Translations Of The Italian Poems Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBBCCBDEDFGG A DCCDDCCDBBBBHH AB DCIDJCCDDKDKDDD CH BCCBBCCBKBKBLL H DDDDDDDDDMDMNN C NCCNNCCNODODGGI | A |
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Fair Lady whose harmonious name the Rheno | B |
Through all his grassy vale delights to hear | C |
Base were indeed the wretch who could forbear | C |
To love a spirit elegant as thine | B |
That manifests a sweetness all divine | B |
Nor knows a thousand winning acts to spare | C |
And graces which Love's bow and arrows are | C |
Temp'ring thy virtues to a softer shine | B |
When gracefully thou speak'st or singest gay | D |
Such strains as might the senseless forest move | E |
Ah then turn each his eyes and ears away | D |
Who feels himself unworthy of thy love | F |
Grace can alone preserve him e'er the dart | G |
Of fond desire yet reach his inmost heart | G |
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II | A |
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As on a hill top rude when closing day | D |
Imbrowns the scene some past'ral maiden fair | C |
Waters a lovely foreign plant with care | C |
That scarcely can its tender bud display | D |
Borne from its native genial airs away | D |
So on my tongue these accents new and rare | C |
Are flow'rs exotic which Love waters there | C |
While thus o sweetly scornful I essay | D |
Thy praise in verse to British ears unknown | B |
And Thames exchange for Arno's fair domain | B |
So Love has will'd and oftimes Love has shown | B |
That what He wills he never wills in vain | B |
Oh that this hard and steril breast might be | H |
To Him who plants from heav'n a soil as free | H |
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III | A |
Canzone | B |
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They mock my toil the nymphs and am'rous swains | D |
And whence this fond attempt to write they cry | C |
Love songs in language that thou little know'st | I |
How dar'st thou risque to sing these foreign strains | D |
Say truly Find'st not oft thy purpose cross'd | J |
And that thy fairest flow'rs Here fade and die | C |
Then with pretence of admiration high | C |
Thee other shores expect and other tides | D |
Rivers on whose grassy sides | D |
Her deathless laurel leaf with which to bind | K |
Thy flowing locks already Fame provides | D |
Why then this burthen better far declin'd | K |
Speak Canzone for me The Fair One said who guides | D |
My willing heart and all my Fancy's flights | D |
This is the language in which Love delights | D |
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IV | C |
To Charles Diodati | H |
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Charles and I say it wond'ring thou must know | B |
That I who once assum'd a scornful air | C |
And scoff'd at love am fallen in his snare | C |
Full many an upright man has fallen so | B |
Yet think me not thus dazzled by the flow | B |
Of golden locks or damask cheek more rare | C |
The heart felt beauties of my foreign fair | C |
A mien majestic with dark brows that show | B |
The tranquil lustre of a lofty mind | K |
Words exquisite of idioms more than one | B |
And song whose fascinating pow'r might bind | K |
And from her sphere draw down the lab'ring Moon | B |
With such fire darting eyes that should I fill | L |
My ears with wax she would enchant me still | L |
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V | H |
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Lady It cannot be but that thine eyes | D |
Must be my sun such radiance they display | D |
And strike me ev'n as Phoebus him whose way | D |
Through torrid Libya's sandy desert lies | D |
Meantime on that side steamy vapours rise | D |
Where most I suffer Of what kind are they | D |
New as to me they are I cannot say | D |
But deem them in the Lover's language sighs | D |
Some though with pain my bosom close conceals | D |
Which if in part escaping thence they tend | M |
To soften thine they coldness soon congeals | D |
While others to my tearful eyes ascend | M |
Whence my sad nights in show'rs are ever drown'd | N |
'Till my Aurora comes her brow with roses bound | N |
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VI | C |
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Enamour'd artless young on foreign ground | N |
Uncertain whither from myself to fly | C |
To thee dear Lady with an humble sigh | C |
Let me devote my heart which I have found | N |
By certain proofs not few intrepid sound | N |
Good and addicted to conceptions high | C |
When tempests shake the world and fire the sky | C |
It rests in adamant self wrapt around | N |
As safe from envy and from outrage rude | O |
From hopes and fears that vulgar minds abuse | D |
As fond of genius and fix'd fortitude | O |
Of the resounding lyre and every Muse | D |
Weak you will find it in one only part | G |
Now pierc'd by Love's immedicable dart | G |
William Cowper
(1)
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