The Deserted Garden Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABABCC DEDEDEFF GHGHGHII JKJKJKLL FEFMFMNN OPOPOOKK QOQOQOOO OEOEOERR STSTSTUU OVOVOVWK EXEXEXOO EYEZEZRR OUOUOA2OO OEOEOEB2B2 C2D2E2D2C2D2OO CA2CUCA2F2F2 G2H2G2H2G2I2J2J2 EK2EL2EK2HH M2N2M2N2M2N2O2T RJ2RJ2RJ2J2J2 NENENEP2P2 J2SJ2SJ2SJ2J2 RQ2RQ2RQ2YZ BD2BD2BD2B2B2 J2J2J2J2J2J2R2R2 S2D2S2D2S2D2J2J2 J2J2J2J2J2J2YY J2A2J2A2J2UEE B2J2B2J2B2J2CT2 TU2TM2O2M2V2W2 MJ2MJ2MJ2KK J2J2J2J2J2J2BB X2J2X2J2X2J2B2B2 Y2EY2EY2EJ2J2 K2EK2EK2EJ2J2 B2LB2Z2B2Z2A3A3 N2O2N2O2N2TB3B3 EBEBEA3D2D2 C3UD3UP2UM2M2 MJ2MJ2MJ2E3E3 E3E3E3E3E3E3J2J2 EREREREE ENENENJ2J2 RD2RD2RD2J2J2 E3RE3RE3RE3E3 E3F3E3F3E3F3J2J2 J2E3J2E3J2E3G3G3 E3EE3EE3ETT F3J2F3J2F3J2MM RJ2RJ2RJ2EE

I know a village in a far off land	A
Where from a sunny mountain girdled plain	B
With tinted walls a space on either hand	A
And fed by many an olive darkened lane	B
The high road mounts and thence a silver band	A
Through vineyard slopes above and rolling grain	B
Winds off to that dim corner of the skies	C
Where behind sunset hills a stately city lies	C
	-
Here among trees whose overhanging shade	D
Strews petals on the little droves below	E
Pattering townward in the morning weighed	D
With greens from many an upland garden row	E
Runs an old wall long centuries have frayed	D
Its scalloped edge and passers to and fro	E
Heard never from beyond its crumbling height	F
Sweet laughter ring at noon or plaintive song at night	F
	-
But here where little lizards bask and blink	G
The tendrils of the trumpet vine have run	H
At whose red bells the humming bird to drink	G
Stops oft before his garden feast is done	H
And rose geraniums with that tender pink	G
That cloud banks borrow from the setting sun	H
Have covered part of this old wall entwined	I
With fair plumbago blue as evening heavens behind	I
	-
And crowning other parts the wild white rose	J
Rivals the honey suckle with the bees	K
Above the old abandoned orchard shows	J
And all within beneath the dense set trees	K
Tall and luxuriant the rank grass grows	J
That settled in its wavy depth one sees	K
Grass melt in leaves the mossy trunks between	L
Down fading avenues of implicated green	L
	-
Wherein no lack of flowers the verdurous night	F
With stars and pearly nebula o'erlay	E
Azalea boughs half rosy and half white	F
Shine through the green and clustering apple spray	M
Such as the fairy queen before her knight	F
Waved in old story luring him away	M
Where round lost isles Hesperian billows break	N
Or towers loom up beneath the clear translucent lake	N
	-
And under the deep grass blue hare bells hide	O
And myrtle plots with dew fall ever wet	P
Gay tiger lilies flammulate and pied	O
Sometime on pathway borders neatly set	P
Now blossom through the brake on either side	O
Where heliotrope and weedy mignonette	O
With vines in bloom and flower bearing trees	K
Mingle their incense all to swell the perfumed breeze	K
	-
That sprung like Hermes from his natal cave	Q
In some blue rampart of the curving West	O
Comes up the valleys where green cornfields wave	Q
Ravels the cloud about the mountain crest	O
Breathes on the lake till gentle ripples pave	Q
Its placid floor at length a long loved guest	O
He steals across this plot of pleasant ground	O
Waking the vocal leaves to a sweet vernal sound	O
	-
Here many a day right gladly have I sped	O
Content amid the wavy plumes to lie	E
And through the woven branches overhead	O
Watch the white ever wandering clouds go by	E
And soaring birds make their dissolving bed	O
Far in the azure depths of summer sky	E
Or nearer that small huntsman of the air	R
The fly catcher dart nimbly from his leafy lair	R
	-
Pillowed at ease to hear the merry tune	S
Of mating warblers in the boughs above	T
And shrill cicadas whom the hottest noon	S
Keeps not from drowsy song the mourning dove	T
Pours down the murmuring grove his plaintive croon	S
