Tirocinium; Or, A Review Of Schools Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK KKLLIIMMNNEEOOPPMMQQ RRQQQQQQKKSSKKQQKKTT RUVVQQKKWPQQKKQQXXKK YYRRKKZZKKRRKKKKKKRR A2A2KKB2B2QQKKQQKKRR QQC2C2HHD2D2KKSSVVE2 E2KKF2F2G2G2KKZZYYKK HHH2H2FFKKRRQQSSKKI2 J2QQLLQQK2K2L2L2YYKKIt is not from his form in which we trace | A |
Strength join'd with beauty dignity with grace | A |
That man the master of this globe derives | B |
His right of empire over all that lives | C |
That form indeed the associate of a mind | D |
Vast in its powers ethereal in its kind | D |
That form the labour of Almighty skill | E |
Framed for the service of a freeborn will | E |
Asserts precedence and bespeaks control | F |
But borrows all its grandeur from the soul | F |
Hers is the state the splendour and the throne | G |
An intellectual kingdom all her own | G |
For her the memory fills her ample page | H |
With truths pour d down from every distant age | H |
For her amasses an unbounded store | I |
The wisdom of great nations now no more | I |
Though laden not encumber d with her spoil | J |
Laborious yet unconscious of her toil | J |
When copiously supplied then most enlarged | K |
Still to be fed and not to be surcharged | K |
For her the Fancy roving unconfined | K |
The present muse of every pensive mind | K |
Works magic wonders adds a brighter hue | L |
To Nature s scenes than Nature ever knew | L |
At her command winds rise and waters roar | I |
Again she lays them slumbering on the shore | I |
With flower and fruit the wilderness supplies | M |
Or bids the rocks in ruder pomp arise | M |
For her the Judgment umpire in the strife | N |
That Grace and Nature have to wage through life | N |
Quick sighted arbiter of good and ill | E |
Appointed sage preceptor to the Will | E |
Condemns approves and with a faithful voice | O |
Guides the decision of a doubtful choice | O |
Why did the fiat of a God give birth | P |
To yon fair Sun and his attendant Earth | P |
And when descending he resigns the skies | M |
Why takes the gentler Moon her turn to rise | M |
Whom Ocean feels through all his countless waves | Q |
And owns her power on every shore he laves | Q |
Why do the seasons still enrich the year | R |
Fruitful and young as in their first career | R |
Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees | Q |
Rock d in the cradle of the western breeze | Q |
Summer in haste the thriving charge receives | Q |
Beneath the shade of her expanded leaves | Q |
Till Autumn s fiercer heats and plenteous dews | Q |
Dye them at last in all their glowing hues | Q |
Twere wild profusion all and bootless waste | K |
Power misemploy d munificence misplaced | K |
Had not its Author dignified the plan | S |
And crown d it with the majesty of man | S |
Thus form d thus placed intelligent and taught | K |
Look where he will the wonders God has wrought | K |
The wildest scorner of his Maker s laws | Q |
Finds in a sober moment time to pause | Q |
To press the important question on his heart | K |
Why form d at all and wherefore as thou art | K |
If man be what he seems this hour a slave | T |
The next mere dust and ashes in the grave | T |
Endued with reason only to descry | R |
His crimes and follies with an aching eye | U |
With passions just that he may prove with pain | V |
The force he spends against their fury vain | V |
And if soon after having burnt by turns | Q |
With every lust with which frail Nature burns | Q |
His being end where death dissolves the bond | K |
The tomb take all and all be blank beyond | K |
Then he of all that Nature has brought forth | W |
Stands self impeach d the creature of least worth | P |
And useless while he lives and when he dies | Q |
Brings into doubt the wisdom of the skies | Q |
Truths that the learn d pursue with eager thought | K |
Are not important always as dear bought | K |
Proving at last though told in pompous strains | Q |
A childish waste of philosophic pains | Q |
But truths on which depends our main concern | X |
That tis our shame and misery not to learn | X |
Shine by the side of every path we tread | K |
With such a lustre he that runs may read | K |
Tis true that if to trifle life away | Y |
Down to the sunset of their latest day | Y |
Then perish on futurity s wide shore | R |
Like fleeting exhalations found no more | R |
Were all that Heaven required of human kind | K |
And all the plan their destiny design d | K |
What none could reverence all might justly blame | Z |
