The Grave Of Howard Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLHHMNOPEEQQLLRRAA SSTTUUVVPPMNOOWWBBXX YYRRKKZMA2A2B2B2C2C2 AAD2D2GGEEBBGGE2E2F2 G2H2H2PONNI2I2F2J2NN K2K2L2L2VVM2M2N2N2O2 NOOEETTKKEEP2P2QQJQ2 M2M2R2R2S2S2T2T2U2U2 EEV2V2W2W2Spirit of Death whose outstretched pennons dread | A |
Wave o'er the world beneath their shadow spread | A |
Who darkly speedest on thy destined way | B |
Midst shrieks and cries and sounds of dire dismay | B |
Spirit behold thy victory Assume | C |
A form more terrible an ampler plume | C |
For he who wandered o'er the world alone | D |
Listening to Misery's universal moan | D |
He who sustained by Virtue's arm sublime | E |
Tended the sick and poor from clime to clime | E |
Low in the dust is laid thy noblest spoil | F |
And Mercy ceases from her awful toil | F |
'Twas where the pestilence at thy command | G |
Arose to desolate the sickening land | G |
When many a mingled cry and dying prayer | H |
Resounded to the listening midnight air | H |
When deep dismay heard not the frequent knell | I |
And the wan carcase festered as it fell | I |
'Twas there with holy Virtue's awful mien | J |
Amid the sad sights of that fearful scene | J |
Calm he was found the dews of death he dried | K |
He spoke of comfort to the poor that cried | K |
He watched the fading eye the flagging breath | L |
Ere yet the languid sense was lost in death | L |
And with that look protecting angels wear | H |
Hung o'er the dismal couch of pale Despair | H |
Friend of mankind thy righteous task is o'er | M |
The heart that throbbed with pity beats no more | N |
Around the limits of this rolling sphere | O |
Where'er the just and good thy tale shall hear | P |
A tear shall fall alone amidst the gloom | E |
Of the still dungeon his long sorrow's tomb | E |
The captive mourning o'er his chain shall bend | Q |
To think the cold earth holds his only friend | Q |
He who with labour draws his wasting breath | L |
On the forsaken silent bed of death | L |
Remembering thy last look and anxious eye | R |
Shall gaze around unvisited and die | R |
Friend of mankind farewell These tears we shed | A |
So nature dictates o'er thy earthly bed | A |
Yet we forget not it was His high will | S |
Who saw thee Virtue's arduous task fulfil | S |
Thy spirit from its toil at last should rest | T |
So wills thy GOD and what He wills is best | T |
Thou hast encountered dark Disease's train | U |
Thou hast conversed with Poverty and Pain | U |
Thou hast beheld the dreariest forms of woe | V |
That through this mournful vale unfriended go | V |
And pale with sympathy hast paused to hear | P |
The saddest plaints e'er told to human ear | P |
Go then the task fulfilled the trial o'er | M |
Where sickness want and pain are known no more | N |
How awful did thy lonely track appear | O |
Enlightening Misery's benighted sphere | O |
As when an angel all serene goes forth | W |
To still the raging tempest of the north | W |
The embattled clouds that hid the struggling day | B |
Slow from his face retire in dark array | B |
On the black waves like promontories hung | X |
A light as of the orient morn is flung | X |
Till blue and level heaves the silent brine | Y |
And the new lighted rocks at distance shine | Y |
Ev'n so didst thou go forth with cheering eye | R |
Before thy glance the shades of misery fly | R |
So didst thou hush the tempest stilling wide | K |
Of human woe the loud lamenting tide | K |
Nor shall the spirit of those deeds expire | Z |
As fades the feeble spark of vital fire | M |
But beam abroad and cheer with lustre mild | A2 |
Humanity's remotest prospects wild | A2 |
Till this frail orb shall from its sphere be hurled | B2 |
Till final ruin hush the murmuring world | B2 |
And all its sorrows at the awful blast | C2 |
Of the archangel's trump be but as shadows past | C2 |
Relentless Time that steals with silent tread | A |
Shall tear away the trophies of the dead | A |
Fame on the pyramid's aspiring top | D2 |
With sighs shall her recording trumpet drop | D2 |
The feeble characters of Glory's hand | G |
Shall perish like the tracks upon the sand | G |
But not with these expire the sacred flame | E |
Of Virtue or the good man's honoured name | E |
HOWARD it matters not that far away | B |
From Albion's peaceful shore thy bones decay | B |
Him it might please by whose sustaining hand | G |
Thy steps were led through many a distant land | G |
Thy long and last abode should there be found | E2 |
Where many a savage nation prowls around | E2 |
That Virtue from the hallowed spot might rise | F2 |
And pointing to the finished sacrifice | G2 |
Teach to the roving Tartar's savage clan | H2 |
Lessons of love and higher aims of man | H2 |
The hoary chieftain who thy tale shall hear | P |
Pale on thy grave shall drop his faltering spear | O |
The cold unpitying Cossack thirst no more | N |
To bathe his burning falchion deep in gore | N |
Relentless to the cry of carnage speed | I2 |
Or urge o'er gasping heaps his panting steed | I2 |
Nor vain the thought that fairer hence may rise | F2 |
New views of life and wider charities | J2 |
Far from the bleak Riphean mountains hoar | N |
From the cold Don and Wolga's wandering shore | N |
From many a shady forest's lengthening tract | K2 |
From many a dark descending cataract | K2 |
Succeeding tribes shall come and o'er the place | L2 |
Where sleeps the general friend of human race | L2 |
Instruct their children what a debt they owe | V |
Speak of the man who trode the paths of woe | V |
Then bid them to their native woods depart | M2 |
With new born virtue stirring in their heart | M2 |
When o'er the sounding Euxine's stormy tides | N2 |
In hostile pomp the Turk's proud navy rides | N2 |
Bent on the frontiers of the Imperial Czar | O2 |
To pour the tempest of vindictive war | N |
If onward to those shores they haply steer | O |
Where HOWARD thy cold dust reposes near | O |
Whilst o'er the wave the silken pennants stream | E |
And seen far off the golden crescents gleam | E |
Amid the pomp of war the swelling breast | T |
Shall feel a still unwonted awe impressed | T |
And the relenting Pagan turn aside | K |
To think on yonder shore the Christian died | K |
But thou O Briton doomed perhaps to roam | E |
An exile many a year and far from home | E |
If ever fortune thy lone footsteps leads | P2 |
To the wild Nieper's banks and whispering reeds | P2 |
O'er HOWARD's grave thou shalt impassioned bend | Q |
As if to hold sad converse with a friend | Q |
Whate'er thy fate upon this various scene | J |
Where'er thy weary pilgrimage hath been | Q2 |
There shalt thou pause and shutting from thy heart | M2 |
Some vain regrets that oft unbidden start | M2 |
Think upon him to every lot resigned | R2 |
Who wept who toiled and perished for mankind | R2 |
For me who musing HOWARD on thy fate | S2 |
These pensive strains at evening meditate | S2 |
I thank thee for the lessons thou hast taught | T2 |
To mend my heart or animate my thought | T2 |
I thank thee HOWARD for that awful view | U2 |
Of life which thou hast drawn most sad most true | U2 |
Thou art no more and the frail fading bloom | E |
Of this poor offering dies upon thy tomb | E |
Beyond the transient sound of earthly praise | V2 |
Thy virtues live perhaps in seraph's lays | V2 |
I borne in thought to the wild Nieper's wave | W2 |
Sigh to the reeds that whisper o'er thy grave | W2 |
William Lisle Bowles
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