On The Ice Islands Seen Floating In The German Ocean. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LMNNOPQQGGRRKKGGQQSS QQTTQQQQUUQQJJSSVVNN WWQQ| What portents from what distant region ride | A |
| Unseen till now in ours the astonish'd tide | A |
| In ages past old Proteus with his droves | B |
| Of sea calves sought the mountains and the groves | B |
| But now descending whence of late they stood | C |
| Themselves the mountains seem to rove the flood | D |
| Dire times were they full charged with human woes | E |
| And these scarce less calamitous than those | E |
| What view we now More wondrous still Behold | F |
| Like burnish'd brass they shine or beaten gold | F |
| And all around the pearl's pure splendour show | G |
| And all around the ruby's fiery glow | G |
| Come they from India where the burning earth | H |
| All bounteous gives her richest treasures birth | H |
| And where the costly gems that beam around | I |
| The brows of mightiest potentates are found | I |
| No Never such a countless dazzling store | J |
| Had left unseen the Ganges' peopled shore | J |
| Rapacious hands and ever watchful eyes | K |
| Should sooner far have mark'd and seized the prize | K |
| Whence sprang they then Ejected have they come | L |
| From Vesuvius' or from tna's burning womb | M |
| Thus shine they self illumed or but display | N |
| The borrow'd splendours of a cloudless day | N |
| With borrow'd beams they shine The gales that breathe | O |
| Now landward and the current's force beneath | P |
| Have borne them nearer and the nearer sight | Q |
| Advantaged more contemplates them aright | Q |
| Their lofty summits crested high they show | G |
| With mingled sleet and long incumbent snow | G |
| The rest is ice Far hence where most severe | R |
| Bleak winter well nigh saddens all the year | R |
| Their infant growth began He bade arise | K |
| Their uncouth forms portentous in our eyes | K |
| Oft as dissolved by transient suns the snow | G |
| Left the tall cliff to join the flood below | G |
| He caught and curdled with a freezing blast | Q |
| The current ere it reach'd the boundless waste | Q |
| By slow degrees uprose the wondrous pile | S |
| And long successive ages roll'd the while | S |
| Till ceaseless in its growth it claim'd to stand | Q |
| Tall as its rival mountains on the land | Q |
| Thus stood and unremovable by skill | T |
| Or force of man had stood the structure still | T |
| But that though firmly fix'd supplanted yet | Q |
| By pressure of its own enormous weight | Q |
| It left the shelving beach and with a sound | Q |
| That shook the bellowing waves and rocks around | Q |
| Self launch'd and swiftly to the briny wave | U |
| As if instinct with strong desire to lave | U |
| Down went the ponderous mass So bards of old | Q |
| How Delos swam the gean deep have told | Q |
| But not of ice was Delos Delos bore | J |
| Herb fruit and flower She crown'd with laurel wore | J |
| E'en under wintry skies a summer smile | S |
| And Delos was Apollo's favourite isle | S |
| But horrid wanderers of the deep to you | V |
| He deems Cimmerian darkness only due | V |
| Your hated birth he deign'd not to survey | N |
| But scornful turn'd his glorious eyes away | N |
| Hence seek your home nor longer rashly dare | W |
| The darts of Phoebus and a softer air | W |
| Lest ye regret too late your native coast | Q |
| In no congenial gulf for ever lost | Q |
William Cowper
(1)
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