Blind Old Milton Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCBCDCDEDEFEFGFHI G IJIJKJKLKLMLMNMNONOP OQRPROROAOASA STSTOTOUOVWUWXWXOYOF OFZKZOZOOOOYOYAYAA2A A2OB2OC2O C2D2C2D2E2D2E2F2E2F2 KF2FUFUHUHC2H C2G2C2G2OH2OI2OI2J2I 2K2L2K2L2M2L2ED2M2D2 A2D2A2FA2KOFOUON2ON2 OO2OO2A2O2 A2P2A2Q2OP2OOO OOOOR2OS2OAOEOE

Place me once more my daughter where the sunA
May shine upon my old and time worn headB
For the last time perchance My race is runA
And soon amidst the ever silent deadB
I must repose it may be half forgotC
Yes I have broke the hard and bitter breadB
For many a year and with those who trembled notC
To buckle on their armor for the fightD
And set themselves against the tyrant's lotC
And I have never bowed me to his mightD
Nor knelt before him for I bear withinE
My heart the sternest consciousness of rightD
And that perpetual hate of gilded sinE
Which made me what I am and though the stainF
Of poverty be on me yet I winE
More honor by it than the blinded trainF
Who hug their willing servitude and bowG
Unto the weakest and the most profaneF
Therefore with unencumbered soul I goH
Before the footstool of my Maker whereI
I hope to stand as undebased as nowG
-
Child is the sun abroad I feel my hairI
Borne up and wafted by the gentle windJ
I feel the odors that perfume the airI
And hear the rustling of the leaves behindJ
Within my heart I picture them and thenK
I almost can forget that I am blindJ
And old and hated by my fellow menK
Yet would I fain once more behold the graceL
Of nature ere I die and gaze againK
Upon her living and rejoicing faceL
Fain would I see thy countenance my childM
My comforter I feel thy dear embraceL
I hear thy voice so musical and mildM
The patient sole interpreter by whomN
So many years of sadness are beguiledM
For it hath made my small and scanty roomN
Peopled with glowing visions of the pastO
But I will calmly bend me to my doomN
And wait the hour which is approaching fastO
When triple light shall stream upon mine eyesP
And heaven itself be opened up at lastO
To him who dared foretell its mysteriesQ
I have had visions in this drear eclipseR
Of outward consciousness and clomb the skiesP
Striving to utter with my earthly lipsR
What the diviner soul had half divinedO
Even as the Saint in his ApocalypseR
Who saw the inmost glory where enshrinedO
Sat He who fashioned glory This hath drivenA
All outward strife and tumult from my mindO
And humbled me until I have forgivenA
My bitter enemies and only seekS
To find the straight and narrow path to heavenA
-
Yet I am weak oh how entirely weakS
For one who may not love nor suffer moreT
Sometimes unbidden tears will wet my cheekS
And my heart bound as keenly as of yoreT
Responsive to a voice now hushed to restO
Which made the beautiful Italian shoreT
In all its pomp of summer vineyards drestO
And Eden and a Paradise to meU
Do the sweet breezes from the balmy westO
Still murmur through thy groves ParthenopeV
In search of odors from the orange bowersW
Still on thy slopes of verdure does the beeU
Cull her rare honey from the virgin flowersW
And Philomel her plaintive chaunt prolongX
'Neath skies more calm and more serene than oursW
Making the summer one perpetual songX
Art thou the same as when in manhood's prideO
I walked in joy thy grassy meads amongY
With that fair youthful vision by my sideO
In whose bright eyes I looked and not in vainF
O my ador d angel O my brideO
Despite of years and woe and want and painF
My soul yearns back towards thee and I seemZ
To wander with thee hand in hand againK
By the bright margins of that flowing streamZ
I hear again thy voice more silver sweetO
Than fancied music floating in a dreamZ
Possess my being from afar I greetO
The waving of thy garments in the gladeO
And the light rustling of thy fairy feetO
What time as one half eager half afraidO
Love's burning secret faltered on my tongueY
And tremulous looks and broken words betrayedO
The secret of the heart from whence they sprungY
Ah me the earth that rendered thee to heavenA
Gave up an angel beautiful and youngY
