To My Father (translated From Milton) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGCCHICJCCKKCLM NOPKKKKQRSTCUVLWXPCY ZKA2CCCCZUCCKKKCB2CZ KKC2D2RMKKCFZKKCE2F2 CKCKG2ZCH2KCI2F2ICNJ 2KCCKK2KKCKZKL2KM2SK N2JO2ZCCP2KMZKCZQ2R2 CS2KZKC2K2J2P2T2KKCC KKOKCU2UZCZZOV2| Oh that Pieria's spring would thro' my breast | A |
| Pour its inspiring influence and rush | B |
| No rill but rather an o'erflowing flood | C |
| That for my venerable Father's sake | D |
| All meaner themes renounced my Muse on wings | E |
| Of Duty borne might reach a loftier strain | F |
| For thee my Father howsoe'er it please | G |
| She frames this slender work nor know I aught | C |
| That may thy gifts more suitably requite | C |
| Though to requite them suitably would ask | H |
| Returns much nobler and surpassing far | I |
| The meagre stores of verbal gratitude | C |
| But such as I possess I send thee all | J |
| This page presents thee in their full amount | C |
| With thy son's treasures and the sum is nought | C |
| Naught save the riches that from airy dreams | K |
| In secret grottos and in laurel bow'rs | K |
| I have by golden Clio's gift acquir'd | C |
| Verse is a work divine despise not thou | L |
| Verse therefore which evinces nothing more | M |
| Man's heav'nly source and which retaining still | N |
| Some scintillations of Promethean fire | O |
| Bespeaks him animated from above | P |
| The Gods love verse the infernal Pow'rs themselves | K |
| Confess the influence of verse which stirs | K |
| The lowest Deep and binds in triple chains | K |
| Of adamant both Pluto and the shades | K |
| In verse the Delphic priestess and the pale | Q |
| Tremulous Sybil make the Future known | R |
| And He who sacrifices on the shrine | S |
| Hangs verse both when he smites the threat'ning bull | T |
| And when he spreads his reeking entrails wide | C |
| To scrutinize the Fates envelop'd there | U |
| We too ourselves what time we seek again | V |
| Our native skies and one eternal Now | L |
| Shall be the only measure of our Being | W |
| Crown'd all with gold and chanting to the lyre | X |
| Harmonious verse shall range the courts above | P |
| And make the starry firmament resound | C |
| And even now the fiery Spirit pure | Y |
| That wheels yon circling orbs directs himself | Z |
| Their mazy dance with melody of verse | K |
| Unutt'rable immortal hearing which | A2 |
| Huge Ophiuchus holds his hiss suppress'd | C |
| Orion soften'd drops his ardent blade | C |
| And Atlas stands unconscious of his load | C |
| Verse graced of old the feasts of kings ere yet | C |
| Luxurious dainties destin'd to the gulph | Z |
| Immense of gluttony were known and ere | U |
| Lyaeus deluged yet the temp'rate board | C |
| Then sat the bard a customary guest | C |
| To share the banquet and his length of locks | K |
| With beechen honours bound proposed in verse | K |
| The characters of Heroes and their deeds | K |
| To imitation sang of Chaos old | C |
| Of Nature's birth of Gods that crept in search | B2 |
| Of acorns fall'n and of the thunderbolt | C |
| Not yet produc'd from Aetna's fiery cave | Z |
| And what avails at last tune without voice | K |
| Devoid of matter Such may suit perhaps | K |
| The rural dance but such was ne'er the song | C2 |
| Of Orpheus whom the streams stood still to hear | D2 |
| And the oaks follow'd Not by chords alone | R |
| Well touch'd but by resistless accents more | M |
| To sympathetic tears the Ghosts themselves | K |
| He mov'd these praises to his verse he owes | K |
| Nor Thou persist I pray thee still to slight | C |
| The sacred Nine and to imagine vain | F |
| And useless Pow'rs by whom inspir'd thyself | Z |
| Art skillfill to associate verse with airs | K |
| Harmonious and to give the human voice | K |
| A thousand modulations heir by right | C |
| Indisputable of Arion's fame | E2 |
