The Spirit Of Navigation.[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEE FGFGHAIAJJ KLKLMNMNOO EPEPQRQRSS TUTUVWVWXX XRXRBXBXYY XDXDZRZRA2A2 B2QB2QXXXXNN C2D2C2D2XXXXE2E2 F2XF2XXXXXRR XG2XG2RXRXXX H2DH2DI2XI2XXX XJ2XJ2RK2RK2RR XXXXNL2NL2RR HXIXRK2RK2XX M2XM2XN2O2N2P2RR D2M2D2M2M2YM2YXX XXXXXRXRRR XQ2XER2M2R2M2XX XXXXIXIXM2M2Stern Father of the storm who dost abide | A |
Amid the solitude of the vast deep | B |
For ever listening to the sullen tide | A |
And whirlwinds that the billowy desert sweep | B |
Thou at the distant death shriek dost rejoice | C |
The rule of the tempestuous main is thine | D |
Outstretched and lone thou utterest thy voice | C |
Like solemn thunders These wild waves are mine | D |
Mine their dread empire nor shall man profane | E |
The eternal secrets of my ancient reign | E |
- | |
The voice is vain secure and as in scorn | F |
The gallant vessel scuds before the wind | G |
Her parting sails swell stately to the morn | F |
She leaves the green earth and its hills behind | G |
Gallant before the wind she goes her prow | H |
High bearing and disparting the blue tide | A |
That foams and flashes in its rage below | I |
Meantime the helmsman feels a conscious pride | A |
And while far onward the long billows swell | J |
Looks to the lessening land that seems to say Farewell | J |
- | |
Father of storms then let thy whirlwinds roar | K |
O'er seas of solitary amplitude | L |
Man the poor tenant of thy rocky shore | K |
Man thy terrific empire hath subdued | L |
And though thy waves toss his high foundered bark | M |
Where no dim watch light gleams still he defies | N |
Thy utmost rage and in his buoyant ark | M |
Speeds on regardless of the darkening skies | N |
And o'er the mountain surges as they roll | O |
Subdues his destined way and speeds from pole to pole | O |
- | |
Behold him now far from his native plain | E |
Where high woods shade some wild Hesperian bay | P |
Or green isles glitter in the southern main | E |
His streaming ensign to the morn display | P |
Behold him where the North's pale meteors dance | Q |
And icy rocks roll glimmering from afar | R |
Fearless through night and solitude advance | Q |
Or where the pining sons of Andamar | R |
When dark eclipse has wrapt the labouring moon | S |
Howl to the demon of the dread monsoon | S |
- | |
Time was like them poor Nature's shivering child | T |
Pacing the beach and by the salt spray beat | U |
He watched the melancholy surge or smiled | T |
To see it burn and bicker at his feet | U |
In some rude shaggy spot by fortune placed | V |
He dreamed not of strange lands and empires spread | W |
Beyond the rolling of the watery waste | V |
He saw the sun shine on the mountain's head | W |
But knew not whilst he hailed the orient light | X |
What myriads blessed his beam or sickened at the sight | X |
- | |
From some dark promontory that o'erbent | X |
The flashing waves he heard their ceaseless roar | R |
Or carolled in his light canoe content | X |
As bound from creek to creek it grazed the shore | R |
Gods of the storm the dreary space might sweep | B |
And shapes of death and gliding spectres gaunt | X |
Might flit he thought o'er the remoter deep | B |
And whilst strange voices cried Avaunt avaunt | X |
Uncertain lights seen through the midnight gloom | Y |
Might lure him sadly on to his cold watery tomb | Y |
- | |
No city then amid the calm clear day | X |
O'er the blue waters' undulating line | D |
With battlements and fans that glittered gay | X |
And piers and thronging masts was seen to shine | D |
No cheerful sounds were wafted on the gale | Z |
Nor hummed the shores with early industry | R |
But mournful birds in hollow cliffs did wail | Z |
And there all day the cormorant did cry | R |
While with sunk eye and matted dripping locks | A2 |
The houseless savage slept beneath the foam beat rocks | A2 |
- | |
Thus slumbering long upon the dreamy verge | B2 |
Of instinct see he rouses from his trance | Q |
Faint and as glimmering yet the Arts emerge | B2 |
One after one from darkness and advance | Q |
Beauteous as o'er the heavens the stars' still way | X |
Now see the track of his dominion wide | X |
Fair smiling as the dayspring cities gay | X |
Lift their proud heads and o'er the yellow tide | X |
Whilst sounds of fervent industry arise | N |
A thousand pennants float bright streaming in the skies | N |
- | |
Genius of injured Asia once sublime | C2 |
And glorious now dim seen amid the storm | D2 |
And melancholy clouds of sweeping time | C2 |
Who yet dost half reveal thine awful form | D2 |
Pointing with saddened aspect and slow hand | X |
To vast emporiums desolate and waste | X |
To wrecks of unknown cities sunk in sand | X |
'Twas at thy voice Arts Order Science Taste | X |
Upsprung the East adorning like the smile | E2 |
Of Spring upon the banks of thy own swelling Nile | E2 |
- | |
'Twas at thy voice huge Enterprise awoke | F2 |
That long on rocky Aradus reclined | X |
Slumbered to the hoarse surge that round her broke | F2 |
And hollow pipings of the idle wind | X |
She heard thy voice upon the rock she stood | X |
Gigantic the rude scene she marked she cried | X |
Let there be intercourse and the great flood | X |
Waft the rich plenty to these shores denied | X |
