A Pastoral Ode. To The Hon. Sir Richard Lyttleton Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCB DDEFFE GHIJJI KKLLLL MMNOON PPQLLQ LLRSSR LLTLLT LLUVVU LLWXXW LLYLLY LLLVVL LLVVVV LLEZZE LLVLLV RRWA2A2W VVVSSV LLA2CB2A2 LLC2D2D2C2 VVA2E2E2A2 LLA2F2F2A2 VVG2SSG2 H2H2I2J2J2I2 VVVWWV K2K2IL2M2I LLLN2N2L VVEO2P2E LLLPPLThe morn dispensed a dubious light | A |
A sudden mist had stolen from sight | A |
Each pleasing vale and hill | B |
When Damon left his humble bowers | C |
To guard his flocks to fence his flowers | C |
Or check his wandering rill | B |
- | |
Though school'd from Fortune's paths to fly | D |
The swain beneath each lowering sky | D |
Would oft his fate bemoan | E |
That he in sylvan shades forlorn | F |
Must waste his cheerless even and morn | F |
Nor praised nor loved nor known | E |
- | |
No friend to Fame's obstreperous noise | G |
Yet to the whispers of her voice | H |
Soft murmuring not a foe | I |
The pleasures he through choice declined | J |
When gloomy fogs depress'd his mind | J |
It grieved him to forego | I |
- | |
Grieved him to lurk the lakes beside | K |
Where coots in rushy dingles hide | K |
And moorcocks shun the day | L |
While caitiff bitterns undismay'd | L |
Remark the swain's familiar shade | L |
And scorn to quit their prey | L |
- | |
But see the radiant sun once more | M |
The brightening face of heaven restore | M |
And raise the doubtful dawn | N |
And more to gild his rural sphere | O |
At once the brightest train appear | O |
That ever trod the lawn | N |
- | |
Amazement chill'd the shepherd's frame | P |
To think Bridgewater's honour'd name | P |
Should grace his rustic cell | Q |
That she on all whose motions wait | L |
Distinction titles rank and state | L |
Should rove where shepherds dwell | Q |
- | |
But true it is the generous mind | L |
By candour sway'd by taste refined | L |
Will nought but vice disdain | R |
Nor will the breast where fancy glows | S |
Deem every flower a weed that blows | S |
Amid the desert plain | R |
- | |
Beseems it such with honour crown'd | L |
To deal its lucid beams around | L |
Nor equal meed receive | T |
At most such garlands from the field | L |
As cowslips pinks and pansies yield | L |
And rural hands can weave | T |
- | |
Yet strive ye shepherds strive to find | L |
And weave the fairest of the kind | L |
The prime of all the spring | U |
If haply thus you lovely fair | V |
May round her temples deign to wear | V |
The trivial wreaths you bring | U |
- | |
O how the peaceful halcyons play'd | L |
Where'er the conscious lake betray'd | L |
Athena's placid mien | W |
How did the sprightlier linnets throng | X |
Where Paphia's charms required the song | X |
'Mid hazel copses green | W |
- | |
Lo Dartmouth on those banks reclined | L |
While busy Fancy calls to mind | L |
The glories of his line | Y |
Methinks my cottage rears its head | L |
The ruin'd walls of yonder shed | L |
As through enchantment shine | Y |
- | |
But who the nymph that guides their way | L |
Could ever nymph descend to stray | L |
From Hagley's famed retreat | L |
Else by the blooming features fair | V |
The faultless make the matchless air | V |
'Twere Cynthia's form complete | L |
- | |
So would some tuberose delight | L |
That struck the pilgrim's wondering sight | L |
'Mid lonely deserts drear | V |
All as at eve the sovereign flower | V |
Dispenses round its balmy power | V |
And crowns the fragrant year | V |
- | |
Ah now no more the shepherd cried | L |
Must I Ambition's charms deride | L |
Her subtle force disown | E |
No more of Fauns or Fairies dream | Z |
While Fancy near each crystal stream | Z |
Shall paint these forms alone | E |
- | |
By low brow'd rock or pathless mead | L |
I deem'd that splendour ne'er should lead | L |
My dazzled eyes astray | V |
But who alas will dare contend | L |
If beauty add or merit blend | L |
Its more illustrious ray | V |
- | |
Nor is it long O plaintive swain | R |
Since Guernsey saw without disdain | R |
Where hid in woodlands green | W |
The partner of his early days | A2 |
And once the rival of his praise | A2 |
Had stolen through life unseen | W |
- | |
Scarce faded is the vernal flower | V |
Since Stamford left his honour'd bower | V |
To smile familiar here | V |
O form'd by Nature to disclose | S |
How fair that courtesy which flows | S |
From social warmth sincere | V |
- | |
Nor yet have many moons decay'd | L |
Since Pollio sought this lonely shade | L |
Admired this rural maze | A2 |
The noblest breast that Virtue fires | C |
The Graces love the Muse inspires | B2 |
Might pant for Pollio's praise | A2 |
- | |
Say Thomson here was known to rest | L |
For him you vernal seat I drest | L |
Ah never to return | C2 |
In place of wit and melting strains | D2 |
And social mirth it now remains | D2 |
To weep beside his urn | C2 |
- | |
Come then my Lelius come once more | V |
And fringe the melancholy shore | V |
With roses and with bays | A2 |
While I each wayward Fate accuse | E2 |
That envied his impartial Muse | E2 |
To sing your early praise | A2 |
- | |
While Philo to whose favour'd sight | L |
Antiquity with full delight | L |
Her inmost wealth displays | A2 |
Beneath yon ruin's moulder'd wall | F2 |
Shall muse and with his friends recall | F2 |
The pomp of ancient days | A2 |
- | |
Here too shall Conway's name appear | V |
He praised the stream so lovely clear | V |
That shone the reeds among | G2 |
Yet clearness could it not disclose | S |
To match the rhetoric that flows | S |
From Conway's polish'd tongue | G2 |
- | |
Even Pitt whose fervent periods roll | H2 |
Resistless through the kindling soul | H2 |
Of senates councils kings | I2 |
Though form'd for courts vouchsafed to rove | J2 |
Inglorious through the shepherd's grove | J2 |
And ope his bashful springs | I2 |
- | |
But what can courts discover more | V |
Than these rude haunts have seen before | V |
Each fount and shady tree | V |
Have not these trees and fountains seen | W |
The pride of courts the winning mien | W |
Of peerless Aylesbury | V |
- | |
And Grenville she whose radiant eyes | K2 |
Have mark'd by slow gradation rise | K2 |
The princely piles of Stowe | I |
Yet praised these unembellish'd woods | L2 |
And smiled to see the babbling floods | M2 |
Through self worn mazes flow | I |
- | |
Say Dartmouth who your banks admired | L |
Again beneath your caves retired | L |
Shall grace the pensive shade | L |
With all the bloom with all the truth | N2 |
With all the sprightliness of youth | N2 |
By cool reflection sway'd | L |
- | |
Brave yet humane shall Smith appear | V |
Ye sailors though his name be dear | V |
Think him not yours alone | E |
Grant him in other spheres to charm | O2 |
The shepherds' breasts though mild are warm | P2 |
And ours are all his own | E |
- | |
O Lyttleton my honour'd guest | L |
Could I describe thy generous breast | L |
Thy firm yet polish'd mind | L |
How public love adorns thy name | P |
How Fortune too conspires with Fame | P |
The song should please mankind | L |
William Shenstone
(1)
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