On The Power Of Sound Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDEDEFGFHGHFF A FFFFIJIJKLKMLMFA A FNFNFFFFOPOQRSTT O FUFUVIVIHWHXWXYY O RZRA2SB2SB2FWFQWSOO O FC2FC2FCFCD2JD2WJWFF O SE2SE2F2G2F2G2WKWTKT H2H2 O SISIMI2GI2J2K2J2L2K2 L2FF F G2OG2OFM2FM2FFFN2FN2 O2O2 F FFFFP2M2P2M2Q2R2Q2K2 R2K2VV F FFFFS2K2S2K2IO2IGO2G K2K2 F T2I2T2I2K2FK2FU2G2U2 GG2GU2U2 F P2FP2FU2G2U2G2G2FIV2 FV2U2U2 O P2SP2SU2FU2FFOFU2OU2 U2U2I | A |
- | |
Thy functions are ethereal | B |
As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind | C |
Organ of vision And a Spirit aerial | B |
Informs the cell of Hearing dark and blind | C |
Intricate labyrinth more dread for thought | D |
To enter than oracular cave | E |
Strict passage through which sighs are brought | D |
And whispers for the heart their slave | E |
And shrieks that revel in abuse | F |
Of shivering flesh and warbled air | G |
Whose piercing sweetness can unloose | F |
The chains of frenzy or entice a smile | H |
Into the ambush of despair | G |
Hosannas pealing down the long drawn aisle | H |
And requiems answered by the pulse that beats | F |
Devoutly in life's last retreats | F |
- | |
II | A |
- | |
The headlong streams and fountains | F |
Serve Thee invisible Spirit with untired powers | F |
Cheering the wakeful tent on Syrian mountains | F |
They lull perchance ten thousand thousand flowers | F |
'That' roar the prowling lion's 'Here I am' | I |
How fearful to the desert wide | J |
That bleat how tender of the dam | I |
Calling a straggler to her side | J |
Shout cuckoo let the vernal soul | K |
Go with thee to the frozen zone | L |
Toll from thy loftiest perch lone bell bird toll | K |
At the still hour to Mercy dear | M |
Mercy from her twilight throne | L |
Listening to nun's faint throb of holy fear | M |
To sailor's prayer breathed from a darkening sea | F |
Or widow's cottage lullaby | A |
- | |
III | A |
- | |
Ye Voices and ye Shadows | F |
And Images of voice to hound and horn | N |
From rocky steep and rock bestudded meadows | F |
Flung back and in the sky's blue caves reborn | N |
On with your pastime till the church tower bells | F |
A greeting give of measured glee | F |
And milder echoes from their cells | F |
Repeat the bridal symphony | F |
Then or far earlier let us rove | O |
Where mists are breaking up or gone | P |
And from aloft look down into a cove | O |
Besprinkled with a careless quire | Q |
Happy milk maids one by one | R |
Scattering a ditty each to her desire | S |
A liquid concert matchless by nice Art | T |
A stream as if from one full heart | T |
- | |
IV | O |
- | |
Blest be the song that brightens | F |
The blind man's gloom exalts the veteran's mirth | U |
Unscorned the peasant's whistling breath that lightens | F |
His duteous toil of furrowing the green earth | U |
For the tired slave Song lifts the languid oar | V |
And bids it aptly fall with chime | I |
That beautifies the fairest shore | V |
And mitigates the harshest clime | I |
Yon pilgrims see in lagging file | H |
They move but soon the appointed way | W |
A choral 'Ave Marie' shall beguile | H |
And to their hope the distant shrine | X |
Glisten with a livelier ray | W |
Nor friendless he the prisoner of the mine | X |
Who from the well spring of his own clear breast | Y |
Can draw and sing his griefs to rest | Y |
- | |
V | O |
- | |
When civic renovation | R |
Dawns on a kingdom and for needful haste | Z |
Best eloquence avails not Inspiration | R |
Mounts with a tune that travels like a blast | A2 |
Piping through cave and battlemented tower | S |
Then starts the sluggard pleased to meet | B2 |
That voice of Freedom in its power | S |
Of promises shrill wild and sweet | B2 |
Who from a martial 'pageant' spreads | F |
Incitements of a battle day | W |
Thrilling the unweaponed crowd with plumeless heads | F |
Even She whose Lydian airs inspire | Q |
Peaceful striving gentle play | W |
Of timid hope and innocent desire | S |
Shot from the dancing Graces as they move | O |
Fanned by the plausive wings of Love | O |
- | |
VI | O |
- | |
How oft along thy mazes | F |
Regent of sound have dangerous Passions trod | C2 |
O Thou through whom the temple rings with praises | F |
And blackening clouds in thunder speak of God | C2 |
Betray not by the cozenage of sense | F |
Thy votaries wooingly resigned | C |
To a voluptuous influence | F |
That taints the purer better mind | C |
But lead sick Fancy to a harp | D2 |
That hath in noble tasks been tried | J |
And if the virtuous feel a pang too sharp | D2 |
Soothe it into patience stay | W |
The uplifted arm of Suicide | J |
And let some mood of thine in firm array | W |
Knit every thought the impending issue needs | F |
Ere martyr burns or patriot bleeds | F |
- | |
VII | O |
- | |
As Conscience to the centre | S |
Of being smites with irresistible pain | E2 |
So shall a solemn cadence if it enter | S |
The mouldy vaults of the dull idiot's brain | E2 |
Transmute him to a wretch from quiet hurled | F2 |
Convulsed as by a jarring din | G2 |
And then aghast as at the world | F2 |
Of reason partially let in | G2 |
By concords winding with a sway | W |
Terrible for sense and soul | K |
Or awed he weeps struggling to quell dismay | W |
Point not these mysteries to an Art | T |
Lodged above the starry pole | K |
Pure modulations flowing from the heart | T |
