The Prelude - Book Twelfth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHIJKLMNCOPQRST UVWXYHGZA2B2PC2A2D2E 2F2G2H2I2J2K2TL2 M2D2N2O2P2Q2R2S2T2U2 VK2D2V2V2D2VF2W2X2Y2 Z2U2A3V2B3HHXD2D2 VD2V2C3ZD3E3F3J2G3FH 3I2 I3J3K3D2C3 L3D2M3YN3O3P3ZQ3R3J2 S3T3U3G2R2V3L3W3X3Y3 Z3A4N2B4C4K2MD2D4E4F 4K2R2G4D2F4R2H4I4J4K 4L4M4J2N4K2O4J2P4Q4R 4TS4T4D2O2U4FV4ZK3B4 I3W4VD2X4D2J2X3TY4Y4 Y4N3Y4D2O4EY4 UN3Y4Y4Y4Y4G4Y4Y4G2N 2Y4Y4D2Z4Y4Y4Y4VVJ2Y 4Y4S2H3J4D2VD2Y4J2 G4Y4Y4Y4Y4Y4Y4Y4F2D2 P3U4Y4J2Y4N3Y4VVD3D2 Y4Y4VY4VJ2Y4Y4VY4Z3Y 4HY4J2Y4Y4A4J2G4VY4D 3J2D2VD2D2Y4VG4UY4Y4 Y4Z3J2T4Y4Y4Y4Y4Y4Y4 Y4Y4J2J2Y4Z3Y4Y4J2

IMAGINATION AND TASTE HOW IMPAIRED AND RESTORED	A
	-
Long time have human ignorance and guilt	B
Detained us on what spectacles of woe	C
Compelled to look and inwardly oppressed	D
With sorrow disappointment vexing thoughts	E
Confusion of the judgment zeal decayed	F
And lastly utter loss of hope itself	G
And things to hope for Not with these began	H
Our song and not with these our song must end	I
Ye motions of delight that haunt the sides	J
Of the green hills ye breezes and soft airs	K
Whose subtle intercourse with breathing flowers	L
Feelingly watched might teach Man's haughty race	M
How without Injury to take to give	N
Without offence ye who as if to show	C
The wondrous influence of power gently used	O
Bend the complying heads of lordly pines	P
And with a touch shift the stupendous clouds	Q
Through the whole compass of the sky ye brooks	R
Muttering along the stones a busy noise	S
By day a quiet sound in silent night	T
Ye waves that out of the great deep steal forth	U
In a calm hour to kiss the pebbly shore	V
Not mute and then retire fearing no storm	W
And you ye groves whose ministry it is	X
To interpose the covert of your shades	Y
Even as a sleep between the heart of man	H
And outward troubles between man himself	G
Not seldom and his own uneasy heart	Z
Oh that I had a music and a voice	A2
Harmonious as your own that I might tell	B2
What ye have done for me The morning shines	P
Nor heedeth Man's perverseness Spring returns	C2
I saw the Spring return and could rejoice	A2
In common with the children of her love	D2
Piping on boughs or sporting on fresh fields	E2
Or boldly seeking pleasure nearer heaven	F2
On wings that navigate cerulean skies	G2
So neither were complacency nor peace	H2
Nor tender yearnings wanting for my good	I2
Through these distracted times in Nature still	J2
Glorying I found a counterpoise in her	K2
Which when the spirit of evil reached its height	T
Maintained for me a secret happiness	L2
	-
This narrative my Friend hath chiefly told	M2
Of intellectual power fostering love	D2
Dispensing truth and over men and things	N2
Where reason yet might hesitate diffusing	O2
Prophetic sympathies of genial faith	P2
So was I favoured such my happy lot	Q2
Until that natural graciousness of mind	R2
Gave way to overpressure from the times	S2
And their disastrous issues What availed	T2
When spells forbade the voyager to land	U2
That fragrant notice of a pleasant shore	V
Wafted at intervals from many a bower	K2
Of blissful gratitude and fearless love	D2
Dare I avow that wish was mine to see	V2
And hope that future times 'would' surely see	V2
The man to come parted as by a gulph	D2
From him who had been that I could no more	V
Trust the elevation which had made me one	F2
With the great family that still survives	W2
To illuminate the abyss of ages past	X2
Sage warrior patriot hero for it seemed	Y2
That their best virtues were not free from taint	Z2
Of something false and weak that could not stand	U2
The open eye of Reason Then I said	A3
Go to the Poets they will speak to thee	V2
More perfectly of purer creatures yet	B3
If reason be nobility in man	H
Can aught be more ignoble than the man	H
Whom they delight in blinded as he is	X
By prejudice the miserable slave	D2
Of low ambition or distempered love	D2
	-
In such strange passion if I may once more	V
Review the past I warred against myself	D2
A bigot to a new idolatry	V2
Like a cowled monk who hath forsworn the world	C3
Zealously laboured to cut off my heart	Z
From all the sources of her former strength	D3
And as by simple waving of a wand	E3
The wizard instantaneously dissolves	F3
Palace or grove even so could I unsoul	J2
As readily by syllogistic words	G3
Those mysteries of being which have made	F
And shall continue evermore to make	H3
Of the whole human race one brotherhood	I2
	-
What wonder then if to a mind so far	I3
Perverted even the visible Universe	J3
Fell under the dominion of a taste	K3
Less spiritual with microscopic view	D2
Was scanned as I had scanned the moral world	C3
	-
O Soul of Nature excellent and fair	L3
That didst rejoice with me with whom I too	D2
Rejoiced through early youth before the winds	M3
And roaring waters and in lights and shades	Y
That marched and countermarched about the hills	N3
In glorious apparition Powers on whom	O3
I daily waited now all eye and now	P3
All ear but never long without the heart	Z
Employed and man's unfolding intellect	Q3
O Soul of Nature that by laws divine	R3