And man would breathe but for his Maker s shame | Z |
But reason heard and nature well perused | K |
At once the dreaming mind is disabused | K |
If all we find possessing earth sea air | R |
Reflect His attributes who placed them there | R |
Fulfil the purpose and appear design d | K |
Proofs of the wisdom of the all seeing mind | K |
Tis plain the creature whom he chose to invest | K |
With kingship and dominion o er the rest | K |
Received his nobler nature and was made | K |
Fit for the power in which he stands array d | K |
That first or last hereafter if not here | R |
He too might make his author s wisdom clear | R |
Praise him on earth or obstinately dumb | A2 |
Suffer his justice in a world to come | A2 |
This once believed twere logic misapplied | K |
To prove a consequence by none denied | K |
That we are bound to cast the minds of youth | B2 |
Betimes into the mould of heavenly truth | B2 |
That taught of God they may indeed be wise | Q |
Nor ignorantly wandering miss the skies | Q |
In early days the conscience has in most | K |
A quickness which in later life is lost | K |
Preserved from guilt by salutary fears | Q |
Or guilty soon relenting into tears | Q |
Too careless often as our years proceed | K |
What friends we sort with or what books we read | K |
Our parents yet exert a prudent care | R |
To feed our infant minds with proper fare | R |
And wisely store the nursery by degrees | Q |
With wholesome learning yet acquired with ease | Q |
Neatly secured from being soil d or torn | C2 |
Beneath a pane of thin translucent horn | C2 |
A book to please us at a tender age | H |
Tis call d a book though but a single page | H |
Presents the prayer the Saviour deign d to teach | D2 |
Which children use and parsons when they preach | D2 |
Lisping our syllables we scramble next | K |
Through moral narrative or sacred text | K |
And learn with wonder how this world began | S |
Who made who marr d and who has ransom d man | S |
Points which unless the Scripture made them plain | V |
The wisest heads might agitate in vain | V |
O thou whom borne on fancy s eager wing | E2 |
Back to the season of life s happy spring | E2 |
I pleased remember and while memory yet | K |
Holds fast her office here can ne er forget | K |
Ingenious dreamer in whose well told tale | F2 |
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail | F2 |
Whose humorous vein strong sense and simple style | G2 |
May teach the gayest make the gravest smile | G2 |
Witty and well employ d and like thy Lord | K |
Speaking in parables his slighted word | K |
I name thee not lest so despised a name | Z |
Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame | Z |
Yet e en in transitory life s late day | Y |
That mingles all my brown with sober grey | Y |
Revere the man whose Pilgrim marks the road | K |
And guides the Progress of the soul to God | K |
Twere well with most if books that could engage | H |
Their childhood pleased them at a riper age | H |
The man approving what had charm d the boy | H2 |
Would die at last in comfort peace and joy | H2 |
And not with curses on his heart who stole | F |
The gem of truth from his unguarded soul | F |
The stamp of artless piety impress d | K |
By kind tuition on his yielding breast | K |
The youth now bearded and yet pert and raw | R |
Regards with scorn though once received with awe | R |
And warp d into the labyrinth of lies | Q |
That babblers call d philosophers devise | Q |
Blasphemes his creed as founded on a plan | S |
Replete with dreams unworthy of a man | S |
Touch but his nature in its ailing part | K |
Assert the native evil of his heart | K |
His pride resents the charge although the proof | I2 |
Rise in his forehead and seem rank enough | J2 |
Point to the cure describe a Saviour s cross | Q |
As God s expedient to retrieve his loss | Q |
The young apostate sickens at the view | L |
And hates it with the malice of a Jew | L |
How weak the barrier of mere nature proves | Q |
Opposed against the pleasures nature loves | Q |
While self betray d and wilfully undone | K2 |
She longs to yield no sooner woo d than won | K2 |
Try now the merits of this blest exchange | L2 |
Of modest truth for wit s eccentric range | L2 |
Time was he closed as he began the day | Y |
With decent duty not ashamed to pray | Y |
The practice was a bond upon his heart | K |
A pledge he gave for a consistent part | K |
No | - |
William Cowper
(2)
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