The Defeat Of Youth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDBEFFEDDGHGH I JKKJLMMLBBNONO I BPBPQBQBRRSBSB T MCCMDUUDBBCCCC D LVVLWXXWYYBKBK Z VA2A2VCDB2CBBC2D2C2D 2 D DCCB2BRRBE2E2F2G2F2G 2 B BH2H2BDHHDI2I2WJ2WC2 D I2K2K2I2L2DDL2M2M2CD CD N2 O2I2I2O2DDDDP2P2DQ2D Q2 D N2DDN2R2CCR2DDK2RS2R D CDDCT2U2U2T2DDRDRD D RDDRV2W2W2V2A2A2RDRD D PDDPA2X2X2A2LLDA2DA2 D MA2B2MA2A2A2A2DDDPDP D CA2A2CDA2A2DV2V2A2DA 2D Y2 Y2A2A2Y2DDDDA2A2Z2A2 Z2A2 D A2A2A2A2A3RRA3B3B3A2 DA2D D K2A2A2K2A2A2A2A2DDDD DD A2 CDDCCRRCDDA2DA2D D DA2A2DC3A2A2C3D3E3A2 DA2D A2 DK2K2DA2V2V2A2F3F3A2 A2A2G3A2

I UNDER THE TREES	A
	-
There had been phantoms pale remembered shapes	B
Of this and this occasion sisterly	C
In their resemblances each effigy	D
Crowned with the same bright hair above the nape's	B
White rounded firmness and each body alert	E
With such swift loveliness that very rest	F
Seemed a poised movement phantoms that impressed	F
But a faint influence and could bless or hurt	E
No more than dreams And these ghost things were she	D
For formless still without identity	D
Not one she seemed not clear but many and dim	G
One face among the legions of the street	H
Indifferent mystery she was for him	G
Something still uncreated incomplete	H
	-
	-
II	I
	-
Bright windy sunshine and the shadow of cloud	J
Quicken the heavy summer to new birth	K
Of life and motion on the drowsing earth	K
The huge elms stir till all the air is loud	J
With their awakening from the muffled sleep	L
Of long hot days And on the wavering line	M
That marks the alternate ebb of shade and shine	M
Under the trees a little group is deep	L
In laughing talk The shadow as it flows	B
Across them dims the lustre of a rose	B
Quenches the bright clear gold of hair the green	N
Of a girl's dress and life seems faint The light	O
Swings back and in the rose a fire is seen	N
Gold hair's aflame and green grows emerald bright	O
	-
	-
III	I
	-
She leans and there is laughter in the face	B
She turns towards him and it seems a door	P
Suddenly opened on some desolate place	B
With a burst of light and music What before	P
Was hidden shines in loveliness revealed	Q
Now first he sees her beautiful and knows	B
That he must love her and the doom is sealed	Q
Of all his happiness and all the woes	B
That shall be born of pregnant years hereafter	R
The swift poise of a head a flutter of laughter	R
And love flows in on him its vastness pent	S
Within his narrow life the pain it brings	B
Boundless for love is infinite discontent	S
With the poor lonely life of transient things	B
	-
	-
IV	T
	-
Men see their god an immanence divine	M
Smile through the curve of flesh or moulded clay	C
In bare ploughed lands that go sloping away	C
To meet the sky in one clean exquisite line	M
Out of the short seen dawns of ecstasy	D
They draw new beauty whence new thoughts are born	U
And in their turn conceive as grains of corn	U
Germ and create new life and endlessly	D
Shall live creating Out of earthly seeds	B
Springs the aerial flower One spirit proceeds	B
Through change the same in body and in soul	C
The spirit of life and love that triumphs still	C
In its slow struggle towards some far off goal	C
Through lust and death and the bitterness of will	C
	-
	-
V	D
	-
One spirit it is that stirs the fathomless deep	L
Of human minds that shakes the elms in storm	V
That sings in passionate music or on warm	V
Still evenings bosoms forth the tufted sleep	L
Of thistle seeds that wait a travelling wind	W
One spirit shapes the subtle rhythms of thought	X
And the long thundering seas the soul is wrought	X
Of one stuff with the body matter and mind	W
Woven together in so close a mesh	Y
That flowers may blossom into a song that flesh	Y
May strangely teach the loveliest holiest things	B
To watching spirits Truth is brought to birth	K
