Marmion: Introduction To Canto Ii. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCCDDEEFFGHIIJJK K CCLLMMNNOOPPQQRRSSTT CCCEEEUVVV CCUUWWLLXXYYCCZZEEA2 A2VVEEB2C2CCCCCD2CCE ECCEEAAE2E2F2F2VVII BBVVEECCG2G2H2H2QQI2 I2CCJ2J2K2K2ZZVVL2L2 VVRR EEEEM2M2CCN2O2P2RQ2Q 2R2R2S2S2T2T2VVAAEEP PVVVVCCCCU2U2V2V2 E2W2UUVVFF X2X2VVY2Z2CCK2K2CCCP PO2N2CCA3A3B3B3CCZZV VA3A3VVC3PCCI2I2L2D3 E3E3F3F3 X2X2CCEE CCG3ZEEEZZEEQ2Q2VVEE A3A3VVEEEEEEA3A3VV JJEEThe scenes are desert now and bare | A |
Where flourished once a forest fair | A |
When these waste glens with copse were lined | B |
And peopled with the hart and hind | B |
Yon thorn perchance whose prickly spears | C |
Have fenced him for three hundred years | C |
While fell around his green compeers | C |
Yon lonely thorn would he could tell | D |
The changes of his parent dell | D |
Since he so grey and stubborn now | E |
Waved in each breeze a sapling bough | E |
Would he could tell how deep the shade | F |
A thousand mingled branches made | F |
How broad the shadows of the oak | G |
How clung the rowan to the rock | H |
And through the foliage showed his head | I |
With narrow leaves and berries red | I |
What pines on every mountain sprung | J |
O'er every dell what birches hung | J |
In every breeze what aspens shook | K |
What alders shaded every brook | K |
- | |
Here in my shade methinks he'd say | C |
The mighty stag at noontide lay | C |
The wolf I've seen a fiercer game | L |
The neighbouring dingle bears his name | L |
With lurching step around me prowl | M |
And stop against the moon to howl | M |
The mountain boar on battle set | N |
His tusks upon my stem would whet | N |
While doe and roe and red deer good | O |
Have bounded by through gay greenwood | O |
Then oft from Newark's riven tower | P |
Sallied a Scottish monarch's power | P |
A thousand vassals mustered round | Q |
With horse and hawk and horn and hound | Q |
And I might see the youth intent | R |
Guard every pass with crossbow bent | R |
And through the brake the rangers stalk | S |
And falc'ners hold the ready hawk | S |
And foresters in greenwood trim | T |
Lead in the leash the gazehounds grim | T |
Attentive as the bratchet's bay | C |
From the dark covert drove the prey | C |
To slip them as he broke away | C |
The startled quarry bounds amain | E |
As fast the gallant greyhounds strain | E |
Whistles the arrow from the bow | E |
Answers the arquebuss below | U |
While all the rocking hills reply | V |
To hoof clang hound and hunter's cry | V |
And bugles ringing lightsomely | V |
- | |
Of such proud huntings many tales | C |
Yet linger in our lonely dales | C |
Up pathless Ettrick and on Yarrow | U |
Where erst the outlaw drew his arrow | U |
But not more blithe that silvan court | W |
Than we have been at humbler sport | W |
Though small our pomp and mean our game | L |
Our mirth dear Mariott was the same | L |
Remember'st thou my greyhounds true | X |
O'er holt or hill there never flew | X |
From slip or leash there never sprang | Y |
More fleet of foot or sure of fang | Y |
Nor dull between each merry chase | C |
Passed by the intermitted space | C |
For we had fair resource in store | Z |
In Classic and in Gothic lore | Z |
We marked each memorable scene | E |
And held poetic talk between | E |
Nor hill nor brook we paced along | A2 |
But had its legend or its song | A2 |
All silent now for now are still | V |
Thy bowers untenanted Bowhill | V |
No longer from thy mountains dun | E |
The yeoman hears the well known gun | E |
And while his honest heart glows Warm | B2 |
At thought of his paternal farm | C2 |
Round to his mates a brimmer fills | C |
And drinks The Chieftain of the Hills | C |
No fairy forms in Yarrow's bowers | C |
Trip o'er the walks or tend the flowers | C |
Fair as the elves whom Janet saw | C |
By moonlight dance on Carterhaugh | D2 |
