Abba Thule's Lament For His Son Prince Le Boo Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDBBCCDDEEBBBBFF GGBBCCDDEEGGBBDDHHCD DDIIJKDDLLCCMNFFMMCC BBOOCCPPCCQR| I climb the highest cliff I hear the sound | A |
| Of dashing waves I gaze intent around | A |
| I mark the gray cope and the hollowness | B |
| Of heaven and the great sun that comes to bless | B |
| The isles again but my long straining eye | C |
| No speck no shadow can far off descry | D |
| That I might weep tears of delight and say | B |
| It is the bark that bore my child away | B |
| Sun that returnest bright beneath whose eye | C |
| The worlds unknown and out stretched waters lie | C |
| Dost thou behold him now On some rude shore | D |
| Around whose crags the cheerless billows roar | D |
| Watching the unwearied surges doth he stand | E |
| And think upon his father's distant land | E |
| Or has his heart forgot so far away | B |
| These native woods these rocks and torrents gray | B |
| The tall bananas whispering to the breeze | B |
| The shores the sound of these encircling seas | B |
| Heard from his infant days and the piled heap | F |
| Of holy stones where his forefathers sleep | F |
| Ah me till sunk by sorrow I shall dwell | G |
| With them forgetful in the narrow cell | G |
| Never shall time from my fond heart efface | B |
| His image oft his shadow I shall trace | B |
| Upon the glimmering waters when on high | C |
| The white moon wanders through the cloudless sky | C |
| Oft in my silent cave when to its fire | D |
| From the night's rushing tempest we retire | D |
| I shall behold his form his aspect bland | E |
| I shall retrace his footsteps on the sand | E |
| And when the hollow sounding surges swell | G |
| Still think I listen to his echoing shell | G |
| Would I had perished ere that hapless day | B |
| When the tall vessel in its trim array | B |
| First rushed upon the sounding surge and bore | D |
| My age's comfort from this sheltering shore | D |
| I saw it spread its white wings to the wind | H |
| Too soon it left these hills and woods behind | H |
| Gazing its course I followed till mine eye | C |
| No longer could its distant track descry | D |
| Till on the confines of the billows hoar | D |
| A while it hung and then was seen no more | D |
| And only the blue hollow cope I spied | I |
| And the long waste of waters tossing wide | I |
| More mournful then each falling surge I heard | J |
| Then dropt the stagnant tear upon my beard | K |
| Methought the wild waves said amidst their roar | D |
| At midnight Thou shalt see thy son no more | D |
| Now thrice twelve moons through the mid heavens have rolled | L |
| And many a dawn and slow night have I told | L |
| And still as every weary day goes by | C |
| A knot recording on my line I tie | C |
| But never more emerging from the main | M |
| I see the stranger's bark approach again | N |
| Has the fell storm o'erwhelmed him Has its sweep | F |
| Buried the bounding vessel in the deep | F |
| Is he cast bleeding on some desert plain | M |
| Upon his father did he call in vain | M |
| Have pitiless and bloody tribes defiled | C |
| The cold limbs of my brave my beauteous child | C |
| Oh I shall never never hear his voice | B |
| The spring time shall return the isles rejoice | B |
| But faint and weary I shall meet the morn | O |
| And 'mid the cheering sunshine droop forlorn | O |
| The joyous conch sounds in the high wood loud | C |
| O'er all the beach now stream the busy crowd | C |
| Fresh breezes stir the waving plantain grove | P |
| The fisher carols in the winding cove | P |
| And light canoes along the lucid tide | C |
| With painted shells and sparkling paddles glide | C |
| I linger on the desert rock alone | Q |
| Heartless and cry for thee my son my son | R |
William Lisle Bowles
(1)
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