| Now say what wonder is it if a son | F2 |
| Of thine delight in verse if so conjoin'd | C |
| In close affinity we sympathize | K |
| In social arts and kindred studies sweet | C |
| Such distribution of himself to us | K |
| Was Phoebus' choice thou hast thy gift and I | G2 |
| Mine also and between us we receive | Z |
| Father and son the whole inspiring God | C |
| No Howsoe'er the semblance thou assume | H2 |
| Of hate thou hatest not the gentle Muse | K |
| My Father for thou never bad'st me tread | C |
| The beaten path and broad that leads right on | I2 |
| To opulence nor did'st condemn thy son | F2 |
| To the insipid clamours of the bar | I |
| To laws voluminous and ill observ'd | C |
| But wishing to enrich me more to fill | N |
| My mind with treasure led'st me far away | J2 |
| From city din to deep retreats to banks | K |
| And streams Aonian and with free consent | C |
| Didst place me happy at Apollo's side | C |
| I speak not now on more important themes | K |
| Intent of common benefits and such | K2 |
| As Nature bids but of thy larger gifts | K |
| My Father who when I had open'd once | K |
| The stores of Roman rhetoric and learn'd | C |
| The full ton'd language of the eloquent Greeks | K |
| Whose lofty music grac'd the lips of Jove | Z |
| Thyself did'st counsel me to add the flow'rs | K |
| That Gallia boasts those too with which the smooth | L2 |
| Italian his degentrate speech adorns | K |
| That witnesses his mixture with the Goth | M2 |
| And Palestine's prophetic songs divine | S |
| To sum the whole whate'er the Heav'n contains | K |
| The Earth beneath it and the Air between | N2 |
| The Rivers and the restless deep may all | J |
| Prove intellectual gain to me my wish | O2 |
| Concurring with thy will Science herself | Z |
| All cloud removed inclines her beauteous head | C |
| And offers me the lip if dull of heart | C |
| I shrink not and decline her gracious boon | P2 |
| Go now and gather dross ye sordid minds | K |
| That covet it what could my Father more | M |
| What more could Jove himself unless he gave | Z |
| His own abode the heav'n in which he reigns | K |
| More eligible gifts than these were not | C |
| Apollo's to his son had they been safe | Z |
| As they were insecure who made the boy | Q2 |
| The world's vice luminary bade him rule | R2 |
| The radiant chariot of the day and bind | C |
| To his young brows his own all dazzling wreath | S2 |
| I therefore although last and least my place | K |
| Among the Learned in the laurel grove | Z |
| Will hold and where the conqu'ror's ivy twines | K |
| Henceforth exempt from th'unletter'd throng | C2 |
| Profane nor even to be seen by such | K2 |
| Away then sleepless Care Complaint away | J2 |
| And Envy with thy 'jealous leer malign' | P2 |
| Nor let the monster Calumny shoot forth | T2 |
| Her venom'd tongue at me Detested foes | K |
| Ye all are impotent against my peace | K |
| For I am privileged and bear my breast | C |
| Safe and too high for your viperean wound | C |
| But thou my Father since to render thanks | K |
| Equivalent and to requite by deeds | K |
| Thy liberality exceeds my power | O |
| Sufffice it that I thus record thy gifts | K |
| And bear them treasur'd in a grateful mind | C |
| Ye too the favourite pastime of my youth | U2 |
| My voluntary numbers if ye dare | U |
| To hope longevity and to survive | Z |
| Your master's funeral pile not soon absorb'd | C |
| In the oblivious Lethaean gulph | Z |
| Shall to Futurity perhaps convey | Z |
| This theme and by these praises of my sire | O |
| Improve the Fathers of a distant age | V2 |
William Cowper
(1)
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To My Father (translated From Milton) is a poem by William Cowper. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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