Book Ninth [residence In France] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKGGLMHNOPQ IG RSTUVGGWGXG GYZA2HGB2C2 D2GE2F2DG2H2H2I2H2J2 K2L2M2GH2GH2N2D2O2P2 GH2H2 GA2Q2H2R2GGH2DH2A2D2 S2H2 GT2H2U2GGI2V2H2KH2GG GGGHGM2W2X2I2IH2DGY2 Q2H2Z2AKGUA3H2GH2GB3 KQO2H2 H2C3H2O2H2GD3GA2A3H2 GI2GH2O2H2GH2HQGIH2H 2GW2H2I2GE2E3S2GF3H2 I2UU2H2H2Y2UH2G3GA3H 2G SGIH2HG C3GH2GMEVEN as a river partly it might seem | A |
Yielding to old remembrances and swayed | B |
In part by fear to shape a way direct | C |
That would engulph him soon in the ravenous sea | D |
Turns and will measure back his course far back | E |
Seeking the very regions which he crossed | F |
In his first outset so have we my Friend | G |
Turned and returned with intricate delay | H |
Or as a traveller who has gained the brow | I |
Of some aerial Down while there he halts | J |
For breathing time is tempted to review | K |
The region left behind him and if aught | G |
Deserving notice have escaped regard | G |
Or been regarded with too careless eye | L |
Strives from that height with one and yet one more | M |
Last look to make the best amends he may | H |
So have we lingered Now we start afresh | N |
With courage and new hope risen on our toil | O |
Fair greetings to this shapeless eagerness | P |
Whene'er it comes needful in work so long | Q |
Thrice needful to the argument which now | I |
Awaits us Oh how much unlike the past | G |
- | |
Free as a colt at pasture on the hill | R |
I ranged at large through London's wide domain | S |
Month after month Obscurely did I live | T |
Not seeking frequent intercourse with men | U |
By literature or elegance or rank | V |
Distinguished Scarcely was a year thus spent | G |
Ere I forsook the crowded solitude | G |
With less regret for its luxurious pomp | W |
And all the nicely guarded shows of art | G |
Than for the humble book stalls in the streets | X |
Exposed to eye and hand where'er I turned | G |
- | |
France lured me forth the realm that I had crossed | G |
So lately journeying toward the snow clad Alps | Y |
But now relinquishing the scrip and staff | Z |
And all enjoyment which the summer sun | A2 |
Sheds round the steps of those who meet the day | H |
With motion constant as his own I went | G |
Prepared to sojourn in a pleasant town | B2 |
Washed by the current of the stately Loire | C2 |
- | |
Through Paris lay my readiest course and there | D2 |
Sojourning a few days I visited | G |
In haste each spot of old or recent fame | E2 |
The latter chiefly from the field of Mars | F2 |
Down to the suburbs of St Antony | D |
And from Mont Martre southward to the Dome | G2 |
Of Genevieve In both her clamorous Halls | H2 |
The National Synod and the Jacobins | H2 |
I saw the Revolutionary Power | I2 |
Toss like a ship at anchor rocked by storms | H2 |
The Arcades I traversed in the Palace huge | J2 |
Of Orleans coasted round and round the line | K2 |
Of Tavern Brothel Gaming house and Shop | L2 |
Great rendezvous of worst and best the walk | M2 |
Of all who had a purpose or had not | G |
I stared and listened with a stranger's ears | H2 |
To Hawkers and Haranguers hubbub wild | G |
And hissing Factionists with ardent eyes | H2 |
In knots or pairs or single Not a look | N2 |
Hope takes or Doubt or Fear is forced to wear | D2 |
But seemed there present and I scanned them all | O2 |
Watched every gesture uncontrollable | P2 |
Of anger and vexation and despite | G |
All side by side and struggling face to face | H2 |
With gaiety and dissolute idleness | H2 |
- | |
Where silent zephyrs sported with the dust | G |
Of the Bastille I sate in the open sun | A2 |
And from the rubbish gathered up a stone | Q2 |
And pocketed the relic in the guise | H2 |
Of an enthusiast yet in honest truth | R2 |
I looked for something that I could not find | G |
Affecting more emotion than I felt | G |
For 'tis most certain that these various sights | H2 |
However potent their first shock with me | D |
Appeared to recompense the traveller's pains | H2 |
Less than the painted Magdalene of Le Brun | A2 |
A beauty exquisitely wrought with hair | D2 |
Dishevelled gleaming eyes and rueful cheek | S2 |
Pale and bedropped with overflowing tears | H2 |
- | |
But hence to my more permanent abode | G |
I hasten there by novelties in speech | T2 |
Domestic manners customs gestures looks | H2 |
And all the attire of ordinary life | U2 |
Attention was engrossed and thus amused | G |
I stood 'mid those concussions unconcerned | G |
Tranquil almost and careless as a flower | I2 |
Glassed in a green house or a parlour shrub | V2 |
That spreads its leaves in unmolested peace | H2 |
