A Night-piece On Death Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEE FFGGHIEEJJKKAALLMMMM MMKK NNDDOO FFKKMMPQ KKKKFF RRSSMMKK FFKKKKMMKK KKKKMM EETTUUKKMMMMDD| By the blue taper's trembling light | A |
| No more I waste the wakeful night | A |
| Intent with endless view to pore | B |
| The schoolmen and the sages o'er | C |
| Their books from wisdom widely stray | D |
| Or point at best the longest way | D |
| I'll seek a readier path and go | E |
| Where wisdom's surely taught below | E |
| - | |
| How deep yon azure dyes the sky | F |
| Where orbs of gold unnumber'd lie | F |
| While through their ranks in silver pride | G |
| The nether crescent seems to glide | G |
| The slumb'ring breeze forgets to breathe | H |
| The lake is smooth and clear beneath | I |
| Where once again the spangled show | E |
| Descends to meet our eyes below | E |
| The grounds which on the right aspire | J |
| In dimness from the view retire | J |
| The left presents a place of graves | K |
| Whose wall the silent water laves | K |
| That steeple guides thy doubtful sight | A |
| Among the livid gleams of night | A |
| There pass with melancholy state | L |
| By all the solemn heaps of fate | L |
| And think as softly sad you tread | M |
| Above the venerable dead | M |
| Time was like thee they life possest | M |
| And time shall be that thou shalt rest | M |
| - | |
| Those graves with bending osier bound | M |
| That nameless heave the crumpled ground | M |
| Quick to the glancing thought disclose | K |
| Where toil and poverty repose | K |
| - | |
| The flat smooth stones that bear a name | N |
| The chisel's slender help to fame | N |
| Which ere our set of friends decay | D |
| Their frequent steps may wear away | D |
| A middle race of mortals own | O |
| Men half ambitious all unknown | O |
| - | |
| The marble tombs that rise on high | F |
| Whose dead in vaulted arches lie | F |
| Whose pillars swell with sculptur'd stones | K |
| Arms angels epitaphs and bones | K |
| These all the poor remains of state | M |
| Adorn the rich or praise the great | M |
| Who while on earth in fame they live | P |
| Are senseless of the fame they give | Q |
| - | |
| Ha while I gaze pale Cynthia fades | K |
| The bursting earth unveils the shades | K |
| All slow and wan and wrapp'd with shrouds | K |
| They rise in visionary crowds | K |
| And all with sober accent cry | F |
| Think mortal what it is to die | F |
| - | |
| Now from yon black and fun'ral yew | R |
| That bathes the charnel house with dew | R |
| Methinks I hear a voice begin | S |
| Ye ravens cease your croaking din | S |
| Ye tolling clocks no time resound | M |
| O'er the long lake and midnight ground | M |
| It sends a peal of hollow groans | K |
| Thus speaking from among the bones | K |
| - | |
| When men my scythe and darts supply | F |
| How great a king of fears am I | F |
| They view me like the last of things | K |
| They make and then they dread my stings | K |
| Fools if you less provok'd your fears | K |
| No more my spectre form appears | K |
| Death's but a path that must be trod | M |
| If man would ever pass to God | M |
| A port of calms a state of ease | K |
| From the rough rage of swelling seas | K |
| - | |
| Why then thy flowing sable stoles | K |
| Deep pendant cypress mourning poles | K |
| Loose scarfs to fall athwart thy weeds | K |
| Long palls drawn hearses cover'd steeds | K |
| And plumes of black that as they tread | M |
| Nod o'er the scutcheons of the dead | M |
| - | |
| Nor can the parted body know | E |
| Nor wants the soul these forms of woe | E |
| As men who long in prison dwell | T |
| With lamps that glimmer round the cell | T |
| Whene'er their suff'ring years are run | U |
| Spring forth to greet the glitt'ring sun | U |
| Such joy though far transcending sense | K |
| Have pious souls at parting hence | K |
| On earth and in the body plac'd | M |
| A few and evil years they waste | M |
| But when their chains are cast aside | M |
| See the glad scene unfolding wide | M |
| Clap the glad wing and tow'r away | D |
| And mingle with the blaze of day | D |
Thomas Parnell
(1)
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