Book Fifth-books Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMDNOPQRS TUVDWXYUZEA2B2C2UKD2 UUE2RPF2G2H2UI2J2UK2 UUE2UUZUL2M2UUN2EUFE 2SUO2C2P2Q2UR2UUS2T2 U2V2UUW2UUUJ2P2FUX2U Y2Z2A3FUWUUB3RC3D3UP E3CF3UP2G3V2C3UUUI2H 3I3UJ3UUUK3UIUL3BM3U UN3UUUCI3U BUMDUUM3UUUC2UN3M3R2 M3O3WC2Y2UP3UM3G CQ3M3UM3R3M3UUM3UUG2 K2J3S3UT3M3M3U3V3

WHEN Contemplation like the night calm feltA
Through earth and sky spreads widely and sends deepB
Into the soul its tranquillising powerC
Even then I sometimes grieve for thee O ManD
Earth's paramount Creature not so much for woesE
That thou endurest heavy though that weight beF
Cloud like it mounts or touched with light divineG
Doth melt away but for those palms achievedH
Through length of time by patient exerciseI
Of study and hard thought there there it isJ
That sadness finds its fuel HithertoK
In progress through this Verse my mind hath lookedL
Upon the speaking face of earth and heavenM
As her prime teacher intercourse with manD
Established by the sovereign IntellectN
Who through that bodily image hath diffusedO
As might appear to the eye of fleeting timeP
A deathless spirit Thou also man hast wroughtQ
For commerce of thy nature with herselfR
Things that aspire to unconquerable lifeS
And yet we feel we cannot choose but feelT
That they must perish Tremblings of the heartU
It gives to think that our immortal beingV
No more shall need such garments and yet manD
As long as he shall be the child of earthW
Might almost 'weep to have' what he may loseX
Nor be himself extinguished but surviveY
Abject depressed forlorn disconsolateU
A thought is with me sometimes and I sayZ
Should the whole frame of earth by inward throesE
Be wrenched or fire come down from far to scorchA2
Her pleasant habitations and dry upB2
Old Ocean in his bed left singed and bareC2
Yet would the living Presence still subsistU
Victorious and composure would ensueK
And kindlings like the morning presage sureD2
Of day returning and of life revivedU
But all the meditations of mankindU
Yea all the adamantine holds of truthE2
By reason built or passion which itselfR
Is highest reason in a soul sublimeP
The consecrated works of Bard and SageF2
Sensuous or intellectual wrought by menG2
Twin labourers and heirs of the same hopesH2
Where would they be Oh why hath not the MindU
Some element to stamp her image onI2
In nature somewhat nearer to her ownJ2
Why gifted with such powers to send abroadU
Her spirit must it lodge in shrines so frailK2
-
One day when from my lips a like complaintU
Had fallen in presence of a studious friendU
He with a smile made answer that in truthE2
'Twas going far to seek disquietudeU
But on the front of his reproof confessedU
That he himself had oftentimes given wayZ
To kindred hauntings Whereupon I toldU
That once in the stillness of a summer's noonL2
While I was seated in a rocky caveM2
By the sea side perusing so it chancedU
The famous history of the errant knightU
Recorded by Cervantes these same thoughtsN2
Beset me and to height unusual roseE
While listlessly I sate and having closedU
The book had turned my eyes toward the wide seaF
On poetry and geometric truthE2
And their high privilege of lasting lifeS
From all internal injury exemptU
I mused upon these chiefly and at lengthO2
My senses yielding to the sultry airC2
Sleep seized me and I passed into a dreamP2
I saw before me stretched a boundless plainQ2
Of sandy wilderness all black and voidU
And as I looked around distress and fearR2
Came creeping over me when at my sideU
Close at my side an uncouth shape appearedU
Upon a dromedary mounted highS2
He seemed an Arab of the Bedouin tribesT2
A lance he bore and underneath one armU2
A stone and in the opposite hand a shellV2
Of a surpassing brightness At the sightU
Much I rejoiced not doubting but a guideU
Was present one who with unerring skillW2
Would through the desert lead me and while yetU
I looked and looked self questioned what this freightU
Which the new comer carried through the wasteU
Could mean the Arab told me that the stoneJ2
To give it in the language of the dreamP2
Was 'Euclid's Elements ' and 'This ' said heF
'Is something of more worth ' and at the wordU
Stretched forth the shell so beautiful in shapeX2
