St. Michael's Mount Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFGGHHBBIIJJ KKLLMNOOPPQQRRSSTTLL UUVVGGWWXXYYZZA2A2B2 B2C2C2TTWWJJEED2D2UU JJE2E2SSF2F2IIG2G2H2 H2A2A2KKFFI2I2JJJ2J2 BBAAEEK2K2IIJJKKL2L2 M2N2O2O2YYBBBP2P2F2F 2Q2Q2R2R2M2N2S2S2T2T 2U2O2BBI2I2KKV2V2BBJ JN2M2W2W2M2N2KKJJX2X 2Y2Z2O2O2FFA3A3LLS2S 2O2O2B3INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD SOMERS | A |
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While summer airs scarce breathe along the tide | B |
Oft pausing up the mountain's craggy side | B |
We climb how beautiful how still how clear | C |
The scenes that stretch around The rocks that rear | C |
Their shapes in rich fantastic colours dressed | D |
The hill tops where the softest shadows rest | D |
The long retiring bay the level sand | E |
The fading sea line and the furthest land | E |
That seems as low it lessens from the eye | F |
To steal away beneath the cloudless sky | F |
But yesterday the misty morn was spread | G |
In dreariness on the bleak mountain's head | G |
No glittering prospect from the upland smiled | H |
The driving squall came dark the sea heaved wild | H |
And lost and lonely the wayfarer sighed | B |
Wet with the hoar spray of the flashing tide | B |
How changed is now the circling scene The deep | I |
Stirs not the glancing roofs and white towers peep | I |
Along the margin of the lucid bay | J |
The sails descried far in the offing gray | J |
Hang motionless and the pale headland's height | K |
Is touched as with sweet gleams of fairy light | K |
Oh lives there on earth's busy stirring scene | L |
Whom Nature's tranquil charms her airs serene | L |
Her seas her skies her sunbeams fail to move | M |
With stealing tenderness and grateful love | N |
Go thankless man to Misery's cave behold | O |
Captivity stretched in her dungeon cold | O |
Or think on those who in yon dreary mine | P |
Sunk fathoms deep beneath the rolling brine | P |
From year to year amid the lurid shade | Q |
O'er wearied ply their melancholy trade | Q |
That thou may'st bless the glorious sun and hail | R |
Him who with beauty clothed the hill and vale | R |
Who bent the arch of the high heavens for thee | S |
And stretched in amplitude the broad blue sea | S |
Now sunk are all its murmurs and the air | T |
But moves by fits the bents that here and there | T |
Upshoot in casual spots of faded green | L |
Here straggling sheep the scanty pasture glean | L |
Or on the jutting fragments that impend | U |
Stray fearlessly and gaze as we ascend | U |
Mountain no pomp of waving woods hast thou | V |
That deck with varied shade thy hoary brow | V |
No sunny meadows at thy feet are spread | G |
No streamlets sparkle o'er their pebbly bed | G |
But thou canst boast thy beauties ample views | W |
That catch the rapt eye of the pausing Muse | W |
Headlands around new lighted sails and seas | X |
Now glassy smooth now wrinkling to the breeze | X |
And when the drisly Winter wrapped in sleet | Y |
Goes by and winds and rain thy ramparts beat | Y |
Fancy can see thee standing thus aloof | Z |
And frowning bleak and bare and tempest proof | Z |
Look as with awful confidence and brave | A2 |
The howling hurricane the dashing wave | A2 |
More graceful when the storm's dark vapours frown | B2 |
Than when the summer suns in pomp go down | B2 |
And such is he who clad in watchet weeds | C2 |
And boasting little more than nature needs | C2 |
Can wrap him in contentedness and wear | T |
A port unchanged in seasons rude or fair | T |
His may be Fancy's sunshine and the Muse | W |
May deck his visions with her fairest hues | W |
And he may lift his honest front and say | J |
To the hard storm that rends his locks of gray | J |
I heed thee not he unappalled may stand | E |
Beneath the cloud that shades a sinking land | E |
While heedless of the storm that onward sweeps | D2 |
Mad impious Riot his loud wassail keeps | D2 |
Pre eminent in native worth nor bend | U |
Though gathering ills on his bare head descend | U |
And when the wasteful storm sweeps o'er its prey | J |
And rends the kingdoms of the world away | J |
He firm as stands the rock's unshaken base | E2 |
Yet panting for a surer resting place | E2 |
The human hurricane unmoved can see | S |
And say O GOD my refuge is in Thee | S |
States anchored deep that far their shadow cast | F2 |
Rock and are scattered by the ALMIGHTY'S blast | F2 |
As when awakened from his horrid sleep | I |
In fiery caves a thousand fathoms deep | I |
The Earthquake's Demon hies aloft he waits | G2 |
Nigh some high turreted proud city's gates | G2 |
As listening to the mingled shouts and din | H2 |