Sustained and governed still dost overflow	J2
With an impassioned life what feeble ones	S3
Walk on this earth how feeble have I been	T3
When thou wert in thy strength Nor this through stroke	U3
Of human suffering such as justifies	G2
Remissness and inaptitude of mind	R2
But through presumption even in pleasure pleased	V3
Unworthily disliking here and there	L3
Liking by rules of mimic art transferred	W3
To things above all art but more for this	X3
Although a strong infection of the age	Y3
Was never much my habit giving way	Z3
To a comparison of scene with scene	A4
Bent overmuch on superficial things	N2
Pampering myself with meagre novelties	B4
Of colour and proportion to the moods	C4
Of time and season to the moral power	K2
The affections and the spirit of the place	M
Insensible Nor only did the love	D2
Of sitting thus in judgment interrupt	D4
My deeper feelings but another cause	E4
More subtle and less easily explained	F4
That almost seems inherent in the creature	K2
A twofold frame of body and of mind	R2
I speak in recollection of a time	G4
When the bodily eye in every stage of life	D2
The most despotic of our senses gained	F4
Such strength in 'me' as often held my mind	R2
In absolute dominion Gladly here	H4
Entering upon abstruser argument	I4
Could I endeavour to unfold the means	J4
Which Nature studiously employs to thwart	K4
This tyranny summons all the senses each	L4
To counteract the other and themselves	M4
And makes them all and the objects with which all	J2
Are conversant subservient in their turn	N4
To the great ends of Liberty and Power	K2
But leave we this enough that my delights	O4
Such as they were were sought insatiably	J2
Vivid the transport vivid though not profound	P4
I roamed from hill to hill from rock to rock	Q4
Still craving combinations of new forms	R4
New pleasure wider empire for the sight	T
Proud of her own endowments and rejoiced	S4
To lay the inner faculties asleep	T4
Amid the turns and counterturns the strife	D2
And various trials of our complex being	O2
As we grow up such thraldom of that sense	U4
Seems hard to shun And yet I knew a maid	F
A young enthusiast who escaped these bonds	V4
Her eye was not the mistress of her heart	Z
Far less did rules prescribed by passive taste	K3
Or barren intermeddling subtleties	B4
Perplex her mind but wise as women are	I3
When genial circumstance hath favoured them	W4
She welcomed what was given and craved no more	V
Whate'er the scene presented to her view	D2
That was the best to that she was attuned	X4
By her benign simplicity of life	D2
And through a perfect happiness of soul	J2
Whose variegated feelings were in this	X3
Sisters that they were each some new delight	T
Birds in the bower and lambs in the green field	Y4
Could they have known her would have loved methought	Y4
Her very presence such a sweetness breathed	Y4
That flowers and trees and even the silent hills	N3
And everything she looked on should have had	Y4
An intimation how she bore herself	D2
Towards them and to all creatures God delights	O4
In such a being for her common thoughts	E
Are piety her life is gratitude	Y4
	-
Even like this maid before I was called forth	U
From the retirement of my native hills	N3
I loved whate'er I saw nor lightly loved	Y4
But most intensely never dreamt of aught	Y4
More grand more fair more exquisitely framed	Y4
Than those few nooks to which my happy feet	Y4
Were limited I had not at that time	G4
Lived long enough nor in the least survived	Y4
The first diviner influence of this world	Y4
As it appears to unaccustomed eyes	G2
Worshipping them among the depth of things	N2
As piety ordained could I submit	Y4
To measured admiration or to aught	Y4
That should preclude humility and love	D2
I felt observed and pondered did not judge	Z4
Yea never thought of judging with the gift	Y4
Of all this glory filled and satisfied	Y4
And afterwards when through the gorgeous Alps
Roaming I carried with me the same heart	Y4
In truth the degradation howsoe'er	V
Induced effect in whatsoe'er degree	V
Of custom that prepares a partial scale	J2
In which the little oft outweighs the great	Y4
Or any other cause that hath been named	Y4
Or lastly aggravated by the times	S2
And their impassioned sounds which well might make	H3
The milder minstrelsies of rural scenes	J4
Inaudible was transient I had known
Too forcibly too early in my life	D2
Visitings of imaginative power	V
For this to last I shook the habit off	D2
Entirely and for ever and again
In Nature's presence stood as now I stand	Y4
A sensitive being a 'creative' soul	J2
	-
There are in our existence spots of time	G4
That with distinct pre eminence retain
A renovating virtue whence depressed	Y4
By false opinion and contentious thought	Y4
Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight	Y4
In trivial occupations and the round	Y4
Of ordinary intercourse our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired	Y4
A virtue by which pleasure is enhanced	Y4
That penetrates enables us to mount	Y4
When high more high and lifts us up when fallen	F2
This efficacious spirit chiefly lurks
