Dion Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBBCCDEFEFDGGHHD IJJIBKBLFHHFMNONOPOO NQQC OOBBNBBNNBNBNNNNOORN RNNBNBNSSRPRRBB TNTNNBUUBNBRR RNNRNNIFIFVV NWNWNNNNNPNNCNCNNNNN BBBSee Plutarch | A |
Serene and fitted to embrace | B |
Where'er he turned a swan like grace | B |
Of haughtiness without pretence | B |
And to unfold a still magnificence | B |
Was princely Dion in the power | C |
And beauty of his happier hour | C |
And what pure homage then did wait | D |
On Dion's virtues while the lunar beam | E |
Of Plato's genius from its lofty sphere | F |
Fell round him in the grove of Academe | E |
Softening their inbred dignity austere | F |
That he not too elate | D |
With self sufficing solitude | G |
But with majestic lowliness endued | G |
Might in the universal bosom reign | H |
And from affectionate observance gain | H |
Help under every change of adverse fate | D |
- | |
Five thousand warriors O the rapturous day | I |
Each crowned with flowers and armed with spear and shield | J |
Or ruder weapon which their course might yield | J |
To Syracuse advance in bright array | I |
Who leads them on The anxious people see | B |
Long exiled Dion marching at their head | K |
He also crowned with flowers of Sicily | B |
And in a white far beaming corslet clad | L |
Pure transport undisturbed by doubt or fear | F |
The gazers feel and rushing to the plain | H |
Salute those strangers as a holy train | H |
Or blest procession to the Immortals dear | F |
That brought their precious liberty again | M |
Lo when the gates are entered on each hand | N |
Down the long street rich goblets filled with wine | O |
In seemly order stand | N |
On tables set as if for rites divine | O |
And as the great Deliverer marches by | P |
He looks on festal ground with fruits bestrown | O |
And flowers are on his person thrown | O |
In boundless prodigality | N |
Nor doth the general voice abstain from prayer | Q |
Invoking Dion's tutelary care | Q |
As if a very Deity he were | C |
- | |
Mourn hills and groves of Attica and mourn | O |
Ilissus bending o'er thy classic urn | O |
Mourn and lament for him whose spirit dreads | B |
Your once sweet memory studious walks and shades | B |
For him who to divinity aspired | N |
Not on the breath of popular applause | B |
But through dependence on the sacred laws | B |
Framed in the schools where Wisdom dwelt retired | N |
Intent to trace the ideal path of right | N |
More fair than heaven's broad causeway paved with stars | B |
Which Dion learned to measure with sublime delight | N |
But He hath overleaped the eternal bars | B |
And following guides whose craft holds no consent | N |
With aught that breathes the ethereal element | N |
Hath stained the robes of civil power with blood | N |
Unjustly shed though for the public good | N |
Whence doubts that came too late and wishes vain | O |
Hollow excuses and triumphant pain | O |
And oft his cogitations sink as low | R |
As through the abysses of a joyless heart | N |
The heaviest plummet of despair can go | R |
But whence that sudden check that fearful start | N |
He hears an uncouth sound | N |
Anon his lifted eyes | B |
Saw at a long drawn gallery's dusky bound | N |
A Shape of more than mortal size | B |
And hideous aspect stalking round and round | N |
A woman's garb the Phantom wore | S |
And fiercely swept the marble floor | S |
Like Auster whirling to and fro | R |
His force on Caspian foam to try | P |
Or Boreas when he scours the snow | R |
That skims the plains of Thessaly | R |
Or when aloft on M nalus he stops | B |
His flight 'mid eddying pine tree tops | B |
- | |
So but from toil less sign of profit reaping | T |
The sullen Spectre to her purpose bowed | N |
Sweeping vehemently sweeping | T |
No pause admitted no design avowed | N |
Avaunt inexplicable Guest avaunt | N |
Exclaimed the Chieftain let me rather see | B |
The coronal that coiling vipers make | U |
The torch that flames with many a lurid flake | U |
And the long train of doleful pageantry | B |
Which they behold whom vengeful Furies haunt | N |
Who while they struggle from the scourge to flee | B |
Move where the blasted soil is not unworn | R |
And in their anguish bear what other minds have borne | R |
- | |
But Shapes that come not at an earthly call | R |
Will not depart when mortal voices bid | N |
Lords of the visionary eye whose lid | N |
Once raised remains aghast and will not fall | R |
Ye Gods thought He that servile Implement | N |
Obeys a mystical intent | N |
Your Minister would brush away | I |
The spots that to my soul adhere | F |
But should she labour night and day | I |
They will not cannot disappear | F |
Whence angry perturbations and that look | V |
Which no philosophy can brook | V |
- | |
- | |
Ill fated Chief there are whose hopes are built | N |
Upon the ruins of thy glorious name | W |
Who through the portal of one moment's guilt | N |
Pursue thee with their deadly aim | W |
O matchless perfidy portentous lust | N |
Of monstrous crime that horror striking blade | N |
Drawn in defiance of the Gods hath laid | N |
The noble Syracusan low in dust | N |
Shudder'd the walls the marble city wept | N |
And sylvan places heaved a pensive sigh | P |
But in calm peace the appointed Victim slept | N |
As he had fallen in magnanimity | N |
Of spirit too capacious to require | C |
That Destiny her course should change too just | N |
To his own native greatness to desire | C |
That wretched boon days lengthened by mistrust | N |
So were the hopeless troubles that involved | N |
The soul of Dion instantly dissolved | N |
Released from life and cares of princely state | N |
He left this moral grafted on his Fate | N |
Him only pleasure leads and peace attends | B |
Him only him the shield of Jove defends | B |
Whose means are fair and spotless as his ends | B |
William Wordsworth
(1)
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