No youthful baron's left to grace | C |
The forest sheriff's lonely chase | C |
And ape in manly step and tone | E |
The majesty of Oberon | E |
And she is gone whose lovely face | C |
Is but her least and lowest grace | C |
Though if to sylphid queen 'twere given | E |
To show our earth the charms of Heaven | E |
She could not glide along the air | A |
With form more light or face more fair | A |
No more the widow's deafened ear | E2 |
Grows quick that lady's step to hear | E2 |
At noontide she expects her not | F2 |
Nor busies her to trim the cot | F2 |
Pensive she turns her humming wheel | V |
Or pensive cooks her orphans' meal | V |
Yet blesses ere she deals their bread | I |
The gentle hand by which they're fed | I |
- | |
From Yair which hills so closely bind | B |
Scarce can the Tweed his passage find | B |
Though much he fret and chafe and toil | V |
Till all his eddying currents boil | V |
Her long descended lord is gone | E |
And left us by the stream alone | E |
And much I miss those sportive boys | C |
Companions of my mountain joys | C |
Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth | G2 |
When thought is speech and speech is truth | G2 |
Close to my side with what delight | H2 |
They pressed to hear of Wallace wight | H2 |
When pointing to his airy mound | Q |
I called his ramparts holy ground | Q |
Kindled their brows to hear me speak | I2 |
And I have smiled to feel my cheek | I2 |
Despite the difference of our years | C |
Return again the glow of theirs | C |
Ah happy boys such feelings pure | J2 |
They will not cannot long endure | J2 |
Condemned to stem the world's rude tide | K2 |
You may not linger by the side | K2 |
For Fate shall thrust you from the shore | Z |
And Passion ply the sail and oar | Z |
Yet cherish the remembrance still | V |
Of the lone mountain and the rill | V |
For trust dear boys the time will come | L2 |
When fiercer transport shall be dumb | L2 |
And you will think right frequently | V |
But well I hope without a sigh | V |
On the free hours that we have spent | R |
Together on the brown hill's bent | R |
- | |
When musing on companions gone | E |
We doubly feel ourselves alone | E |
Something my friend we yet may gain | E |
There is a pleasure in this pain | E |
It soothes the love of lonely rest | M2 |
Deep in each gentler heart impressed | M2 |
'Tis silent amid worldly toils | C |
And stifled soon by mental broils | C |
But in a bosom thus prepared | N2 |
Its still small voice is often heard | O2 |
Whispering a mingled sentiment | P2 |
'Twixt resignation and content | R |
Oft in my mind such thoughts awake | Q2 |
By lone Saint Mary's silent lake | Q2 |
Thou know'st it well nor fen nor sedge | R2 |
Pollute the pure lake's crystal edge | R2 |
Abrupt and sheer the mountains sink | S2 |
At once upon the level brink | S2 |
And just a trace of silver sand | T2 |
Marks where the water meets the land | T2 |
Far in the mirror bright and blue | V |
Each hill's huge outline you may view | V |
Shaggy with heath but lonely bare | A |
Nor tree nor bush nor brake is there | A |
Save where of land yon slender line | E |
Bears thwart the lake the scattered pine | E |
Yet even this nakedness has power | P |
And aids the feeling of the hour | P |
Nor thicket dell nor copse you spy | V |
Where living thing concealed might lie | V |
Nor point retiring hides a dell | V |
Where swain or woodman lone might dwell | V |
There's nothing left to fancy's guess | C |
You see that all is loneliness | C |
And silence aids though the steep hills | C |
Send to the lake a thousand rills | C |
In summer tide so soft they weep | U2 |
The sound but lulls the ear asleep | U2 |
Your horse's hoof tread sounds too rude | V2 |
So stilly is the solitude | V2 |
- | |
Nought living meets the eye or ear | E2 |
But well I ween the dead are near | W2 |
For though in feudal strife a foe | U |