That like the voice of visionary love	T
Oft have I risen to seek through this green maze	U
Even as my feet thread now the great world's garden ways	U
	-
And parting tangled bushes as I passed	O
Down beechen alleys beautiful and dim	V
Perhaps by some deep shaded pool at last	O
My feet would pause where goldfish poise and swim	V
And snowy callas' velvet cups are massed	O
Around the mossy fern encircled brim	V
Here then that magic summoning would cease	W
Or sound far off again among the orchard trees	K
	-
And here where the blanched lilies of the vale	E
And violets and yellow star flowers teem	X
And pink and purple hyacinths exhale	E
Their heavy fume once more to drowse and dream	X
My head would sink from many an olden tale	E
Drawing imagination's fervid theme	X
Or haply peopling this enchanting spot	O
Only with fair creations of fantastic thought	O
	-
For oft I think in years long since gone by	E
That gentle hearts dwelt here and gentle hands	Y
Stored all this bowery bliss to beautify	E
The paradise of some unsung romance	Z
Here safe from all except the loved one's eye	E
'Tis sweet to think white limbs were wont to glance	Z
Well pleased to wanton like the flowers and share	R
Their simple loveliness with the enamored air	R
	-
Thrice dear to them whose votive fingers decked	O
The altars of First Love were these green ways	U
These lawns and verdurous brakes forever flecked	O
With the warm sunshine of midsummer days	U
Oft where the long straight allies intersect	O
And marble seats surround the open space	A2
Where a tiled pool and sculptured fountain stand	O
Hath Evening found them seated silent hand in hand	O
	-
When twilight deepened in the gathering shade	O
Beneath that old titanic cypress row	E
Whose sombre vault and towering colonnade	O
Dwarfed the enfolded forms that moved below	E
Oft with close steps these happy lovers strayed	O
Till down its darkening aisle the sunset glow	E
Grew less and patterning the garden floor	B2
Faint flakes of filtering moonlight mantled more and more	B2
	-
And the strange tempest that a touch imparts	C2
Through the mid fibre of the molten frame	D2
When the sweet flesh in early youth asserts	E2
Its heyday verve and little hints enflame	D2
Disturbed them as they walked from their full hearts	C2
Welled the soft word and many a tender name	D2
Strove on their lips as breast to breast they strained	O
And the deep joy they drank seemed never never drained	O
	-
Love's soul that is the depth of starry skies	C
Set in the splendor of one upturned face	A2
To beam adorably through half closed eyes	C
Love's body where the breadth of summer days	U
And all the beauty earth and air comprise	C
Come to the compass of an arm's embrace	A2
To burn a moment on impassioned lips	F2
And yield intemperate joy to quivering finger tips	F2
	-
They knew and here where morning glories cling	G2
Round carven forms of carefullest artifice	H2
They made a bower where every outward thing	G2
Should comment on the cause of their own bliss	H2
With flowers of liveliest hue encompassing	G2
That flower that the beloved body is	I2
That rose that for the banquet of Love's bee	J2
Has budded all the aeons of past eternity	J2
	-
But their choice seat was where the garden wall	E
Crowning a little summit far and near	K2
Looks over tufted treetops onto all	E
The pleasant outer country rising here	L2
From rustling foliage where cuckoos call	E
On summer evenings stands a belvedere	K2
Buff hued of antique plaster overrun	H
With flowering vines and weatherworn by rain and sun	H
	-
Still round the turrets of this antique tower	M2
The bougainvillea hangs a crimson crown	N2
Wistaria vines and clematis in flower	M2
Wreathing the lower surface further down	N2
Hide the old plaster in a very shower	M2
Of motley blossoms like a broidered gown	N2
Outside ascending from the garden grove	O2
A crumbling stairway winds to the one room above	T
	-