Of the mad crowd that feast or dance within | H2 |
Mean time sad Nature feels his sway the wave | A2 |
Heaves and low sounds moan through the mountain cave | A2 |
Then all at once is still still as midnight | K |
When not the lime leaf moves Oh piteous sight | K |
For now the glittering domes crash from on high | F |
And hark a strange and lamentable cry | F |
It ceases and the tide's departing roar | I2 |
Alone is heard upon the desert shore | I2 |
That as it sweeps with slow huge swell away | J |
Remorseless mutters o'er its buried prey | J |
So Ruin hurrieth o'er this shaken ball | J2 |
He bids his blast go forth and lo doth fall | J2 |
A Carthage or a Rome Then rolls the tide | B |
Of deep Forgetfulness whelming the pride | B |
Of man his shattered and forsaken bowers | A |
His noiseless cities and his prostrate towers | A |
Some columns eminent and awful stand | E |
Like Egypt's pillars on the lonely sand | E |
We read upon their base inscribed by Fame | K2 |
A HOMER'S here or here a SHAKESPEARE'S name | K2 |
Yet think not of the surge that soon may sweep | I |
Ourselves unnumbered to the oblivious deep | I |
Yet time has been as mouldering legends say | J |
When all yon western tract and this bright bay | J |
Where now the sunshine sleeps and wheeling white | K |
The sea mew circles in fantastic flight | K |
Was peopled wide but the loud storm hath raved | L2 |
Where its green top the high wood whispering waved | L2 |
And many a year the slowly rising flood | M2 |
Raked where the Druids' uncooth altar stood | N2 |
Thou only aged mountain dost remain | O2 |
Stern monument amidst the deluged plain | O2 |
And fruitless the big waves thy bulwarks beat | Y |
The big waves slow retire and murmur at thy feet | Y |
Thou half encircled by the refluent tide | B |
As if thy state its utmost rage defied | B |
Dost tower above the scene as in thine ancient pride | B |
Mountain the curious Muse might love to gaze | P2 |
On the dim record of thy early days | P2 |
Oft fancying that she heard like the low blast | F2 |
The sounds of mighty generations past | F2 |
Thee the Phoenician as remote he sailed | Q2 |
Along the unknown coast exulting hailed | Q2 |
And when he saw thy rocky point aspire | R2 |
Thought on his native shores of Aradus or Tyre | R2 |
Distained with many a ghastly giant's blood | M2 |
Upon thy height huge Corineus stood | N2 |
And clashed his shield whilst hid in caves profound | S2 |
His monstrous foe cowered at the fearful sound | S2 |
Hark to the brazen clarion's pealing swell | T2 |
The shout at intervals the deepening yell | T2 |
Long ages speed away yet now again | U2 |
The noise of battle hurtles on the plain | O2 |
Behold the dark haired warriors down thy side | B |
O mountain sternly terrible they stride | B |
Ev'n now impatient for the promised war | I2 |
They rear their axes huge and shouting cry to Thor | I2 |
The sounds of conflict cease at dead of night | K |
A voice is heard Prepare the Druid rite | K |
And hark the bard upon thy summit rings | V2 |
The deep chords of his thrilling harp and sings | V2 |
To Night's pale Queen that through the heavens wide | B |
Amidst her still host list'ning seems to ride | B |
Slow sinks the cadence of the solemn lay | J |
And all the sombrous scenery steals away | J |
The shadowy Druid throng the darksome wood | N2 |
And the hoar altar wet with human blood | M2 |
Marked ye the Angel spectre that appeared | W2 |
By other hands the holy fane is reared | W2 |
High on the point where gazing o'er the flood | M2 |
Confessed the glittering apparition stood | N2 |
And now the sailor on his watch of night | K |
Sees like a glimmering star the far off light | K |
Or homeward bound hears on the twilight bay | J |
The slowly chanted vespers die away | J |
These scenes are fled and passed yet still sublime | X2 |
And wearing graceful the gray tints of Time | X2 |
Upon the steep rock's craggy eminence | Y2 |
The embattled castle sits surveying thence | Z2 |
The villages that strew the subject plain | O2 |
And the long winding of the lucid main | O2 |
Meantime the stranger marks its turrets high | F |
And muses on the tale of changeful years gone by | F |
Of this no more lo here our journey ends | A3 |
Wide and more wide the arch of heaven extends | A3 |
And on this topmost fragment as we lean | L |
We feel removed from dim earth's distant scene | L |
Lift up the hollow trump that on the ground | S2 |
Is cast and let it rolling its long sound | S2 |
Speak to the surge below that we may gain | O2 |
Tidings from those who traverse the wide main | O2 |
Or tread we now some s | B3 |
William Lisle Bowles
(1)
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