Wordsworth's Grave Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDC DEDE EFGF HIHJ KLML NGNG A OPOP QRQR SESE TUTU VWVW A XYXY EZEA2 B2C2B2C2 D2E2D2E2 YEYE R LF2LF2 G2EG2E H2EI2E J2EJ2E EA2EA2 RK2RK2 L2EL2E M2EM2E N2KN2K J2EJ2E O2RO2O2 FCFC P2G2P2G2 O2O2O2O2 R Q2R2S2R2 O2N2O2N2 FM2FM2 T2RT2R RT2RT2 R T2T2T2 PU2N2U2 RRRR RRRR T2RT2R T2V2T2V2 T2RT2R A2W2A2W2I | A |
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The old rude church with bare bald tower is here | B |
Beneath its shadow high born Rotha flows | C |
Rotha remembering well who slumbers near | D |
And with cool murmur lulling his repose | C |
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Rotha remembering well who slumbers near | D |
His hills his lakes his streams are with him yet | E |
Surely the heart that read her own heart clear | D |
Nature forgets not soon 'tis we forget | E |
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We that with vagrant soul his fixity | E |
Have slighted faithless done his deep faith wrong | F |
Left him for poorer loves and bowed the knee | G |
To misbegotten strange new gods of song | F |
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Yet led by hollow ghost or beckoning elf | H |
Far from her homestead to the desert bourn | I |
The vagrant soul returning to herself | H |
Wearily wise must needs to him return | J |
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To him and to the powers that with him dwell | K |
Inflowings that divulged not whence they came | L |
And that secluded spirit unknowable | M |
The mystery we make darker with a name | L |
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The Somewhat which we name but cannot know | N |
Ev'n as we name a star and only see | G |
His quenchless flashings forth which ever show | N |
And ever hide him and which are not he | G |
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II | A |
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Poet who sleepest by this wandering wave | O |
When thou wast born what birth gift hadst thou then | P |
To thee what wealth was that the Immortals gave | O |
The wealth thou gavest in thy turn to men | P |
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Not Milton's keen translunar music thine | Q |
Not Shakespeare's cloudless boundless human view | R |
Not Shelley's flush of rose on peaks divine | Q |
Nor yet the wizard twilight Coleridge knew | R |
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What hadst thou that could make so large amends | S |
For all thou hadst not and thy peers possessed | E |
Motion and fire swift means to radiant ends | S |
Thou hadst for weary feet the gift of rest | E |
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From Shelley's dazzling glow or thunderous haze | T |
From Byron's tempest anger tempest mirth | U |
Men turned to thee and found not blast and blaze | T |
Tumult of tottering heavens but peace on earth | U |
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Nor peace that grows by Lethe scentless flower | V |
There in white languors to decline and cease | W |
But peace whose names are also rapture power | V |
Clear sight and love for these are parts of peace | W |
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III | A |
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I hear it vouched the Muse is with us still | X |
If less divinely frenzied than of yore | Y |
In lieu of feelings she has wondrous skill | X |
To simulate emotion felt no more | Y |
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Not such the authentic Presence pure that made | E |
This valley vocal in the great days gone | Z |
In his great days while yet the spring time played | E |
About him and the mighty morning shone | A2 |
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No word mosaic artificer he sang | B2 |
A lofty song of lowly weal and dole | C2 |
Right from the heart right to the heart it sprang | B2 |
Or from the soul leapt instant to the soul | C2 |
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He felt the charm of childhood grace of youth | D2 |
Grandeur of age insisting to be sung | E2 |
The impassioned argument was simple truth | D2 |
Half wondering at its own melodious tongue | E2 |
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Impassioned ay to the song's ecstatic core | Y |
But far removed were clangour storm and feud | E |
For plenteous health was his exceeding store | Y |
Of joy and an impassioned quietude | E |
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IV | R |
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A hundred years ere he to manhood came | L |
Song from celestial heights had wandered down | F2 |
Put off her robe of sunlight dew and flame | L |
And donned a modish dress to charm the Town | F2 |
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Thenceforth she but festooned the porch of things | G2 |
Apt at life's lore incurious what life meant | E |
Dextrous of hand she struck her lute's few strings | G2 |
Ignobly perfect barrenly content | E |
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Unflushed with ardour and unblanched with awe | H2 |
Her lips in profitless derision curled | E |
She saw with dull emotion if she saw | I2 |
The vision of the glory of the world | E |
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The human masque she watched with dreamless eyes | J2 |
In whose clear shallows lurked no trembling shade | E |
The stars unkenned by her might set and rise | J2 |
Unmarked by her the daisies bloom and fade | E |
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The age grew sated with her sterile wit | E |
Herself waxed weary on her loveless throne | A2 |
Men felt life's tide the sweep and surge of it | E |