Hath lain our Lady's chapel low | U |
Yet still beneath the hallowed soil | V |
The peasant rests him from his toil | V |
And dying bids his bones be laid | F |
Where erst his simple fathers prayed | F |
- | |
If age had tamed the passion's strife | X2 |
And fate had cut my ties to life | X2 |
Here have I thought 'twere sweet to dwell | V |
And rear again the chaplain's cell | V |
Like that same peaceful hermitage | Y2 |
Where Milton longed to spend his age | Z2 |
'Twere sweet to mark the setting day | C |
On Bourhope's lonely top decay | C |
And as it faint and feeble died | K2 |
On the broad lake and mountain's side | K2 |
To say Thus pleasures fade away | C |
Youth talents beauty thus decay | C |
And leave us dark forlorn and grey | C |
Then gaze on Dryhope's ruined tower | P |
And think on Yarrow's faded Flower | P |
And when that mountain sound I heard | O2 |
Which bids us be for storm prepared | N2 |
The distant rustling of his wings | C |
As up his force the tempest brings | C |
'Twere sweet ere yet his terrors rave | A3 |
To sit upon the wizard's grave | A3 |
That wizard priest's whose bones are thrust | B3 |
From company of holy dust | B3 |
On which no sunbeam ever shines | C |
So superstition's creed divines | C |
Thence view the lake with sullen roar | Z |
Heave her broad billows to the shore | Z |
And mark the wild swans mount the gale | V |
Spread wide through mist their snowy sail | V |
And ever stoop again to lave | A3 |
Their bosoms on the surging wave | A3 |
Then when against the driving hail | V |
No longer might my plaid avail | V |
Back to my lonely home retire | C3 |
And light my lamp and trim my fire | P |
There ponder o'er some mystic lay | C |
Till the wild tale had all its sway | C |
And in the bittern's distant shriek | I2 |
I heard unearthly voices speak | I2 |
And thought the wizard priest was come | L2 |
To claim again his ancient home | D3 |
And bade my busy fancy range | E3 |
To frame him fitting shape and strange | E3 |
Till from the task my brow I cleared | F3 |
And smiled to think that I had feared | F3 |
- | |
But chief 'twere sweet to think such life | X2 |
Though but escape from fortune's strife | X2 |
Something most matchless good and wise | C |
A great and grateful sacrifice | C |
And deem each hour to musing given | E |
A step upon the road to heaven | E |
- | |
Yet him whose heart is ill at ease | C |
Such peaceful solitudes displease | C |
He loves to drown his bosom's jar | G3 |
Amid the elemental war | Z |
And my black Palmer's choice had been | E |
Some ruder and more savage scene | E |
Like that which frowns round dark Lochskene | E |
There eagles scream from isle to shore | Z |
Down all the rocks the torrents roar | Z |
O'er the black waves incessant driven | E |
Dark mists infect the summer heaven | E |
Through the rude barriers of the lake | Q2 |
Away its hurrying waters break | Q2 |
Faster and whiter dash and curl | V |
Till down yon dark abyss they hurl | V |
Rises the fog smoke white as snow | E |
Thunders the viewless stream below | E |
Diving as if condemned to lave | A3 |
Some demon's subterranean cave | A3 |
Who prisoned by enchanter's spell | V |
Shakes the dark rock with groan and yell | V |
And well that Palmer's form and mien | E |
Had suited with the stormy scene | E |
Just on the edge straining his ken | E |
To view the bottom of the den | E |
Where deep deep down and far within | E |
Toils with the rocks the roaring linn | E |
Then issuing forth one foamy wave | A3 |
And wheeling round the giant's grave | A3 |
White as the snowy charger's tail | V |
Drives down the pass of Moffatdale | V |
- | |
Marriott thy harp on Isis strung | J |
To many a Border theme has rung | J |
Then list to me and thou shalt know | E |
Of this mysterious man of woe | E |
Walter Scott (sir)
(1)
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