Laurel · Thomas Campbell · The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems

Love and Madness. An Elegy. Written in 1795

iambic pentameter · heroic couplets · 72 lines · from The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems

Hark! from the battlements of yonder towerThe solemn bell has tolled the midnight hour!Roused from drear visions of distempered sleep,Poor Broderick wakes—in solitude to weep!

“Cease, Memory, cease,” the friendless mourner cried,“To probe the bosom too severely tried!Oh! ever cease, my pensive thoughts, to strayThrough the bright fields of Fortune’s better dayWhen youthful Hope, the music of the mind,Tuned all its charms, and Errington was kind!

“Yet, can I cease, while glows this trembling frame,In sighs to speak thy melancholy name?I hear thy spirit wail in every storm!In midnight shades I view thy passing form!Pale as in that sad hour when doomed to feel,Deep in thy perjured heart, the bloody steel!

“Demons of Vengeance! ye at whose commandI grasped the sword with more than woman’s hand.Say ye, did Pity’s trembling voice control,Or horror damp the purpose of my soul?No! my wild heart sat smiling o’er the plan,Till Hate fulfilled what baffled Love began!

“Yes; let the clay-cold breast that never knewOne tender pang to generous Nature true,Half-mingling pity with the gall of scorn,Condemn this heart, that bled in love forlorn!

“And ye, proud fair, whose soul no gladness warms,Save Rapture’s homage to your conscious charms!Delighted idols of a gaudy train,Ill can your blunter feelings guess the pain,When the fond faithful heart, inspired to proveFriendship refined, the calm delight of love,Feels all its tender strings with anguish torn,And bleeds at perjured Pride’s inhuman scorn!

“Say, then, did pitying Heaven condemn the deed,When Vengeance bade thee, faithless lover! bleed?Long had I watched thy dark foreboding brow,What time thy bosom scorned its dearest vow!Sad, though I wept the friend, the lover changed,Still thy cold look was scornful and estranged,Till from thy pity, love, and shelter thrown,I wandered hopeless, friendless, and alone!

“Oh! righteous Heaven! ’twas then my tortured soulFirst gave to wrath unlimited control!Adieu the silent look! the streaming eye!The murmured plaint! the deep heart-heaving sighLong-slumbering Vengeance wakes to better deeds;He shrieks, he falls, the perjured lover bleeds!Now the last laugh of agony is o’er,And pale in blood he sleeps, to wake no more!

“’Tis done! the flame of hate no longer burnsNature relents, but, ah! too late returns!Why does my soul this gush of fondness feel?Trembling and faint, I drop the guilty steel!Cold on my heart the hand of terror lies,And shades of horror close my languid eyes!

“Oh!’twas a deed of Murder’s deepest grain,Could Broderick’s soul so true to wrath remain?A friend long true, a once fond lover fell!—Where Love was fostered could not Pity dwell?

“Unhappy youth! while yon pale crescent glowsTo watch on silent nature’s deep repose,Thy sleepless spirit, breathing from the tomb,Foretells my fate, and summons me to come!Once more I see thy sheeted spectre stand,Roll the dim eye, and wave the paly hand!

“Soon may this fluttering spark of vital flameForsake its languid melancholy frame!Soon may these eyes their trembling lustre close,Welcome the dreamless night of long repose!Soon may this woe-worn spirit seek the bourneWhere, lulled to slumber, Grief forgets to mourn!”

