The Task: Book V, The Winter Morning Walk (excerpts) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BCDEFGHIJKLMJNOPQRST UNVWXYNUZTA2GB2C2NNN PD2Z E2F2G2H2NNNDI2J2K2L2 M2ZN2O2P2 Q2ZNGZZEH2ZZR2S2NNS| A | |
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| 'Tis morning and the sun with ruddy orb | B |
| Ascending fires th' horizon while the clouds | C |
| That crowd away before the driving wind | D |
| More ardent as the disk emerges more | E |
| Resemble most some city in a blaze | F |
| Seen through the leafless wood His slanting ray | G |
| Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale | H |
| And tinging all with his own rosy hue | I |
| From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade | J |
| Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field | K |
| Mine spindling into longitude immense | L |
| In spite of gravity and sage remark | M |
| That I myself am but a fleeting shade | J |
| Provokes me to a smile With eye askance | N |
| I view the muscular proportion'd limb | O |
| Transform'd to a lean shank The shapeless pair | P |
| As they design'd to mock me at my side | Q |
| Take step for step and as I near approach | R |
| The cottage walk along the plaster'd wall | S |
| Prepost'rous sight the legs without the man | T |
| The verdure of the plain lies buried deep | U |
| Beneath the dazzling deluge and the bents | N |
| And coarser grass upspearing o'er the rest | V |
| Of late unsightly and unseen now shine | W |
| Conspicuous and in bright apparel clad | X |
| And fledg'd with icy feathers nod superb | Y |
| The cattle mourn in corners where the fence | N |
| Screens them and seem half petrified to sleep | U |
| In unrecumbent sadness There they wait | Z |
| Their wonted fodder not like hung'ring man | T |
| Fretful if unsupply'd but silent meek | A2 |
| And patient of the slow pac'd swain's delay | G |
| He from the stack carves out th' accustom'd load | B2 |
| Deep plunging and again deep plunging oft | C2 |
| His broad keen knife into the solid mass | N |
| Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands | N |
| With such undeviating and even force | N |
| He severs it away no needless care | P |
| Lest storms should overset the leaning pile | D2 |
| Deciduous or its own unbalanc'd weight | Z |
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| 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower | E2 |
| Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume | F2 |
| And we are weeds without it All constraint | G2 |
| Except what wisdom lays on evil men | H2 |
| Is evil hurts the faculties impedes | N |
| Their progress in the road of science blinds | N |
| The eyesight of discovery and begets | N |
| In those that suffer it a sordid mind | D |
| Bestial a meagre intellect unfit | I2 |
| To be the tenant of man's noble form | J2 |
| Thee therefore still blameworthy as thou art | K2 |
| With all thy loss of empire and though squeez'd | L2 |
| By public exigence till annual food | M2 |
| Fails for the craving hunger of the state | Z |
| Thee I account still happy and the chief | N2 |
| Among the nations seeing thou art free | O2 |
| My native nook of earth | P2 |
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| But there is yet a liberty unsung | Q2 |
| By poets and by senators unprais'd | Z |
| Which monarchs cannot grant nor all the pow'rs | N |
| Of earth and hell confederate take away | G |
| A liberty which persecution fraud | Z |
| Oppression prisons have no pow'r to bind | Z |
| Which whoso tastes can be enslav'd no more | E |
| 'Tis liberty of heart deriv'd from Heav'n | H2 |
| Bought with his blood who gave it to mankind | Z |
| And seal'd with the same token It is held | Z |
| By charter and that charter sanction'd sure | R2 |
| By th' unimpeachable and awful oath | S2 |
| And promise of a God His other gifts | N |
| All bear the royal stamp that speaks them his | N |
| And are august but this transcends them all | S |
William Cowper
(1)
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