The Sylph Of Summer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKGLMNKOGPQ HRDHGJSTUVWXYGZA2B2C 2PD2E2AF2G2F2HH2I2J2 K2DL2OKJM2DDDGTN2O2D KP2Q2DDC2R2S2DDGT2U2 V2G2DW2DDHX2Y2DZ2A3J B2DB3C3DODHDDD3DG2E3 GG2F3G3BSDDH3G2I3HDD J3K3DC3J3BDGL3GGG2H3 M3DGC3AN3DO3J3DG2H3D P3Q3GDHG2R3G2DDN3L3G 2HS3GGS3C3T3DS3DC3U3 S3S3JGDV3W3G2S3DS3DD S3God said Let there be light and there was light | A |
At once the glorious sun at his command | B |
From space illimitable void and dark | C |
Sprang jubilant and angel hierarchies | D |
Whose long hosannahs pealed from orb to orb | E |
Sang Glory be to Thee God of all worlds | F |
Then beautiful the ball of this terrene | G |
Rolled in the beam of first created day | H |
And all its elements obeyed the voice | I |
Of Him the great Creator Air and Fire | J |
And Earth and Water each its ministry | K |
Performed whilst Chaos from his ebon throne | G |
Leaped up and so magnificent and decked | L |
And mantled in its ambient atmosphere | M |
The living world began its state | N |
To thee | K |
Spirit of Air I lift the venturous song | O |
Whose viewless presence fills the living scene | G |
Whose element ten thousand thousand wings | P |
Fan joyous o'er whose fields the morning clouds | Q |
Ride high whose rule the lightning shafts obey | H |
And the deep thunder's long careering march | R |
The Winds too are thy subjects from the breeze | D |
That like a child upon a holiday | H |
On the high mountain's van pursues the down | G |
Of the gray thistle ere the autumnal shower | J |
Steals soft and mars his pastime to the King | S |
Of Hurricanes that sounds his mighty shell | T |
And bids Tornado sweep the Western world | U |
Sylph of the Summer Gale on thee I call | V |
Oh come when now gay June is in her car | W |
Wafting the breath of roses as she moves | X |
Come to this garden bower which I have hung | Y |
With tendrils and the fragrant eglantine | G |
And mandrake rich with many mantling stars | Z |
'Tis pleasant when thy breath is on the leaves | A2 |
Without to rest in this embowering shade | B2 |
And mark the green fly circling to and fro | C2 |
O'er the still water with his dragon wings | P |
Shooting from bank to bank now in quick turns | D2 |
Then swift athwart as is the gazer's glance | E2 |
Pursuing still his mate they with delight | A |
As if they moved in morris to the sound | F2 |
Harmonious of this ever dripping rill | G2 |
Now in advance now in retreat now round | F2 |
Dart through their mazy rings and seem to say | H |
The Summer and the Sun are ours | H2 |
But thou | I2 |
Sylph of the Summer Gale delay a while | J2 |
Thy airy flight whilst here Francesca leans | K2 |
And charmed by Ossian's harp seems in the breeze | D |
To hear Malvina's plaint thou to her ear | L2 |
Come unperceived like music of the song | O |
From Cona's vale of streams then with the bee | K |
That sounds his horn busied from flower to flower | J |
Speed o'er the yellow meadows breathing ripe | M2 |
Their summer incense or amid the furze | D |
That paints with bloom intense the upland crofts | D |
With momentary essence tinge thy wings | D |
Or in the grassy lanes one after one | G |
Lift light the nodding foxglove's purple bell | T |
Thence to the distant sea and where the flag | N2 |
Hangs idly down without a wavy curl | O2 |
Thou hoverest o'er the topmast or dost raise | D |
The full and flowing mainsail Steadily | K |
The helmsman cries as now thy breath is heard | P2 |
Among the stirring cordage o'er his head | Q2 |
So steadily he cries as right he steers | D |
Speeds our proud ship along the world of waves | D |
Sylph may thy favouring breath more gently blow | C2 |
More gently round the temples and the cheek | R2 |
Of him who leaving home and friends behind | S2 |
In silence musing o'er the ocean leans | D |
And watches every passing shade that marks | D |
The southern Channel's fast retiring line | G |
Then as the ship rolls on keeps a long look | T2 |
Fixed on the lessening Lizard the last point | U2 |
Of that delightful country where he left | V2 |
All his fond hopes behind it lessens still | G2 |
Still still it lessens and now disappears | D |
He turns and only sees the waves that rock | W2 |
Boundless How many anxious morns shall rise | D |
How many moons shall light the farthest seas | D |
O'er what new scenes and regions shall he stray | H |
A weary man still thinking of his home | X2 |
Ere he again that shore shall view and greet | Y2 |
With blissful thronging hopes and starting tears | D |
Of heartfelt welcome and of warmest love | Z2 |