Not in some vacant heaven its beauty springs	B
From the dear bosom of material earth	K
	-
	-
VI IN THE HAY LOFT	Z
	-
The darkness in the loft is sweet and warm	V
With the stored hay darkness intensified	A2
By one bright shaft that enters through the wide	A2
Tall doors from under fringes of a storm	V
Which makes the doomed sun brighter On the hay	C
Perched mountain high they sit and silently	D
Watch the motes dance and look at the dark sky	B2
And mark how heartbreakingly far away	C
And yet how close and clear the distance seems	B
While all at hand is cloud brightness of dreams	B
Unrealisable yet seen so clear	C2
So only just beyond the dark They wait	D2
Scarce knowing what they wait for half in fear	C2
Expectance draws the curtain from their fate	D2
	-
	-
VII	D
	-
The silence of the storm weighs heavily	D
On their strained spirits sometimes one will say	C
Some trivial thing as though to ward away	C
Mysterious powers that imminently lie	B2
In wait with the strong exorcising grace	B
Of everyday's futility Desire	R
Becomes upon a sudden a crystal fire	R
Defined and hard If he could kiss her face	B
Could kiss her hair As if by chance her hand	E2
Brushes on his Ah can she understand	E2
Or is she pedestalled above the touch	F2
Of his desire He wonders dare he seek	G2
From her that little that infinitely much	F2
And suddenly she kissed him on the cheek	G2
	-
	-
VIII MOUNTAINS	B
	-
A stronger gust catches the cloud and twists	B
A spindle of rifted darkness through its heart	H2
A gash in the damp grey which thrust apart	H2
Reveals black depths a moment Then the mists	B
Shut down again a white uneasy sea	D
Heaves round the climbers and beneath their feet	H
He strains on upwards through the wind and sleet	H
Poised or swift moving or laboriously	D
Lifting his weight And if he should let go	I2
What would he find down there down there below	I2
The curtain of the mist What would he find	W
Beyond the dim and stifling now and here	J2
Beneath the unsettled turmoil of his mind	W
Oh there were nameless depths he shrank with fear	C2
	-
	-
IX	D
	-
The hills more glorious in their coat of snow	I2
Rise all around him in the valleys run	K2
Bright streams and there are lakes that catch the sun	K2
And sunlit fields of emerald far below	I2
That seem alive with inward light In smoke	L2
The far horizons fade and there is peace	D
On everything a sense of blessed release	D
From wilful strife Like some prophetic cloak	L2
The spirit of the mountains has descended	M2
On all the world and its unrest is ended	M2
Even the sea glimpsed far away seems still	C
Hushed to a silver peace its storm and strife	D
Mountains of vision calm above fate and will	C
You hold the promise of the freer life	D
	-
	-
X IN THE LITTLE ROOM	N2
	-
London unfurls its incense coloured dusk	O2
Before the panes rich but a while ago	I2
With the charred gold and the red ember glow	I2
Of dying sunset Houses quit the husk	O2
Of secrecy which through the day returns	D
A blank to all enquiry but at nights	D
The cheerfulness of fire and lamp invites	D
The darkness inward curious of what burns	D
With such a coloured life when all is dead	P2
The daylight world outside with overhead	P2
White clouds and where we walk the blaze	D
Of wet and sunlit streets shops and the stream	Q2
Of glittering traffic all that the nights erase	D
Colour and speed surviving but in dream	Q2
	-
	-
XI	D
	-
Outside the dusk but in the little room	N2
All is alive with light which brightly glints	D
On curving cup or the stiff folds of chintz	D
Evoking its own whiteness Shadows loom	N2
Bulging and black upon the walls where hang	R2
Rich coloured plates of beauties that appeal	C
Less to the sense of sight than to the feel	C
So moistly satin are their breasts A pang	R2