While every bush and tree the country through | K |
Is shaking to the roots indifference this | H2 |
Which may seem strange but I was unprepared | G |
With needful knowledge had abruptly passed | G |
Into a theatre whose stage was filled | G |
And busy with an action far advanced | G |
Like others I had skimmed and sometimes read | G |
With care the master pamphlets of the day | H |
Nor wanted such half insight as grew wild | G |
Upon that meagre soil helped out by talk | M2 |
And public news but having never seen | W2 |
A chronicle that might suffice to show | X2 |
Whence the main organs of the public power | I2 |
Had sprung their transmigrations when and how | I |
Accomplished giving thus unto events | H2 |
A form and body all things were to me | D |
Loose and disjointed and the affections left | G |
Without a vital interest At that time | Y2 |
Moreover the first storm was overblown | Q2 |
And the strong hand of outward violence | H2 |
Locked up in quiet For myself I fear | Z2 |
Now in connection with so great a theme | A |
To speak as I must be compelled to do | K |
Of one so unimportant night by night | G |
Did I frequent the formal haunts of men | U |
Whom in the city privilege of birth | A3 |
Sequestered from the rest societies | H2 |
Polished in arts and in punctilio versed | G |
Whence and from deeper causes all discourse | H2 |
Of good and evil of the time was shunned | G |
With scrupulous care but these restrictions soon | B3 |
Proved tedious and I gradually withdrew | K |
Into a noisier world and thus ere long | Q |
Became a patriot and my heart was all | O2 |
Given to the people and my love was theirs | H2 |
- | |
A band of military Officers | H2 |
Then stationed in the city were the chief | C3 |
Of my associates some of these wore swords | H2 |
That had been seasoned in the wars and all | O2 |
Were men well born the chivalry of France | H2 |
In age and temper differing they had yet | G |
One spirit ruling in each heart alike | D3 |
Save only one hereafter to be named | G |
Were bent upon undoing what was done | A2 |
This was their rest and only hope therewith | A3 |
No fear had they of bad becoming worse | H2 |
For worst to them was come nor would have stirred | G |
Or deemed it worth a moment's thought to stir | I2 |
In anything save only as the act | G |
Looked thitherward One reckoning by years | H2 |
Was in the prime of manhood and erewhile | O2 |
He had sate lord in many tender hearts | H2 |
Though heedless of such honours now and changed | G |
His temper was quite mastered by the times | H2 |
And they had blighted him had eaten away | H |
The beauty of his person doing wrong | Q |
Alike to body and to mind his port | G |
Which once had been erect and open now | I |
Was stooping and contracted and a face | H2 |
Endowed by Nature with her fairest gifts | H2 |
Of symmetry and light and bloom expressed | G |
As much as any that was ever seen | W2 |
A ravage out of season made by thoughts | H2 |
Unhealthy and vexatious With the hour | I2 |
That from the press of Paris duly brought | G |
Its freight of public news the fever came | E2 |
A punctual visitant to shake this man | E3 |
Disarmed his voice and fanned his yellow cheek | S2 |
Into a thousand colours while he read | G |
Or mused his sword was haunted by his touch | F3 |
Continually like an uneasy place | H2 |
In his own body 'Twas in truth an hour | I2 |
Of universal ferment mildest men | U |
Were agitated and commotions strife | U2 |
Of passion and opinion filled the walls | H2 |
Of peaceful houses with unquiet sounds | H2 |
The soil of common life was at that time | Y2 |
Too hot to tread upon Oft said I then | U |
And not then only 'What a mockery this | H2 |
Of history the past and that to come | G3 |
Now do I feel how all men are deceived | G |
Reading of nations and their works in faith | A3 |
Faith given to vanity and emptiness | H2 |
Oh laughter for the page that would reflect | G |
To future times the face of what now is ' | - |
The land all swarmed with passion like a plain | S |
Devoured by locusts Carra Gorsas add | G |
A hundred other names forgotten now | I |
Nor to be heard of more yet they were powers | H2 |
Like earthquakes shocks repeated day by day | H |
And felt through every nook of town and field | G |
- | |
Such was the state of things Meanwhile the chief | C3 |
Of my associates stood prepared for flight | G |
To augment the band of emigrants in arms | H2 |
Upon the borders of the Rhine and leagued | G |
With foreign foes mustered for | M |
William Wordsworth
(1)
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