And whoso mounts by this dismantled stair	R
Finds the old pleasure hall long disarrayed	J2
Brick tiled and raftered and the walls foursquare	R
Ringed all about with a twofold arcade	J2
Backward dense branches intercept the glare	R
Of afternoon with eucalyptus shade	J2
Eastward the level valley plains expand	J2
Sweet as a queen's survey of her own Fairyland	J2
	-
For through that frame the ivied arches make	N
Wide tracts of sunny midland charm the eye	E
Frequent with hamlet grove and lucent lake	N
Where the blue hills' inverted contours lie	E
Far to the east where billowy mountains break	N
In surf of snow against a sapphire sky	E
Huge thunderheads loom up behind the ranges	P2
Changing from gold to pink as deepening sunset changes	P2
	-
And over plain and far sierra spread	J2
The fulgent rays of fading afternoon	S
Showing each utmost peak and watershed	J2
All clarified each tassel and festoon	S
Of floating cloud embroidered overhead	J2
Like lotus leaves on bluest waters strewn	S
Flushing with rose while all breathes fresh and free	J2
In peace and amplitude and bland tranquillity	J2
	-
Dear were such evenings to this gentle pair	R
Love's tide that launched on with a blast too strong	Q2
Sweeps toward the foaming reef the hidden snare	R
Baffling with fond illusion's siren song	Q2
Too faint on idle shoals to linger there	R
Far from Youth's glowing dream bore them along	Q2
With purple sail and steered by seraph hands	Y
To isles resplendent in the sunset of romance	Z
	-
And out of this old house a flowery fane	B
A bridal bower a pearly pleasure dome	D2
They built and furnished it with gold and grain	B
And bade all spirits of beauty hither come	D2
And winged Love to enter with his train	B
And bless their pillow and in this his home	D2
Make them his priests as Hero was of yore	B2
In her sweet girlhood by the blue Dardanian shore	B2
	-
Tree ferns therefore and potted palms they brought	J2
Tripods and urns in rare and curious taste	J2
Polychrome chests and cabinets inwrought	J2
With pearl and ivory etched and interlaced	J2
Pendant brocades with massive braid were caught	J2
And chain slung oriental lamps so placed	J2
To light the lounger on some low divan	R2
Sunken in swelling down and silks from Hindustan	R2
	-
And there was spread upon the ample floors	S2
Work of the Levantine's laborious loom	D2
Such as by Euxine or Ionian shores	S2
Carpets the dim seraglio's scented gloom	D2
Each morn renewed the garden's flowery stores	S2
Blushed in fair vases ochre and peach bloom	D2
And little birds through wicker doors left wide	J2
Flew in to trill a space from the green world outside	J2
	-
And there was many a dainty attitude	J2
Bronze and eburnean All but disarrayed	J2
Here in eternal doubt sweet Psyche stood	J2
Fain of the bath's delight yet still afraid	J2
Lest aught in that palatial solitude	J2
Lurked of most menace to a helpless maid	J2
Therefore forever faltering she stands	Y
Nor yet the last loose fold slips rippling from her hands	Y
	-
Close by upon a beryl column clad	J2
In the fresh flower of adolescent grace	A2
They set the dear Bithynian shepherd lad	J2
The nude Antinous That gentle face	A2
Forever beautiful forever sad	J2
Shows but one aspect moon like to our gaze	U
Yet Fancy pictures how those lips could smile	E
At revelries in Rome and banquets on the Nile	E
	-
And there were shapes of Beauty myriads more	B2
Clustering their rosy bridal bed around	J2
Whose scented breadth a silken fabric wore	B2
Broidered with peacock hues on creamiest ground	J2
Fit to have graced the barge that Cydnus bore	B2
Or Venus' bed in her enchanted mound	J2
While pillows swelled in stuffs of Orient dyes	C
All broidered with strange fruits and birds of Paradise	T2
	-
'Twas such a bower as Youth has visions of	T
Thither with one fair spirit to retire	U2
Lie upon rose leaves sleep and wake with Love	T
And feast on kisses to the heart's desire	M2