Almost of pain runs through him when he sees	D
Hanging a homeless marvel next to these	D
The silken breastplate of a mandarin	K2
Centuries dead which he had given her	R
Exquisite miracle when men could spin	S2
Jay's wing and belly of the kingfisher	R
	-
	-
XII	D
	-
In silence and as though expectantly	C
She crouches at his feet while he caresses	D
His light drawn fingers with the touch of tresses	D
Sleeked round her head close banded lustrously	C
Save where at nape and temple the smooth brown	T2
Sleaves out into a pale transparent mist	U2
Of hair and tangled light So to exist	U2
Poised 'twixt the deep of thought where spirits drown	T2
Life in a void impalpable nothingness	D
And on the other side the pain and stress	D
Of clamorous action and the gnawing fire	R
Of will focal upon a point of earth even thus	D
To sit eternally without desire	R
And yet self known were happiness for us	D
	-
	-
XIII	D
	-
She turns her head and in a flash of laughter	R
Looks up at him and helplessly he feels	D
That life has circled with returning wheels	D
Back to a starting point Before and after	R
Merge in this instant momently the same	V2
For it was thus she leaned and laughing turned	W2
When manifest the spirit of beauty burned	W2
In her young body with an inward flame	V2
And first he knew and loved her In full tide	A2
Life halts within him suddenly stupefied	A2
Sight blackness lightning struck but blindly tender	R
He draws her up to meet him and she lies	D
Close folded by his arms in glad surrender	R
Smiling and with drooped head and half closed eyes	D
	-
	-
XIV	D
	-
I give you all would that I might give more	P
He sees the colour dawn across her cheeks	D
And die again to white marks as she speaks	D
The trembling of her lips as though she bore	P
Some sudden pain and hardly mastered it	A2
Within his arms he feels her shuddering	X2
Piteously trembling like some wild wood thing	X2
Caught unawares Compassion infinite	A2
Mounts up within him Thus to hold and keep	L
And comfort her distressed lull her to sleep	L
And gently kiss her brow and hair and eyes	D
Seems love perfected templed high and white	A2
Against the calm of golden autumn skies	D
And shining quenchlessly with vestal light	A2
	-
	-
XV	D
	-
But passion ambushed by the aerial shrine	M
Comes forth to dance a hoofed obscenity	A2
His satyr's dance with laughter in his eye	B2
And cruelty along the scarlet line	M
Of his bright smiling mouth All uncontrolled	A2
Love's rebel servant he delights to beat	A2
The maddening quick dry rhythm of goatish feet	A2
Even in the sanctuary and makes bold	A2
To mime himself the godhead of the place	D
He turns in terror from her trance calmed face	D
From the white lidded languor of her eyes	D
From lips that passion never shook before	P
But glad in the promise of her sacrifice	D
I give you all would that I might give more	P
	-
	-
XVI	D
	-
He is afraid seeing her lie so still	C
So utterly his own afraid lest she	A2
Should open wide her eyes and let him see	A2
The passionate conquest of her virgin will	C
Shine there in triumph starry bright with tears	D
He thrusts her from him face and hair and breast	A2
Hands he had touched lips that his lips had pressed	A2
Seem things deadly to be desired He fears	D
Lest she should body forth in palpable shame	V2
Those dreams and longings that his blood aflame	V2
Through the hot dark of summer nights had dreamed	A2
And longed Must all his love then turn to this	D
Was lust the end of what so pure had seemed	A2
He must escape ah God her touch her kiss	D
	-
	-
XVII IN THE PARK	Y2
	-
Laughing To night I said to him the Park	Y2
Has turned the garden of a symbolist	A2
Those old great trees that rise above the mist	A2
Gold with the light of evening and the dark	Y2
Still water where the dying sun evokes	D