Among those passages of life that give	D2
Profoundest knowledge to what point and how	P3
The mind is lord and master outward sense	U4
The obedient servant of her will Such moments
Are scattered everywhere taking their date	Y4
From our first childhood I remember well	J2
That once while yet my inexperienced hand	Y4
Could scarcely hold a bridle with proud hopes
I mounted and we journeyed towards the hills	N3
An ancient servant of my father's house
Was with me my encourager and guide	Y4
We had not travelled long ere some mischance
Disjoined me from my comrade and through fear	V
Dismounting down the rough and stony moor	V
I led my horse and stumbling on at length	D3
Came to a bottom where in former times
A murderer had been hung in iron chains
The gibbet mast had mouldered down the bones
And iron case were gone but on the turf	D2
Hard by soon after that fell deed was wrought	Y4
Some unknown hand had carved the murderer's name
The monumental letters were inscribed	Y4
In times long past but still from year to year	V
By superstition of the neighbourhood	Y4
The grass is cleared away and to this hour	V
The characters are fresh and visible	J2
A casual glance had shown them and I fled	Y4
Faltering and faint and ignorant of the road	Y4
Then reascending the bare common saw
A naked pool that lay beneath the hills
The beacon on the summit and more near	V
A girl who bore a pitcher on her head	Y4
And seemed with difficult steps to force her way	Z3
Against the blowing wind It was in truth
An ordinary sight but I should need	Y4
Colours and words that are unknown to man	H
To paint the visionary dreariness
Which while I looked all round for my lost guide	Y4
Invested moorland waste and naked pool	J2
The beacon crowning the lone eminence
The female and her garments vexed and tossed	Y4
By the strong wind When in the blessed hours
Of early love the loved one at my side	Y4
I roamed in daily presence of this scene	A4
Upon the naked pool and dreary crags
And on the melancholy beacon fell	J2
A spirit of pleasure and youth's golden gleam
And think ye not with radiance more sublime	G4
For these remembrances and for the power	V
They had left behind So feeling comes in aid	Y4
Of feeling and diversity of strength	D3
Attends us if but once we have been strong
Oh mystery of man from what a depth
Proceed thy honours I am lost but see
In simple childhood something of the base
On which thy greatness stands but this I feel	J2
That from thyself it comes that thou must give	D2
Else never canst receive The days gone by
Return upon me almost from the dawn
Of life the hiding places of man's power	V
Open I would approach them but they close
I see by glimpses now when age comes on
May scarcely see at all and I would give	D2
While yet we may as far as words can give	D2
Substance and life to what I feel enshrining
Such is my hope the spirit of the Past	Y4
For future restoration Yet another	V
Of these memorials
One Christmas time	G4
On the glad eve of its dear holidays
Feverish and tired and restless I went forth	U
Into the fields impatient for the sight	Y4
Of those led palfreys that should bear us home
My brothers and myself There rose a crag
That from the meeting point of two highways
Ascending overlooked them both far stretched	Y4
Thither uncertain on which road to fix
My expectation thither I repaired	Y4
Scout like and gained the summit 'twas a day	Z3
Tempestuous dark and wild and on the grass
I sate half sheltered by a naked wall	J2
Upon my right hand couched a single sheep	T4
Upon my left a blasted hawthorn stood	Y4
With those companions at my side I watched	Y4
Straining my eyes intensely as the mist	Y4
Gave intermitting prospect of the copse
And plain beneath Ere we to school returned	Y4
That dreary time ere we had been ten days
Sojourners in my father's house he died	Y4
And I and my three brothers orphans then
Followed his body to the grave The event	Y4
With all the sorrow that it brought appeared	Y4
A chastisement and when I called to mind	Y4
That day so lately past when from the crag
I looked in such anxiety of hope
With trite reflections of morality
Yet in the deepest passion I bowed low	J2
To God Who thus corrected my desires
And afterwards the wind and sleety rain
And all the business of the elements
The single sheep and the one blasted tree
And the bleak music from that old stone wall	J2
The noise of wood and water and the mist	Y4
That on the line of each of those two roads
Advanced in such indisputable shapes
All these were kindred spectacles and sounds
To which I oft repaired and thence would drink
As at a fountain and on winter nights
Down to this very time when storm and rain
Beat on my roof or haply at noon day	Z3
While in a grove I walk whose lofty trees
Laden with summer's thickest foliage rock
In a strong wind some working of the spirit	Y4
Some inward agitations thence are brought	Y4
Whate'er their office whether to beguile	J2
Thoughts over busy in the course they took
Or animate an hour of vacant ease

William Wordsworth

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