Where by a casement opening on a grove	O2
Wide to the wood winds and the sweet birds' choir	M2
A girl might stand and gaze into green boughs	V2
Like Credhe at the window of her golden house	W2
	-
Or most like Vivien the enchanting fay	M
Where with her friend in the strange tower they planned	J2
She lies and dreams eternity away	M
Above the treetops in Broceliande	J2
Sometimes at twilight when the woods are gray	M
And wolf packs howl far out across the lande	J2
Waking to love while up behind the trees	K
The large midsummer moon lifts even so loved these	K
	-
For here their pleasure was to come and sit	J2
Oft when the sun sloped midway to the west	J2
Watching with sweet enjoyment interknit	J2
The long light slant across the green earth's breast	J2
And clouds upon the ranges opposite	J2
Rolled up into a gleaming thundercrest	J2
Topple and break and fall in purple rain	B
And mist of summer showers trail out across the plain	B
	-
Whereon the shafts of ardent light far flung	X2
Across the luminous azure overhead	J2
Ofttimes in arcs of transient beauty hung	X2
The fragmentary rainbow's green and red	J2
Joy it was here to love and to be young	X2
To watch the sun sink to his western bed	J2
And streaming back out of their flaming core	B2
The vesperal aurora's glorious banners soar	B2
	-
Tinging each altitude of heaven in turn	Y2
Those fiery rays would sweep The cumuli	E
That peeped above the mountain tops would burn	Y2
Carmine a space the cirrus whorls on high	E
More delicate than sprays of maiden fern	Y2
Streak with pale rose the peacock breasted sky	E
Then blanch As water lilies fold at night	J2
Sank back into themselves those plumes of fervid light	J2
	-
And they would watch the first faint stars appear	K2
The blue East blend with the blue hills below	E
As lovers when their shuddering bliss draws near	K2
Into one pulse of fluid rapture grow	E
New fragrance on the freshening atmosphere	K2
Would steal with evening and the sunset glow	E
Draw deeper down into the wondrous west	J2
Round vales of Proserpine and islands of the blest	J2
	-
So dusk would come and mingle lake and shore	B2
The snow peaks fade to frosty opaline	L
To pearl the domed clouds the mountains bore	B2
Where late the sun's effulgent fire had been	Z2
Showing as darkness deepened more and more	B2
The incandescent lightnings flare within	Z2
And Night that furls the lily in the glen	A3
And twines impatient arms would fall and then and then	A3
	-
Sometimes the peasant coming late from town	N2
With empty panniers on his little drove	O2
Past the old lookout when the Northern Crown	N2
Glittered with Cygnus through the scented grove	O2
Would hear soft noise of lute strings wafted down	N2
And voices singing through the leaves above	T
Those songs that well from the warm heart that woos	B3
At balconies in Merida or Vera Cruz	B3
	-
And he would pause under the garden wall	E
Caught in the spell of that voluptuous strain	B
With all the sultry South in it and all	E
Its importunity of love and pain	B
And he would wait till the last passionate fall	E
Died on the night and all was still again	A3
Then to his upland village wander home	D2
Marvelling whence that flood of elfin song might come	D2
	-
O lyre that Love's white holy hands caress	C3
Youth from thy bosom welled their passionate lays	U
Sweet opportunity for happiness	D3
So brief so passing beautiful O days	U
When to the heart's divine indulgences	P2
All earth in smiling ministration pays	U
Thine was the source whose plenitude past over	M2
What prize shall rest to pluck what secret to discover	M2
	-
The wake of color that follows her when May	M
Walks on the hills loose haired and daisy crowned	J2
The deep horizons of a summer's day	M
Fair cities and the pleasures that abound	J2
Where music calls and crowds in bright array	M
Gather by night to find and to be found	J2
What were these worth or all delightful things	E3
