Elegy Vi To Charles Diodati, When He Was Visiting In The Country Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEFGGHIJJKKLLMM NNOONNNNPPQQBBRRRRST CCRRUURRRREFNNNNVVWX OOYYNNRRNNVVZZDDFFA2 A2B2B2NNC2C2VVNNRR| Who sent the Author a poetical epistle in which he requested that his verses if not so good as usual might be excused on account of the many feasts to which his friends invited him and which would not allow him leisure to finish them as he wished | A |
| - | |
| With no rich viands overcharg'd I send | B |
| Health which perchance you want my pamper'd friend | B |
| But wherefore should thy Muse tempt mine away | C |
| From what she loves from darkness into day | C |
| Art thou desirous to be told how well | D |
| I love thee and in verse Verse cannot tell | D |
| For verse has bounds and must in measure move | E |
| But neither bounds nor measure knows my love | F |
| How pleasant in thy lines described appear | G |
| December's harmless sports and rural cheer | G |
| French spirits kindling with caerulean fires | H |
| And all such gambols as the time inspires | I |
| Think not that Wine against good verse offends | J |
| The Muse and Bacchus have been always friends | J |
| Nor Phoebus blushes sometimes to be found | K |
| With Ivy rather than with Laurel crown'd | K |
| The Nine themselves oftimes have join'd the song | L |
| And revels of the Bacchanalian throng | L |
| Not even Ovid could in Scythian air | M |
| Sing sweetly why no vine would flourish there | M |
| What in brief numbers sang Anacreon's muse | N |
| Wine and the rose that sparkling wine bedews | N |
| Pindar with Bacchus glows his every line | O |
| Breathes the rich fragrance of inspiring wine | O |
| While with loud crash o'erturn'd the chariot lies | N |
| And brown with dust the fiery courser flies | N |
| The Roman lyrist steep'd in wine his lays | N |
| So sweet in Glycera's and Chloe's praise | N |
| Now too the plenteous feast and mantling bowl | P |
| Nourish the vigour of thy sprightly soul | P |
| The flowing goblet makes thy numbers flow | Q |
| And casks not wine alone but verse bestow | Q |
| Thus Phoebus favours and the arts attend | B |
| Whom Bacchus and whom Ceres both befriend | B |
| What wonder then thy verses are so sweet | R |
| In which these triple powers so kindly meet | R |
| The lute now also sounds with gold inwrought | R |
| And touch'd with flying Fingers nicely taught | R |
| In tap'stried halls high roof'd the sprightly lyre | S |
| Directs the dancers of the virgin choir | T |
| If dull repletion fright the Muse away | C |
| Sights gay as these may more invite her stay | C |
| And trust me while the iv'ry keys resound | R |
| Fair damsels sport and perfumes steam around | R |
| Apollo's influence like ethereal flame | U |
| Shall animate at once thy glowing frame | U |
| And all the Muse shall rush into thy breast | R |
| By love and music's blended pow'rs possest | R |
| For num'rous pow'rs light Elegy befriend | R |
| Hear her sweet voice and at her call attend | R |
| Her Bacchus Ceres Venus all approve | E |
| And with his blushing Mother gentle Love | F |
| Hence to such bards we grant the copious use | N |
| Of banquets and the vine's delicious juice | N |
| But they who Demigods and Heroes praise | N |
| And feats perform'd in Jove's more youthful days | N |
| Who now the counsels of high heav'n explore | V |
| Now shades that echo the Cerberean roar | V |
| Simply let these like him of Samos live | W |
| Let herbs to them a bloodless banquet give | X |
| In beechen goblets let their bev'rage shine | O |
| Cool from the chrystal spring their sober wine | O |
| Their youth should pass in innocence secure | Y |
| From stain licentious and in manners pure | Y |
| Pure as the priest's when robed in white he stands | N |
| The fresh lustration ready in his hands | N |
| Thus Linus liv'd and thus as poets write | R |
| Tiresias wiser for his loss of sight | R |
| Thus exil'd Chalcas thus the bard of Thrace | N |
| Melodious tamer of the savage race | N |
| Thus train'd by temp'rance Homer led of yore | V |
| His chief of Ithaca from shore to shore | V |
| Through magic Circe's monster peopled reign | Z |
| And shoals insidious with the siren train | Z |
| And through the realms where griesly spectres dwell | D |
| Whose tribes he fetter'd in a gory spell | D |
| For these are sacred bards and from above | F |
| Drink large infusions from the mind of Jove | F |
| Would'st thou perhaps 'tis hardly worth thine ear | A2 |
| Would'st thou be told my occupation here | A2 |
| The promised King of peace employs my pen | B2 |
| Th'eternal cov'nant made for guilty men | B2 |
| The new born Deity with infant cries | N |
| Filling the sordid hovel where he lies | N |
| The hymning Angels and the herald star | C2 |
| That led the Wise who sought him from afar | C2 |
| And idols on their own unhallow'd floor | V |
| Dash'd at his birth to be revered no more | V |
| This theme on reeds of Albion I rehearse | N |
| The dawn of that blest day inspired the verse | N |
| Verse that reserv'd in secret shall attend | R |
| Thy candid voice my Critic and my Friend | R |
William Cowper
(1)
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