The Bard Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEAFDFBGHHIJKALJA LMMMMNNOKPQKPQKRRRKO OO OOSSOTTUUOOVVTWWMXMX M YZOOKKA2KB2A2B2KKOB2 UOC2PD2E2E2D2F2E2G2F 2PPC2G2C2H2II2KUTJ2J 2TACK2QQQL2OC2CUM2N2 AUUO2K2AAO2AUK2K2K2Where dwells the spirit of the Bard what sky | A |
Persuades his daring wing | B |
Folded in soft carnation or in snow | C |
Still sleeping far o'er summits of the cloud | D |
And with a seeming sweet unconsciousness | E |
Wooing his plume through baffling storms to fly | A |
Assured of all that ever yet might bless | F |
The spirit by love and loftiest hope made proud | D |
Would he but struggle for the dear caress | F |
Or would his giant spring | B |
Impelled by holiest ire | G |
Assail the sullen summits of the storm | H |
Bent with broad breast and still impatient form | H |
Where clouds unfold themselves in leaping fire | I |
What vision wins his soul | J |
What passion wings his flight | K |
What dream of conquest woos his eager eye | A |
How glows he with the strife | L |
How spurns he at control | J |
With what unmeasured rage would he defy | A |
The foes that rise around and threaten life | L |
His upward flight is fair | M |
He goes through parting air | M |
He breaks the barrier cloud he sees the eye that's there | M |
The centre of the realm of storm that mocked him but to dare | M |
And now he grasps the prize | N |
That on the summit lies | N |
And binds the burning jewel to his brow | O |
Transfigured by its bright | K |
He wears a mightier face | P |
Nor grovels more in likeness of the earth | Q |
His wing a bolder flight | K |
His step a wilder grace | P |
He glows the creature of a holier birth | Q |
Suns sing and stars glow glad around his light | K |
And thus he speeds afar | R |
'Mid gathering sun and star | R |
The sov'reign he of worlds where these but subjects are | R |
And men that marked his wing with mocking sight | K |
Do watch and wonder now | O |
Will watch and worship with delight anon | O |
When far from hiss and hate his upward form hath gone | O |
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h ere that van was won | O |
Whose flight hath braved the sun | O |
Whose daring strength and aim | S |
Have scaled the heights of cloud and bared their breasts of flame | S |
What lowly toil was done | O |
How slow the moments sped | T |
How bitter were the pangs that vexed the heart and head | T |
The burden which he bore | U |
The thorns his feet that tore | U |
The cruel wounds he suffered with no moan | O |
Alone and still alone | O |
Denial which could smile | V |
Beholding all the while | V |
How salter than the sea were the salt tears he shed | T |
And over all the curse | W |
Than all of these more worse | W |
Prostrate before the common way to bear | M |
The feet of hissing things | X |
Whose toil it is to tear | M |
And cramp the glorious creature born to wings | X |
Ah should he once despair | M |
- | |
- | |
Not lonely with the sad nymph Solitude | Y |
Deep in the cover of the ancient wood | Z |
Where the sun leaves him and the happy dawn | O |
Stealing with blushes over the gray lawn | O |
Stills finds him all forgetful of the flight | K |
Of hours that passing still from dark to bright | K |
Know not to loiter all their progress naught | A2 |
His eye unconscious of the day is bright | K |
With inward vision till as sudden freed | B2 |
By the superior quest of a proud thought | A2 |
He darts away with an unmeasured speed | B2 |
His pinion purpling as he gains the height | K |
Where still though all obscured from mortal sight | K |
He bathes him in the late smiles of the sun | O |
And oh the glory as he guides his steed | B2 |
Flakes from his pinions falling as they soar | U |
To mounts where Eos binds her buskins on | O |
And proud Artemis watching by her well | C2 |
For one sole fortunate of all his race | P |
With hand upon his mouth her beagle stays | D2 |
Lest he should baffle sounds too sweet to lose | E2 |
That even now are gliding with the dews | E2 |
How nobly he arrays | D2 |
His robes for flight his robes the woven of songs | F2 |
Borrowed from starry spheres with each a muse | E2 |
That with her harmonies maintains its dance | G2 |
Celestial and its circles bright prolongs | F2 |
Fair ever but with warrior form and face | P |
He stands before the eye of each young grace | P |
Beguiling the sweet passion from her cell | C2 |
And still subjecting beauty by the glance | G2 |
Which speaks his own subjection to a spell | C2 |
The eldest born of rapture that makes Love | H2 |
At once submissive and the Conqueror | I |
He conquers but to bring deliverance | I2 |
And with deliverance light | K |
To conquer he has only to explore | U |
And makes a permanent empire but to spread | T |
Though speeding on with unobserving haste | J2 |
A wing above the waste | J2 |
A single feather from his pinion shed | T |
A single beam of beauty from his eye | A |
Takes captive of the dim sleeping realm below | C |
Through eyes of truest worshippers that straight | K2 |
Bring shouts to welcome and bright flowers to wreathe | Q |
His altars and as those to life from death | Q |
Plucked sudden in their gratitude and faith | Q |
Deem him a god who wrought the miracle | L2 |
So do they take him to their shrines and vow | O |
Their annual incense of sweet song and smell | C2 |
For him to whom their happiness they owe | C |
Thus goes he still from desert shore to shore | U |
Where life in darkness droops where beauty errs | M2 |
Having no worshippers | N2 |
And lacking sympathy for the light The eye | A |
That is the spirit of his wing no more | U |
This progress once begun can cease to soar | U |
Suffers eclipse or sleeps | O2 |
No more be furled | K2 |
The wing that from the first decreed to fly | A |
Must speed to daily conquests deep and high | A |
Till no domain of dark unlighted keeps | O2 |
And all the realm of strife beneath the sky | A |
Grows one in beauty and peace for evermore | U |
Soothed to eternal office of delight | K2 |
By these that wing the soul on its first flight | K2 |
For these are the great spirits that shape the world | K2 |
William Gilmore Simms
(1)
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