A Letter From Italy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBCD AEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLJJM MNNOO ALLLLPIJJQQRRJSTTLLU UVVWW MJJJJXXYYZZNNFFKKA2A 2BBOOB2B2C2C2MM FKKLLGGD2D2LL MLLE2E2MMF2F2G2G2H2H 2I2F2J2J2JJK2K2BBL2L 2G2G2KKKCCM2M2N2N2FF QQ MO2O2P2P2L2L2QQQ2Q2Q 2Q2R2S2JJQ2Q2Q2Q2Q2Q 2UUQQJJLLQQFF MQ2Q2P2P2QQQ2Q2Q2Q2Q 2Q2QQD2O2Q2Q2UUO2O2U UUULLUU FQ2Q2Q2Q2FFQQT2T2I | A |
Lately when we wished good bye | A |
Underneath a gloomy sky | A |
Bear '' you said my love in mind | B |
Leaving me not quite behind | B |
And across the mountains send | C |
News and greeting to your friend '' | D |
- | |
II | A |
Swiftly though we did advance | E |
Through the rich flat fields of France | E |
Still the eye grew tired to see | F |
Patches of equality | F |
Nothing wanton waste or wild | G |
Women delving lonely child | G |
Tending cattle lank and lean | H |
Not a hedgerow to be seen | H |
Where the eglantine may ramble | I |
Or the vagrant unkempt bramble | I |
Might its flowers upon you press | J |
Simple sweet but profitless | J |
Jealous ditches straight and square | K |
Sordid comfort everywhere | K |
Pollard poplars stunted vine | L |
Nowhere happy pasturing kine | L |
Wandering in untended groups | J |
Through the uncut buttercups | J |
All things pruned to pile the shelf | M |
Nothing left to be itself | M |
Neither horn nor hound nor stirrup | N |
Not a carol not a chirrup | N |
Every idle sound repressed | O |
Like a Sabbath without rest | O |
- | |
III | A |
O the sense of freedom when | L |
Kingly mountains rose again | L |
Congregated but alone | L |
Each upon his separate throne | L |
Like to mighty minds that dwell | P |
Lonely inaccessible | I |
High above the human race | J |
Single and supreme in space | J |
Soaring higher higher higher | Q |
Carrying with them our desire | Q |
Irrepressible if fond | R |
To push on to worlds beyond | R |
Many a peak august I saw | J |
Crowned with mist and girt with awe | S |
Fertilising as is fit | T |
Valleys that look up to it | T |
With the melted snows down driven | L |
Which itself received from Heaven | L |
Then to see the torrents flashing | U |
Leaping twisting foaming crashing | U |
Like a youth who feels at length | V |
Freedom ample as his strength | V |
Hurrying from the home that bore him | W |
With the whole of life before him | W |
- | |
IV | M |
As when summer sunshine gleams | J |
Glaciers soften into streams | J |
So to liquid flowing vowels | J |
As we pierced the mountains' bowels | J |
Teuton consonants did melt | X |
When Italian warmth was felt | X |
Gloomy fir and pine austere | Y |
Unto precipices sheer | Y |
Clinging as one holds one's breath | Z |
Half way betwixt life and death | Z |
Changed to gently shelving slope | N |
Where man tills with faith and hope | N |
And the tenderest tendrilled tree | F |
Prospers in security | F |
Softer outlines balmier air | K |
Belfries unto evening prayer | K |
Calling as the shadows fade | A2 |
Halting crone and hurrying maid | A2 |
With her bare black tresses twined | B |
Into massive coils behind | B |
And her snowy pleated vest | O |
Folded o'er mysterious breast | O |
Like the dove's wings chastely crossed | B2 |
At the Feast of Pentecost | B2 |
Something in scent sight and sound | C2 |
Elsewhere craved for never found | C2 |
Underneath around above | M |
Moves to tenderness and love | M |
- | |
V | F |
But three nights I halted where | K |
Stands the temple vowed to prayer | K |
That surmounts the Lombard plain | L |
Green with strips of grape and grain | L |
There Spiaggiascura's child | G |
By too hopeful love beguiled | G |
Yet resolved save faith should flow | D2 |
Through his parched heart to forego | D2 |
Earthly bliss for heavenly pain | L |
Prayed for Godfrid prayed in vain | L |
- | |
VI | M |
How looked Florence Fair as when | L |
Beatrice was nearly ten | L |
Nowise altered just the same | E2 |
Marble city mountain frame | E2 |
Turbid river cloudless sky | M |