Of divine Love where Wisdom Beauty Truth | H2 |
With Order dwell in endless youth | H2 |
- | |
VIII | O |
- | |
Oblivion may not cover | S |
All treasures hoarded by the miser Time | I |
Orphean Insight truth's undaunted lover | S |
To the first leagues of tutored passion climb | I |
When Music deigned within this grosser sphere | M |
Her subtle essence to enfold | I2 |
And voice and shell drew forth a tear | G |
Softer than Nature's self could mould | I2 |
Yet 'strenuous' was the infant Age | J2 |
Art daring because souls could feel | K2 |
Stirred nowhere but an urgent equipage | J2 |
Of rapt imagination sped her march | L2 |
Through the realms of woe and weal | K2 |
Hell to the lyre bowed low the upper arch | L2 |
Rejoiced that clamorous spell and magic verse | F |
Her wan disasters could disperse | F |
- | |
IX | F |
- | |
The GIFT to king Amphion | G2 |
That walled a city with its melody | O |
Was for belief no dream thy skill Arion | G2 |
Could humanise the creatures of the sea | O |
Where men were monsters A last grace he craves | F |
Leave for one chant the dulcet sound | M2 |
Steals from the deck o'er willing waves | F |
And listening dolphins gather round | M2 |
Self cast as with a desperate course | F |
'Mid that strange audience he bestrides | F |
A proud One docile as a managed horse | F |
And singing while the accordant hand | N2 |
Sweeps his harp the Master rides | F |
So shall he touch at length a friendly strand | N2 |
And he with his preserver shine star bright | O2 |
In memory through silent night | O2 |
- | |
X | F |
- | |
The pipe of Pan to shepherds | F |
Couched in the shadow of Maenalian pines | F |
Was passing sweet the eyeballs of the leopards | F |
That in high triumph drew the Lord of vines | F |
How did they sparkle to the cymbal's clang | P2 |
While Fauns and Satyrs beat the ground | M2 |
In cadence and Silenus swang | P2 |
This way and that with wild flowers crowned | M2 |
To life to 'life' give back thine ear | Q2 |
Ye who are longing to be rid | R2 |
Of fable though to truth subservient hear | Q2 |
The little sprinkling of cold earth that fell | K2 |
Echoed from the coffin lid | R2 |
The convict's summons in the steeple's knell | K2 |
The vain distress gun from a leeward shore | V |
Repeated heard and heard no more | V |
- | |
XI | F |
- | |
For terror joy or pity | F |
Vast is the compass and the swell of notes | F |
From the babe's first cry to voice of regal city | F |
Rolling a solemn sea like bass that floats | F |
Far as the woodlands with the trill to blend | S2 |
Of that shy songstress whose love tale | K2 |
Might tempt an angel to descend | S2 |
While hovering o'er the moonlight vale | K2 |
Ye wandering Utterances has earth no scheme | I |
No scale of moral music to unite | O2 |
Powers that survive but in the faintest dream | I |
Of memory O that ye might stoop to bear | G |
Chains such precious chains of sight | O2 |
As laboured minstrelsies through ages wear | G |
O for a balance fit the truth to tell | K2 |
Of the Unsubstantial pondered well | K2 |
- | |
XII | F |
- | |
By one pervading spirit | T2 |
Of tones and numbers all things are controlled | I2 |
As sages taught where faith was found to merit | T2 |
Initiation in that mystery old | I2 |
The heavens whose aspect makes our minds as still | K2 |
As they themselves appear to be | F |
Innumerable voices fill | K2 |
With everlasting harmony | F |
The towering headlands crowned with mist | U2 |
Their feet among the billows know | G2 |
That Ocean is a mighty harmonist | U2 |
Thy pinions universal Air | G |
Ever waving to and fro | G2 |
Are delegates of harmony and bear | G |
Strains that support the Seasons in their round | U2 |
Stern Winter loves a dirge like sound | U2 |
- | |
XIII | F |
- | |
Break forth into thanksgiving | P2 |
Ye banded instruments of wind and chords | F |
Unite to magnify the Ever living | P2 |
Your inarticulate notes with the voice of words | F |
Nor hushed be service from the lowing mead | U2 |
Nor mute the forest hum of noon | G2 |
Thou too be heard lone eagle freed | U2 |
From snowy peak and cloud attune | G2 |
Thy hungry barkings to the hymn | G2 |
Of joy that from her utmost walls | F |
The six days' Work by flaming Seraphim | I |
Transmits to Heaven As Deep to Deep | V2 |
Shouting through one valley calls | F |
All worlds all natures mood and measure keep | V2 |
For praise and ceaseless gratulation poured | U2 |
Into the ear of God their Lord | U2 |
- | |
XIV | O |
- | |
A Voice to Light gave Being | P2 |
To Time and Man his earth born chronicler | S |
A Voice shall finish doubt and dim foreseeing | P2 |
And sweep away life's visionary stir | S |
The trumpet we intoxicate with pride | U2 |
Arm at its blast for deadly wars | F |
To archangelic lips applied | U2 |
The grave shall open quench the stars | F |
O Silence are Man's noisy years | F |
No more than moments of thy life | O |
Is Harmony blest queen of smiles and tears | F |
With her smooth tones and discords just | U2 |
Tempered into rapturous strife | O |
Thy destined bond slave No though earth be dust | U2 |
And vanish though the heavens dissolve her stay | U2 |
Is in the word that shall not pass away | U2 |
William Wordsworth
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about On The Power Of Sound poem by William Wordsworth
Best Poems of William Wordsworth