In colour so resplendent with commandU
That I should hold it to my ear I did soY2
And heard that instant in an unknown tongueZ2
Which yet I understood articulate soundsA3
A loud prophetic blast of harmonyF
An Ode in passion uttered which foretoldU
Destruction to the children of the earthW
By deluge now at hand No sooner ceasedU
The song than the Arab with calm look declaredU
That all would come to pass of which the voiceB3
Had given forewarning and that he himselfR
Was going then to bury those two booksC3
The one that held acquaintance with the starsD3
And wedded soul to soul in purest bondU
Of reason undisturbed by space or timeP
The other that was a god yea many godsE3
Had voices more than all the winds with powerC
To exhilarate the spirit and to sootheF3
Through every clime the heart of human kindU
While this was uttering strange as it may seemP2
I wondered not although I plainly sawG3
The one to be a stone the other a shellV2
Nor doubted once but that they both were booksC3
Having a perfect faith in all that passedU
Far stronger now grew the desire I feltU
To cleave unto this man but when I prayedU
To share his enterprise he hurried onI2
Reckless of me I followed not unseenH3
For oftentimes he cast a backward lookI3
Grasping his twofold treasure Lance in restU
He rode I keeping pace with him and nowJ3
He to my fancy had become the knightU
Whose tale Cervantes tells yet not the knightU
But was an Arab of the desert tooU
Of these was neither and was both at onceK3
His countenance meanwhile grew more disturbedU
And looking backwards when he looked mine eyesI
Saw over half the wilderness diffusedU
A bed of glittering light I asked the causeL3
'It is ' said he 'the waters of the deepB
Gathering upon us ' quickening then the paceM3
Of the unwieldy creature he bestrodeU
He left me I called after him aloudU
He heeded not but with his twofold chargeN3
Still in his grasp before me full in viewU
Went hurrying o'er the illimitable wasteU
With the fleet waters of a drowning worldU
In chase of him whereat I waked in terrorC
And saw the sea before me and the bookI3
In which I had been reading at my sideU
-
Full often taking from the world of sleepB
This Arab phantom which I thus beheldU
This semi Quixote I to him have givenM
A substance fancied him a living manD
A gentle dweller in the desert crazedU
By love and feeling and internal thoughtU
Protracted among endless solitudesM3
Have shaped him wandering upon this questU
Nor have I pitied him but rather feltU
Reverence was due to a being thus employedU
And thought that in the blind and awful lairC2
Of such a madness reason did lie couchedU
Enow there are on earth to take in chargeN3
Their wives their children and their virgin lovesM3
Or whatsoever else the heart holds dearR2
Enow to stir for these yea will I sayM3
Contemplating in soberness the approachO3
Of an event so dire by signs in earthW
Or heaven made manifest that I could shareC2
That maniac's fond anxiety and goY2
Upon like errand Oftentimes at leastU
Me hath such strong entrancement overcomeP3
When I have held a volume in my handU
Poor earthly casket of immortal verseM3
Shakespeare or Milton labourers divineG
-
Great and benign indeed must be the powerC
Of living nature which could thus so longQ3
Detain me from the best of other guidesM3
And dearest helpers left unthanked unpraisedU
Even in the time of lisping infancyM3
And later down in prattling childhood evenR3
While I was travelling back among those daysM3
How could I ever play an ingrate's partU
Once more should I have made those bowers resoundU
By intermingling strains of thankfulnessM3
With their own thoughtless melodies at leastU
It might have well beseemed me to repeatU
Some simply fashioned tale to tell againG2
In slender accents of sweet verse some taleK2
That did bewitch me then and soothes me nowJ3
O Friend O Poet brother of my soulS3
Think not that I could pass along untouchedU
By these remembrances Yet wherefore speakT3
Why call upon a few weak words to sayM3
What is already written in the heartsM3
Of all that breathe what in the path of allU3
Drops daily from the tongue of evV3

William Wordsworth



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