The Nympholept Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFFGGBBHHI IJJKKLLMNOOOOBBOOPPQ QBBRRSSTT| There was a boy not above childish fears | A |
| With steps that faltered now and straining ears | A |
| Timid irresolute yet dauntless still | B |
| Who one bright dawn when each remotest hill | B |
| Stood sharp and clear in Heaven's unclouded blue | C |
| And all Earth shimmered with fresh beaded dew | C |
| Risen in the first beams of the gladdening sun | D |
| Walked up into the mountains One by one | D |
| Each towering trunk beneath his sturdy stride | E |
| Fell back and ever wider and more wide | E |
| The boundless prospect opened Long he strayed | F |
| From dawn till the last trace of slanting shade | F |
| Had vanished from the canyons and dismayed | F |
| At that far length to which his path had led | G |
| He paused at such a height where overhead | G |
| The clouds hung close the air came thin and chill | B |
| And all was hushed and calm and very still | B |
| Save from abysmal gorges where the sound | H |
| Of tumbling waters rose and all around | H |
| The pines by those keen upper currents blown | I |
| Muttered in multitudinous monotone | I |
| Here with the wind in lovely locks laid bare | J |
| With arms oft raised in dedicative prayer | J |
| Lost in mute rapture and adoring wonder | K |
| He stood till the far noise of noontide thunder | K |
| Rolled down upon the muffled harmonies | L |
| Of wind and waterfall and whispering trees | L |
| Made loneliness more lone Some Panic fear | M |
| Would seize him then as they who seemed to hear | N |
| In Tracian valleys or Thessalian woods | O |
| The god's hallooing wake the leafy solitudes | O |
| I think it was the same some piercing sense | O |
| Of Deity's pervasive immanence | O |
| The Life that visible Nature doth indwell | B |
| Grown great and near and all but palpable | B |
| He might not linger but with winged strides | O |
| Like one pursued fled down the mountain sides | O |
| Down the long ridge that edged the steep ravine | P |
| By glade and flowery lawn and upland green | P |
| And never paused nor felt assured again | Q |
| But where the grassy foothills opened Then | Q |
| While shadows lengthened on the plain below | B |
| And the sun vanished and the sunset glow | B |
| Looked back upon the world with fervid eye | R |
| Through the barred windows of the western sky | R |
| Homeward he fared while many a look behind | S |
| Showed the receding ranges dim outlined | S |
| Highland and hollow where his path had lain | T |
| Veiled in deep purple of the mountain rain | T |
Alan Seeger
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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