Spotless and pure as snow when freshly drivenA
A bright Aurora for the starry sphereA2
Where all is love and even life forgivenA
Bride of immortal beauty ever dearA2
Dost thou await me in thy blest abodeO
While I Tithonus like must linger hereB2
And count each step along the rugged roadO
A phantom tottering to a long made graveC2
And eager to lay down my weary loadO
-
I who was fancy's lord am fancy's slaveC2
Like the low murmurs of the Indian shellD2
Ta'en from its coral bed beneath the waveC2
Which unforgetful of the ocean's swellD2
Retains within its mystic urn the humE2
Heard in the sea grots where Nereids dwellD2
Old thoughts still haunt me unawares they comeE2
Between me and my rest nor can I makeF2
Those aged visitors of sorrow dumbE2
Oh yet awhile my feeble soul awakeF2
Nor wander back with sullen steps againK
For neither pleasant pastime canst thou takeF2
In such a journey nor endure the painF
The phantoms of the past are dead for theeU
So let them ever uninvoked remainF
And be thou calm till death shall set thee freeU
Thy flowers of hope expanded long agoH
Long since their blossoms withered on the treeU
No second spring can come to make them blowH
But in the silent winter of the graveC2
They lie with blighted love and buried woeH
-
I did not waste the gifts which nature gaveC2
Nor slothful lay in the Circean bowerG2
Nor did I yield myself the willing slaveC2
Of lust for pride for riches or for powerG2
No in my heart a nobler spirit dweltO
For constant was my faith in manhood's dowerH2
Man made in God's own image and I feltO
How of our own accord we courted shameI2
Until to idols like ourselves we kneltO
And so renounced the great and glorious claimI2
Of freedom our immortal heritageJ2
I saw how bigotry with spiteful aimI2
Smote at the searching eyesight of the sageK2
How Error stole behind the steps of TruthL2
And cast delusion on the sacred pageK2
So as a champion even in early youthL2
I waged by battle with a purpose keenM2
Nor feared the hand of terror nor the toothL2
Of serpent jealousy And I have beenE
With starry Galileo in his cellD2
That wise magician with the brow sereneM2
Who fathomed space and I have seen him tellD2
The wonders of the planetary sphereA2
And trace the ramparts of heaven's citadelD2
On the cold flag stones of his dungeon drearA2
And I have walked with Hampden and with VaneF
Names once so gracious to an English earA2
In days that never may return againK
My voice though not the loudest hath been heardO
Whenever freedom raised her cry of painF
And the faint effort of the humble bardO
Hath roused up thousands from their lethargyU
To speak in words of thunder What rewardO
Was mine or theirs It matters not for IN2
am but a leaf cast on the whirling tideO
Without a hope or wish except to dieN2
But truth asserted once must still abideO
Unquenchable as are those fiery springsO2
Which day and night gush from the mountain sideO
Perpetual meteors girt with lambent wingsO2
Which the wild tempest tosses to and froA2
But cannot conquer with the force it bringsO2
-
Yet I who ever felt another's woeA2
More keenly than my own untold distressP2
I who have battled with the common foeA2
And broke for years the bread of bitternessQ2
Who never yet abandoned or betrayedO
The trust vouchsafed me nor have ceased to blessP2
Am left alone to wither in the shadeO
A weak old man deserted by his kindO
Whom none will comfort in his age nor aidO
-
Oh let me not repine A quiet mindO
Conscious and upright needs no other stayO
Nor can I grieve for what I leave behindO
In the rich promise of eternal dayO
Henceforth to me the world is dead and goneR2
Its thorns unfelt its roses cast awayO
And the old pilgrim weary and aloneS2
Bowed down with travel at his Master's gateO
Now sits his task of life long labor doneA
Thankful for rest although it comes so lateO
After sore journey through the world of sinE
In hope and prayer and wistfulness to waitO
Until the door shall ope and let him inE

William Edmondstoune Aytoun



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