | G |
| The very face to make us sad | I |
| If but to think in other times | G |
| The same calm quiet look she had | I |
| As if the world held nothing base | G |
| Of vile and mean of fierce and bad | I |
| The same fair light that shone in streams | G |
| The fairy lamp that charmed the lad | I |
| For so it is with spent delights | G |
| She taunts men's brains and makes them mad | I |
| - | |
| All things are touch'd with Melancholy | H |
| Born of the secret soul's mistrust | I |
| To feel her fair ethereal wings | G |
| Weigh'd down with vile degraded dust | I |
| Even the bright extremes of joy | C2 |
| Bring on conclusions of disgust | I |
| Like the sweet blossoms of the May | X |
| Whose fragrance ends in must | I |
| O give her then her tribute just | I |
| Her sighs and tears and musings holy | H |
| There is no music in the life | D2 |
| That sounds with idiot laughter solely | H |
| There's not a string attuned to mirth | E2 |
| But has its chord in Melancholy | H |
Thomas Hood
(1)
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About Ode To Melancholy
Ode To Melancholy is a poem by Thomas Hood. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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