As in days when you and I | M |
Roamed its sunny streets apart | F2 |
Ignorant of each other's heart | F2 |
Little knowing that our feet | G2 |
Slow were moving on to meet | G2 |
And that we should find at last | H2 |
Kinship in a common Past | H2 |
But a shadow falls athwart | I2 |
All her beauty all her art | F2 |
For alas I vainly seek | J2 |
Outstretched hand and kindling cheek | J2 |
Such as in the bygone days | J |
Sweetened sanctified her ways | J |
When as evening belfries chime | K2 |
I to Bellosguardo climb | K2 |
Vaguely thinking there to find | B |
Faces that still haunt my mind | B |
Though the doors stand open wide | L2 |
No one waits for me inside | L2 |
Not a voice comes forth to greet | G2 |
As of old my nearing feet | G2 |
So I stand without and stare | K |
Wishing you were here to share | K |
Void too vast alone to bear | K |
To Ricorboli I wend | C |
But where now the dear old friend | C |
Heart as open as his gate | M2 |
Song and jest and simple state | M2 |
They who loved me all are fled | N2 |
Some are gone and some are dead | N2 |
So though young and lovely be | F |
Florence still it feels to me | F |
Thinking of the days that were | Q |
Like a marble sepulchre | Q |
- | |
VII | M |
Yet thank Heaven he liveth still | O2 |
Now no more upon the hill | O2 |
Where was perched his Tuscan home | P2 |
But in liberated Rome | P2 |
Hale as ever still his stride | L2 |
Keeps me panting at his side | L2 |
Would that you were here to stray | Q |
With me up the Appian Way | Q |
Climb with me the Coelian mount | Q2 |
With me find Egeria's fount | Q2 |
See the clear sun sink and set | Q2 |
From the Pincian parapet | Q2 |
Or from Sant' Onofrio watch | R2 |
Shaggy Monte Cavo catch | S2 |
Gloomy glory on its face | J |
As the red dawn mounts apace | J |
Twenty years and more have fled | Q2 |
Since I first with youthful tread | Q2 |
Wandered 'mong these wrecks of Fate | Q2 |
Lonely but not desolate | Q2 |
Proud to ponder and to brood | Q2 |
Satisfied with solitude | Q2 |
But as fruit that hard in Spring | U |
Tender grows with mellowing | U |
So one's nature year by year | Q |
Softens as it ripens dear | Q |
And youth's selfish strain and stress | J |
Sweeten into tenderness | J |
Therefore is it that I pine | L |
For a gentle hand in mine | L |
For a voice to murmur clear | Q |
All I know but love to hear | Q |
Crave to feel think hear and see | F |
Through your lucid sympathy | F |
- | |
VIII | M |
Shortly shortly we shall meet | Q2 |
Southern skies awhile are sweet | Q2 |
But in whatso land I roam | P2 |
Half my heart remains at home | P2 |
Tell me for I long to hear | Q |
Tidings of our English year | Q |
Was the cuckoo soon or late | Q2 |
Beg the primroses to wait | Q2 |
That their homely smile may greet | Q2 |
Faithfully returning feet | Q2 |
Have the apple blossoms burst | Q2 |
Is the oak or ash the first | Q2 |
Are there snowballs on the guelder | Q |
Can you scent as yet the elder | Q |
On the bankside that we know | D2 |
Is the golden gorse ablow | O2 |
Like love's evergreen delight | Q2 |
Never out of season quite | Q2 |
But most prodigal in Spring | U |
When the whitethroats pair and sing | U |
Tell me tell me most of all | O2 |
When you hear the thrushes call | O2 |
When you see soft shadows fleeting | U |
O'er the grass where lambs are bleating | U |
When the lyric lark returning | U |
From the mirage of its yearning | U |
Like a fountain that in vain | L |
Rises but to fall again | L |
Seeks its nest with drooping wing | U |
Do you miss me from the Spring | U |
- | |
IX | F |
Quickly then I come Adieu | Q2 |
Mouldering arch and ether blue | Q2 |
For in you I sure shall find | Q2 |
All that here I leave behind | Q2 |
Steadfastness of Roman rays | F |
In the candour of your gaze | F |
In your friendship comfort more | Q |
Than in warmth of Oscan shore | Q |
In the smiles that light your mouth | T2 |
All the sunshine of the South | T2 |
Alfred Austin
(1)
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