And craved a living voice a natural tone | A2 |
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For none the less though song was but half true | R |
The world lay common one abounding theme | K2 |
Man joyed and wept and fate was ever new | R |
And love was sweet life real death no dream | K2 |
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In sad stern verse the rugged scholar sage | L2 |
Bemoaned his toil unvalued youth uncheered | E |
His numbers wore the vesture of the age | L2 |
But 'neath it beating the great heart was heard | E |
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From dewy pastures uplands sweet with thyme | M2 |
A virgin breeze freshened the jaded day | E |
It wafted Collins' lonely vesper chime | M2 |
It breathed abroad the frugal note of Gray | E |
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It fluttered here and there nor swept in vain | N2 |
The dusty haunts where futile echoes dwell | K |
Then in a cadence soft as summer rain | N2 |
And sad from Auburn voiceless drooped and fell | K |
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It drooped and fell and one 'neath northern skies | J2 |
With southern heart who tilled his father's field | E |
Found Poesy a dying bade her rise | J2 |
And touch quick nature's hem and go forth healed | E |
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On life's broad plain the ploughman's conquering share | O2 |
Upturned the fallow lands of truth anew | R |
And o'er the formal garden's trim parterre | O2 |
The peasant's team a ruthless furrow drew | O2 |
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Bright was his going forth but clouds ere long | F |
Whelmed him in gloom his radiance set and those | C |
Twin morning stars of the new century's song | F |
Those morning stars that sang together rose | C |
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In elvish speech the Dreamer told his tale | P2 |
Of marvellous oceans swept by fateful wings | G2 |
The Se r strayed not from earth's human pale | P2 |
But the mysterious face of common things | G2 |
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He mirrored as the moon in Rydal Mere | O2 |
Is mirrored when the breathless night hangs blue | O2 |
Strangely remote she seems and wondrous near | O2 |
And by some nameless difference born anew | O2 |
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V | R |
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Peace peace and rest Ah how the lyre is loth | Q2 |
Or powerless now to give what all men seek | R2 |
Either it deadens with ignoble sloth | S2 |
Or deafens with shrill tumult loudly weak | R2 |
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Where is the singer whose large notes and clear | O2 |
Can heal and arm and plenish and sustain | N2 |
Lo one with empty music floods the ear | O2 |
And one the heart refreshing tires the brain | N2 |
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And idly tuneful the loquacious throng | F |
Flutter and twitter prodigal of time | M2 |
And little masters make a toy of song | F |
Till grave men weary of the sound of rhyme | M2 |
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And some go prankt in faded antique dress | T2 |
Abhorring to be hale and glad and free | R |
And some parade a conscious naturalness | T2 |
The scholar's not the child's simplicity | R |
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Enough and wisest who from words forbear | R |
The kindly river rails not as it glides | T2 |
And suave and charitable the winning air | R |
Chides not at all or only him who chides | T2 |
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VI | R |
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Nature we storm thine ear with choric notes | T2 |
Thou answerest through the calm great nights and days | T2 |
'Laud me who will not tuneless are your throats | T2 |
Yet if ye paused I should not miss the praise ' | - |
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We falter half rebuked and sing again | P |
We chant thy desertness and haggard gloom | U2 |
Or with thy splendid wrath inflate the strain | N2 |
Or touch it with thy colour and perfume | U2 |
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One his melodious blood aflame for thee | R |
Wooed with fierce lust his hot heart world defiled | R |
One with the upward eye of infancy | R |
Looked in thy face and felt himself thy child | R |
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Thee he approached without distrust or dread | R |
Beheld thee throned an awful queen above | R |
Climbed to thy lap and merely laid his head | R |
Against thy warm wild heart of mother love | R |
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He heard that vast heart beating thou didst press | T2 |
Thy child so close and lov'dst him unaware | R |
Thy beauty gladdened him yet he scarce less | T2 |
Had loved thee had he never found thee fair | R |
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For thou wast not as legendary lands | T2 |
To which with curious eyes and ears we roam | V2 |
Nor wast thou as a fane mid solemn sands | T2 |
Where palmers halt at evening Thou wast home | V2 |
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And here at home still bides he but he sleeps | T2 |
Not to be wakened even at thy word | R |
Though we vague dreamers dream he somewhere keeps | T2 |
An ear still open to thy voice still heard | R |
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Thy voice as heretofore about him blown | A2 |
For ever blown about his silence now | W2 |
Thy voice though deeper yet so like his own | A2 |
That almost when he sang we deemed 'twas thou | W2 |
William Watson
(1)
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