And soon thine eye delighted saw aspire | R |
Crowning the midland main thy own Imperial Tyre | R |
- | |
Queen of the waters who didst ope the gate | X |
Of Commerce and display in lands unknown | G2 |
Thy venturous sail ev'n now in ancient state | X |
Methinks I see thee on thy rocky throne | G2 |
I see their massy piles thy cothons rear | R |
And on the deep a solemn shadow cast | X |
I traverse thy once echoing shores and hear | R |
The sound of mighty generations past | X |
I see thy kingly merchants' thronged resort | X |
And gold and purple gleam o'er all thy spacious port | X |
- | |
I mark thy glittering galleys sweep along | H2 |
The steady rowers to the strokes incline | D |
And chaunt in unison their choral song | H2 |
White through their oars the ivory benches shine | D |
The fine wrought sails which looms of Egypt wove | I2 |
Swell beautiful beneath the bending mast | X |
Hewn from proud Lebanon's immortal grove | I2 |
The oaks of Bashan brave the roaring blast | X |
So o'er the western wave thy vessels float | X |
For verdant Egypt bound or Calpe's cliffs remote | X |
- | |
Queen of the waters throned upon thy seat | X |
Amid the sea thy beauty and thy fame | J2 |
The deep that rolls low murmuring at thy feet | X |
And all the multitude of isles proclaim | J2 |
For thee Damascus piles her woolly store | R |
To thee their flocks Arabia's princes bring | K2 |
And Sheba heaps her spice and glittering ore | R |
The ships of Tarshish of thy glory sing | K2 |
Queen of the waters who is like to thee | R |
Replenished in thy might and throned on the sea | R |
- | |
The purple streamers fly the trumpets sound | X |
The adventurous bark glides on in tranquil state | X |
The voyagers with leafy garlands crowned | X |
Draw back their arms together and elate | X |
Sweep o'er the surge the spray far scattered flies | N |
Beneath the stroke of their unwearied oars | L2 |
To their loud shouts the circling coast replies | N |
And now o'er the deep ocean where it roars | L2 |
They fly till slowly lessening from the shore | R |
Beneath the haze they sink sink and are seen no more | R |
- | |
When Night descends and with her silver bow | H |
The Queen of Heaven comes forth in radiance bright | X |
Surveying the dim earth and seas below | I |
Why from afar resounds the mystic rite | X |
Hymned round her uncouth altar Virgins there | R |
Amid the brazen cymbal's hollow ring | K2 |
And aged priests the solemn feast prepare | R |
To her their nightly orisons they sing | K2 |
That she may look from her high throne and guide | X |
The wandering bark secure along the trackless tide | X |
- | |
Her on his nightly watch the pilot views | M2 |
Careful and by her soft and tranquil light | X |
Along the uncertain coast his track pursues | M2 |
And now he sees great Carmel's woody height | X |
Where nightly fires to grisly Baal burn | N2 |
Round the rough cape he winds meantime far on | O2 |
Thick eddying scuds the hollow surf upturn | N2 |
He thinks of the sweet light of summer gone | P2 |
He thinks perhaps dashed on the rugged shore | R |
He never shall behold his babes' loved mother more | R |
- | |
Slow comes the morn but ah what demon form | D2 |
While pealing thunder the high concave rends | M2 |
Rises more vast amid the rushing storm | D2 |
With dreadful shade his horrid bulk ascends | M2 |
Dark to the driving clouds beneath him roars | M2 |
The deep his troubled brow is wrapped in gloom | Y |
See it moves onwards now more huge it soars | M2 |
Who shall avert the poor seafarer's doom | Y |
Who now shall save him from the spectre's might | X |
That treads the rocking waves in thunder and in night | X |
- | |
Dread phantom art thou he whose fearful sway | X |
As Egypt's hoary chronicles have told | X |
The clouds the whirlwinds and the seas obey | X |
Typhon of aspect hideous to behold | X |
Oh spare the wretched wanderers who led | X |
By flattering hopes have left the peaceful shore | R |
Behold they shrink they bend with speechless dread | X |
From their faint grasp drops the unheeded oar | R |
It answers not but mingling seas and sky | R |
In clouds and wind and thunder rushes by | R |
- | |
Hail to thy light lord of the golden day | X |
That bursting through the sable clouds again | Q2 |
Dost cheer the seaman's solitary way | X |
And with new splendour deck the lucid main | E |
And lo the voyage past where many a palm | R2 |
Its green top only seen the prospect bounds | M2 |
Fringing the sunny sea line clear and calm | R2 |
Now hark the slowly swelling human sounds | M2 |
Meantime the bark along the placid bay | X |
Of Tamiatis keeps her easy winding way | X |
- | |
Here rest we safe from scenes of peril past | X |
No danger lurks in this serene retreat | X |
No more is heard the roaring of the blast | X |
But pastoral sounds of scattered flocks that bleat | X |
Or evening herds that o'er the champaign low | I |
Here citrons tall and purple dates around | X |
Delicious fragrance and cool shade bestow | I |
The shores with murmuring industry resound | X |
While through the vernal pastures where he strays | M2 |
The Nile as with delight his mazy course delays | M2 |
William Lisle Bowles
(1)
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