Without thine eyes to read their true interpretings	E3
	-
For thee the mountains open glorious gates	E3
To thee white arms put out from orient skies	E3
Earth like a jewelled bride for one she waits	E3
Decks but to be delicious in thine eyes	E3
Thou guest of honor for one day whose fetes	E3
Eternity has travailed to devise	E3
Ah grace them well in the brief hour they last	J2
Another's turn prepares another follows fast	J2
	-
Yet not without one fond memorial	E
Let my sun set who found the world so fair	R
Frail verse when Time the singer's coronal	E
Has rent and stripped the rose leaves from his hair	R
Be thou my tablet on the temple wall	E
Among the pious testimonials there	R
Witness how sweetly on my heart as well	E
The miracles of dawn and starry evening fell	E
	-
Speak of one then who had the lust to feel	E
And from the hues that far horizons take	N
And cloud and sunset drank the wild appeal	E
Too deep to live for aught but life's sweet sake	N
Whose only motive was the will to kneel	E
Where Beauty's purest benediction spake	N
Who only coveted what grove and field	J2
And sunshine and green Earth and tender arms could yield	J2
	-
A nympholept through pleasant days and drear	R
Seeking his faultless adolescent dream	D2
A pilgrim down the paths that disappear	R
In mist and rainbows on the world's extreme	D2
A helpless voyager who all too near	R
The mouth of Life's fair flower bordered stream	D2
Clutched at Love's single respite in his need	J2
More than the drowning swimmer clutches at a reed	J2
	-
That coming one whose feet in other days	E3
Shall bleed like mine for ever having more	R
Than any purpose felt the need to praise	E3
And seek the angelic image to adore	R
In love with Love its wonderful sweet ways	E3
Counting what most makes life worth living for	R
That so some relic may be his to see	E3
How I loved these things too and they were dear to me	E3
	-
I sometimes think a conscious happiness	E3
Mantles through all the rose's sentient vine	F3
When summer winds with myriad calyces	E3
Of bloom its clambering height incarnadine	F3
I sometimes think that cleaving lips no less	E3
And limbs that crowned desires at length entwine	F3
Are nerves through which that being drinks delight	J2
Whose frame is the green Earth robed round with day and night	J2
	-
And such were theirs the traveller without	J2
Pausing at night under the orchard trees	E3
Wondered and crossed himself in holy doubt	J2
For through their song and in the murmuring breeze	E3
It seemed angelic choirs were all about	J2
Mingling in universal harmonies	E3
As though responsive to the chords they woke	G3
All Nature into sweet epithalamium broke	G3
	-
And still they think a spirit haunts the place	E3
'Tis said when Night has drawn her jewelled pall	E
And through the branches twinkling fireflies trace	E3
Their mimic constellations if it fall	E
That one should see the moon rise through the lace	E3
Of blossomy boughs above the garden wall	E
That surely would he take great ill thereof	T
And famish in a fit of unexpressive love	T
	-
But this I know not for what time the wain	F3
Was loosened and the lily's petal furled	J2
Then I would rise climb the old wall again	F3
And pausing look forth on the sundown world	J2
Scan the wide reaches of the wondrous plain	F3
The hamlet sites where settling smoke lay curled	J2
The poplar bordered roads and far away	M
Fair snowpeaks colored with the sun's last ray	M
	-
Waves of faint sound would pulsate from afar	R
Faint song and preludes of the summer night	J2
Deep in the cloudless west the evening star	R
Hung 'twixt the orange and the emerald light	J2
From the dark vale where shades crepuscular	R
Dimmed the old grove girt belfry glimmering white	J2
Throbbing as gentlest breezes rose or fell	E
Came the sweet invocation of the evening bell	E

Alan Seeger

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