An echoed glory here I recognize	D
Those ancient gardens mirrored by the eyes	D
Of poets that hate the world of common folks	D
Like you and me and that thin pious crowd	A2
Which yonder sings its hymns so humbly proud	A2
Of holiness The garden of escape	Z2
Lies here a small green world and still the bride	A2
Of quietness although an imminent rape	Z2
Roars ceaselessly about on every side	A2
	-
	-
XVIII	D
	-
I had forgotten what I had lightly said	A2
And without speech without a thought I went	A2
Steeped in that golden quiet all content	A2
To drink the transient beauty as it sped	A2
Out of eternal darkness into time	A3
To light and burn and know itself a fire	R
Yet doomed ah fate of the fulfilled desire	R
To fade a meteor paying for the crime	A3
Of living glorious in the denser air	B3
Of our material earth A strange despair	B3
An agony yet strangely subtly sweet	A2
And tender as an unpassionate caress	D
Filled me Oh laughter youth's conceit	A2
Grown almost conscious of youth's feebleness	D
	-
	-
XIX	D
	-
He spoke abrupt across my dream Dear Garden	K2
A stranger to your magic peace I stand	A2
Beyond your walls lost in a fevered land	A2
Of stones and fire Would that the gods would harden	K2
My soul against its torment or would blind	A2
Those yearning glimpses of a life at rest	A2
In perfect beauty glimpses at the best	A2
Through unpassed bars And here without the wind	A2
Of scattering passion blows and women pass	D
Glitter eyed down putrid alleys where the glass	D
Of some grimed window suddenly parades	D
Ah sickening heart beat of desire the grace	D
Of bare and milk warm flesh the vision fades	D
And at the pane shows a blind tortured face	D
	-
	-
XX SELF TORMENT	A2
	-
The days pass by empty of thought and will	C
His thought grows stagnant at its very springs	D
With every channel on the world of things	D
Dammed up and thus by its long standing still	C
Poisons itself and sickens to decay	C
All his high love for her his fair desire	R
Loses its light and a dull rancorous fire	R
Burning darkness and bitterness that prey	C
Upon his heart are left His spirit burns	D
Sometimes with hatred or the hatred turns	D
To a fierce lust for her more cruel than hate	A2
Till he is weary wrestling with its force	D
And evermore she haunts him early and late	A2
As pitilessly as an old remorse	D
	-
	-
XXI	D
	-
Streets and the solitude of country places	D
Were once his friends But as a man born blind	A2
Opening his eyes from lovely dreams might find	A2
The world a desert and men's larval faces	D
So hateful he would wish to seek again	C3
The darkness and his old chimeric sight	A2
Of beauties inward so that fresh delight	A2
Vision of bright fields and angelic men	C3
That love which made him all the world is gone	D3
Hating and hated now he stands alone	E3
An island point measureless gulfs apart	A2
From other lives from the old happiness	D
Of being more than self when heart to heart	A2
Gave all yet grew the greater not the less	D
	-
	-
XXII THE QUARRY IN THE WOOD	A2
	-
Swiftly deliberate he seeks the place	D
A small wind stirs the copse is bright in the sun	K2
Like quicksilver the shine and shadow run	K2
Across the leaves A bramble whips his face	D
The tears spring fast and through the rainbow mist	A2
He sees a world that wavers like the flame	V2
Of a blown candle Tears of pain and shame	V2
And lips that once had laughed and sung and kissed	A2
Trembling in the passion of his sobbing breath	F3
The world a candle shuddering to its death	F3
And life a darkness blind and utterly void	A2
Of any love or goodness all deceit	A2
This friendship and this God all shams destroyed	A2
And truth seen now	G3
Earth fails beneath his feet	A2

Aldous Leonard Huxley

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