Words in this poem 20

yonder adv.: At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
drear n.: Sadness; dismalness.
friendless a.: Destitute of friends; forsaken. [AS. freóndleás.]
mourner n.: One who mourns or is grieved at any misfortune, as the death of a friend.
perjured a.: Guilty of perjury; having sworn falsely; forsworn.
generous a.: Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
forlorn a.: Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
delighted a.: Endowed with delight.
pitying a.: Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
bade: A form of the pat tense of Bid.
streaming a.: Sending forth streams.
plaint n.: Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." [OE. plainte, pleynte, F. plainte, fr. L. plangere, planctum (plancta, fem. p.p.), to beat, beat the breast, lament. Cf. Complain, Plague, Plangent.]
fondness n.: The quality or state of being fond; foolishness.
dwell v. i.: To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
sleepless a.: Having no sleep; wakeful.
spectre n.: Something preternaturally visible; an apparition; a ghost; a phantom. [F. spectre, fr. L. spectrum an appearance, image, specter, fr. specere to look. See Spy, and cf. Spectrum.]
paly a.: Pale; wanting color; dim. Shak. Whittier. [From Pale, a.]
lustre n.: A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
dreamless a.: Free from, or without, dreams. Camden.
bourne n.: A stream or rivulet; a burn. [OE. burne, borne, AS. burna; akin to OS. brunno spring, G. born, brunnen, OHG. prunno, Goth. brunna, Icel. brunnr, and perh. to Gr. burn, v., because the source]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Love and Madness. An Elegy. Written in 1795 is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, Project Gutenberg ebook #59788; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Thomas Campbell, Love and Madness. An Elegy. Written in 1795, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/love-and-madness-an-elegy-written-in-1795.html, id L24431.

Form and metre

Love and Madness. An Elegy. Written in 1795 is 72 lines in 12 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 92% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).

See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

1 AABB tower^A · hour^A · sleep^B · weep^B
2 AABBCC cried^A · tried^A · stray^B · day^B · mind^C · kind^C
3 AABBCC frame^A · name^A · storm^B · form^B · feel^C · steel^C
4 AABBCC command^A · hand^A · control^B · soul^B · plan^C · began^C
5 AABB knew^A · true^A · scorn^B · forlorn^B
6 --AABBCC warms · charms · train^A · pain^A · prove^B · love^B · torn^C · scorn^C
7 AABBCCDD deed^A · bleed^A · brow^B · vow^B · changed^C · estranged^C · thrown^D · alone^D
8 AABBCC-- soul^A · control^A · eye^B · sigh^B · deeds^C · bleeds^C · o'er · more
9 AABBCC burns^A · returns^A · feel^B · steel^B · lies^C · eyes^C
10 AABB grain^A · remain^A · fell^B · dwell^B
11 AA--BB glows^A · repose^A · tomb · come · stand^B · hand^B
12 AABBCC flame^A · frame^A · close^B · repose^B · bourne^C · mourn^C

Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Hark! from the battlements of yonder tower	11	···/˘˘·/˘/˘
The solemn bell has tolled the midnight hour!	11	·/˘····/·/˘
Roused from drear visions of distempered sleep,	10	···/˘·˘/˘·
Poor Broderick wakes—in solitude to weep!	10	·/˘··/˘···
“Cease, Memory, cease,” the friendless mourner cried,	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
“To probe the bosom too severely tried!	10	···/˘·˘/˘·
Oh! ever cease, my pensive thoughts, to stray	10	·/˘··/˘···
Through the bright fields of Fortune’s better day	10	·····/˘/˘·
When youthful Hope, the music of the mind,	10	·/˘··/˘···
Tuned all its charms, and Errington was kind!	10	·····/˘˘··
“Yet, can I cease, while glows this trembling frame,	10	·······/˘·
In sighs to speak thy melancholy name?	10	·····/˘·˘·
I hear thy spirit wail in every storm!	10	···/··/˘˘·
In midnight shades I view thy passing form!	10	·/·····/˘·
Pale as in that sad hour when doomed to feel,	10	·····/····
Deep in thy perjured heart, the bloody steel!	10	···/˘··/˘·
“Demons of Vengeance! ye at whose command	10	/˘·/˘···˘/
I grasped the sword with more than woman’s hand.	10	·······/˘·
Say ye, did Pity’s trembling voice control,	10	···/˘/˘·˘/
Or horror damp the purpose of my soul?	10	·/˘··/˘···
No! my wild heart sat smiling o’er the plan,	10	·····/˘···
Till Hate fulfilled what baffled Love began!	10	··˘/·/˘·˘/
“Yes; let the clay-cold breast that never knew	10	·······/˘·
One tender pang to generous Nature true,	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
Half-mingling pity with the gall of scorn,	10	·/˘/˘·····
Condemn this heart, that bled in love forlorn!	10	˘/······˘/
“And ye, proud fair, whose soul no gladness warms,	10	·······/˘·
Save Rapture’s homage to your conscious charms!	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
Delighted idols of a gaudy train,	10	˘/˘/˘··/˘·
Ill can your blunter feelings guess the pain,	10	···/˘/˘···
When the fond faithful heart, inspired to prove	10	···/˘·˘/··
Friendship refined, the calm delight of love,	10	/˘˘/··˘/··
Feels all its tender strings with anguish torn,	10	···/˘··/˘·
And bleeds at perjured Pride’s inhuman scorn!	10	···/˘·˘/˘·
“Say, then, did pitying Heaven condemn the deed,	10	···/˘/˘/··
When Vengeance bade thee, faithless lover! bleed?	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
Long had I watched thy dark foreboding brow,	10	······˘/˘·
What time thy bosom scorned its dearest vow!	10	···/˘··/˘·
Sad, though I wept the friend, the lover changed,	10	·······/˘·
Still thy cold look was scornful and estranged,	10	·····/˘·˘/
Till from thy pity, love, and shelter thrown,	10	···/˘··/˘·
I wandered hopeless, friendless, and alone!	10	·/˘/˘/˘·˘/
“Oh! righteous Heaven! ’twas then my tortured soul	10	·/˘/···/˘·
First gave to wrath unlimited control!	10	····˘/˘˘˘/
Adieu the silent look! the streaming eye!	10	˘/·/˘··/˘·
The murmured plaint! the deep heart-heaving sigh	10	·/˘····/˘·
Long-slumbering Vengeance wakes to better deeds;	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
He shrieks, he falls, the perjured lover bleeds!	10	·····/˘/˘·
Now the last laugh of agony is o’er,	10	·····/˘˘··
And pale in blood he sleeps, to wake no more!	10	··········
“’Tis done! the flame of hate no longer burns	10	·······/˘·
Nature relents, but, ah! too late returns!	10	/˘˘/····˘/
Why does my soul this gush of fondness feel?	10	·······/˘·
Trembling and faint, I drop the guilty steel!	10	/˘·····/˘·
Cold on my heart the hand of terror lies,	10	·······/˘·
And shades of horror close my languid eyes!	10	···/˘··/˘·
“Oh!’twas a deed of Murder’s deepest grain,	10	·····/˘/˘·
Could Broderick’s soul so true to wrath remain?	10	·/˘·····˘/
A friend long true, a once fond lover fell!—	10	·······/˘·
Where Love was fostered could not Pity dwell?	10	···/˘··/˘·
“Unhappy youth! while yon pale crescent glows	10	˘/˘····/˘·
To watch on silent nature’s deep repose,	10	···/˘/˘·˘/
Thy sleepless spirit, breathing from the tomb,	10	·/˘/˘/˘···
Foretells my fate, and summons me to come!	10	˘/···/˘···
Once more I see thy sheeted spectre stand,	10	·····/˘/˘·
Roll the dim eye, and wave the paly hand!	10	·······/˘·
“Soon may this fluttering spark of vital flame	10	···/˘··/˘·
Forsake its languid melancholy frame!	10	˘/·/˘/˘·˘·
Soon may these eyes their trembling lustre close,	10	·····/˘/˘·
Welcome the dreamless night of long repose!	10	/˘·/˘···˘/
Soon may this woe-worn spirit seek the bourne	10	·····/˘···
Where, lulled to slumber, Grief forgets to mourn!”	10	···/˘·˘/··

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