Perhaps ah never So didst thou go forth | A3 |
My poor lost brother | J |
The airs of morning as enticing played | B2 |
And gently round thee and their whisperings | D |
Might sooth if aught could sooth a boding heart | B3 |
For thou wert bound to visit scenes of death | C3 |
Where the sick gale alas unlike the breeze | D |
That bore the gently swelling sail along | O |
Was tainted with the breath of pestilence | D |
That smote the silent camp and night and day | H |
Sat mocking on the putrid carcases | D |
Thou too didst perish As the south west blows | D |
Thy bones perhaps now whiten on the coast | D3 |
Of old Algarva I meantime these shades | D |
Of village solitude hoping erewhile | G2 |
To welcome thee from many a toil restored | E3 |
Still deck and now thy empty urn alone | G |
I meet where swaying in the summer gale | G2 |
The willow whispers in my evening walk | F3 |
Sylph in thy airy robe I see thee float | G3 |
A rainbow o'er thy head and in thy hand | B |
The magic instrument that as thy wing | S |
Lucid and painted like the butterfly's | D |
Waves to and from most musically rings | D |
Sometimes in joyance as the flaunting leaf | H3 |
Of the white poplar sometimes sad and slow | G2 |
As bearing pensive airs from Pity's grave | I3 |
Soft child of air thou tendest on his sway | H |
As gentle Ariel at the bidding hies | D |
Of mighty Prospero yet other winds | D |
Throng to his wizard 'hest inspiring some | J3 |
Some melancholy and yet soothing much | K3 |
The drooping wanderer in the fading copse | D |
Some terrible with solitude and death | C3 |
Attendant on their march the wild Simoom | J3 |
Riding on whirling spires of burning sand | B |
That move along the Nubian wilderness | D |
And bury deep the silent caravan | G |
Monsoon up starting from his half year sleep | L3 |
Upon the vernal shores of Hindostan | G |
And tempesting with sounds of torrent rain | G |
And hail the darkening main and red Sameel | G2 |
Blasting and withering like a rivelled leaf | H3 |
The pilgrim as he roams Sirocco sad | M3 |
That pants all summer on the cloudless shores | D |
Of faint Parthenope deep in the mine | G |
Oft lurks the lurid messenger of death | C3 |
The ghastly fiend that blows when the pale light | A |
Quivers and leaves the gasping wretch to die | N3 |
The imp that when the hollow curfew knolls | D |
Wanders the misty marish lighting it | O3 |
At night with errant and fantastic flame | J3 |
Spirit of air these are thy ministers | D |
That wait thy will but thou art all in all | G2 |
And dead without thee were the flower the leaf | H3 |
The waving forest rivelled the great sea | D |
Still the lithe birds of heaven extinct and ceased | P3 |
The soul of melting music | Q3 |
This fair scene | G |
Lives in thy tender touch for so it seems | D |
Whilst universal nature owns thy sway | H |
From the mute insect on the summer pool | G2 |
That with long cobweb legs firm as on earth | R3 |
The ostrich skims flits idly to and fro | G2 |
Making no dimple on the watery mass | D |
To the huge grampus spouting as he rolls | D |
A cataract amid the cold clear sky | N3 |
And furrowing far and wide the northern deep | L3 |
Thy presence permeates and fills the whole | G2 |
As the poor butterfly that painted gay | H |
With mealy wings red amber white or dropped | S3 |
With golden stains floats o'er the yellow corn | G |
Idly as bent on pastime while the morn | G |
Smiles on his devious voyage if inclosed | S3 |
In the exhausted prison whence thy breath | C3 |
With suction slow is drawn he feels the change | T3 |
How dire in palsied inanition drops | D |
Weak flags his weary wing and weaker yet | S3 |
His frame with tremulous convulsion moves | D |
A moment and the next is still in death | C3 |
So were the great and glorious world itself | U3 |
The tenants of its continents all ceased | S3 |
A wide a motionless a putrid waste | S3 |
Its seas How droops the languid mariner | J |
When not a breath along the sluggish main | G |
Strays on the sultry surface as it sleeps | D |
When far away the winds are flown to dash | V3 |
The congregated ocean on the Cape | W3 |
Of Southern Africa leaving the while | G2 |
The flood's vast surface noiseless waveless white | S3 |
Beneath Mozambique's long reflected woods | D |
A gleaming mirror spread from east to west | S3 |
Where the still ship as on a bed of glass | D |
Sits motionless Awake ye hurricanes | D |
Ye winds that harrow up the wintry waste | S3 |
Aw | - |
William Lisle Bowles
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