A Spring Carol Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCDDEFFGGEHHGGIIJ JAGGACKKC ALMNNLEMMEMGEGEEGGOO ECCEMMPPMMGQAGQGGDDA ARR ACCCCCCCCMMSSTUTURRM CMCRRRGGCVVCWCMMWCCX XMMYYY CCZZCA2A2GGMMGB2B2C2 YCCD2CCD2GGGGRRMME2E 2ME2ME2E2 GGE2GE2E2GGE2E2E2CCE 2E2GGGGGE2E2F2F2F2I | A |
Blithe friend blithe throstle Is it thou | B |
Whom I at last again hear sing | C |
Perched on thy old accustomed bough | B |
Poet prophet of the Spring | C |
Yes Singing as thou oft hast sung | D |
I can see thee there among | D |
The clustered branches of my leafless oak | E |
Where thy plumage gray as it | F |
Thou mightst unsuspected sit | F |
Didst thou not thyself betray | G |
With thy penetrating lay | G |
Swelling thy mottled breast at each triumphant stroke | E |
Wherefore warble half concealed | H |
When thy notes are shaft and shield | H |
And no hand that lives would slay | G |
Singer of such a roundelay | G |
Telling of thy presence thus | I |
Be nor coy nor timorous | I |
Sing loud Sing long | J |
And let thy song | J |
Usurp the air 'twixt earth and sky | A |
Let it soar and sink and rally | G |
Ripple low along the valley | G |
Break against the fir trees high | A |
Ofttimes pausing never dying | C |
While we lean where fancy bids | K |
Listening with half clos d lids | K |
Unto the self same chant most sweet most satisfying | C |
- | |
II | A |
Where hast thou been all the dumb winter days | L |
When neither sunlight was nor smile of flowers | M |
Neither life nor love nor frolic | N |
Only expanse melancholic | N |
With never a note of thy exhilarating lays | L |
But instead the raven's croak | E |
Sluggish dawns and draggled hours | M |
Gusts morose and callous showers | M |
Underneath whose cutting stroke | E |
Huddle the seasoned kine and even the robin cowers | M |
Wast thou asleep in some snug hollow | G |
Of my hybernating oak | E |
Through the dripping weeks that follow | G |
One another slow and soak | E |
Summer's extinguished fire and autumn's drifting smoke | E |
Did its waking awake thee | G |
Or thou it with melody | G |
Or together did ye both | O |
Start from winter's sleep and sloth | O |
And the self same sap that woke | E |
Bole and branch and sets them budding | C |
Is thy throat with rapture flooding | C |
Or avoiding icy yoke | E |
When golden leaves floated on silver meres | M |
And pensive Autumn keeping back her tears | M |
Nursed waning Summer in her quiet lap | P |
Didst thou timely pinions flap | P |
Fleeing from a land of loss | M |
And with happy mates across | M |
Ocean's restless ridges travel | G |
To that lemon scented shore | Q |
Where beneath a deep domed sky | A |
Carven of lapis lazuli | G |
Golden sunlight evermore | Q |
Glistens against golden gravel | G |
Nor ever a snowflake falls nor rain clouds wheel and ravel | G |
Clime where I wandered once among | D |
Ruins old with feelings young | D |
Whither too I count to fly | A |
When my songful seasons die | A |
And with the self same spell which first when mine | R |
Intensified my youth to temper my decline | R |
- | |
III | A |
Wherefore dost thou sing and sing | C |
Is it for sheer joy of singing | C |
Is it to hasten lagging Spring | C |
Or greet the Lenten lilies through turf and turf upspringing | C |
Dost thou sing to earth or sky | C |
Never comes but one reply | C |
Carol faint carol high | C |
Ringing ringing ringing | C |
Are those iterated trills | M |
For the down looking daffodils | M |
That have strained and split their sheath | S |
And are listening underneath | S |
Or but music's prompting note | T |
Whereunto the lambs may skip | U |
Haply dost thou swell thy throat | T |
Only to show thy craftsmanship | U |
Wouldst thou pipe if none should hearken | R |
If the sky should droop and darken | R |
And as came the hills more close | M |
Moody March to wooing Spring | C |
Sudden turned a mouth morose | M |
Unheeded wouldst unheeding sing | C |
What is it rules thy singing season | R |
Instinct that diviner reason | R |
To which the thirst to know seemeth a sort of treason | R |
If it be | G |
Enough for me | G |
And any motive for thy music I | C |
Will not ask thee to impart | V |
Letting my head play traitor to my heart | V |
Too deeply questioning why | C |
Sing for nothing if thou wilt | W |
Or if thou for aught must sing | C |
Sing unto thy anxious spouse | M |
Sitting somewhere 'mong the boughs | M |
In the nest that thou hast built | W |
Underneath her close furled wing | C |
Future carols fostering | C |
Sing because it is thy bent | X |
Sing to heighten thy content | X |
Sing for secret none can guess | M |
Sing for very uselessness | M |
Sing for love of love and pleasure | Y |
Unborn joy unfound treasure | Y |
Rapture no words can reach yearning no thoughts can measure | Y |
- | |
IV | C |
Why dost thou ever cease to sing | C |
Singing is such sweet comfort who | Z |
If he could sing the whole year through | Z |
Would barter it for anything | C |
Why do not thou and joy their reign assert | A2 |
Over winter death and hurt | A2 |
If thou forcest them to flee | G |
They in turn will banish thee | G |
Making life betwixt ye thus | M |
Mutably monotonous | M |
O why dost thou not perch and pipe perpetually | G |
All the answer I do get | B2 |
Is louder madder music yet | B2 |
Thus rebuking Thou dost err | C2 |
I am no philosopher | Y |
Only a poet forced to sing | C |
When the cold gusts gather and go | C |
When the earth stirs in its tomb | D2 |
And asudden witching Spring | C |
Into her bosom sucks the snow | C |
To give it back in thorn and cherry bloom | D2 |
When along the hedgerows twinkle | G |
Roguish eyes of periwinkle | G |
When with undulating glee | G |
Yaffles scream from tree to tree | G |
And on every bank are seen | R |
Primroses that long have been | R |
Lying in wait with ambushed eyes | M |
To break forth when Winter flies | M |
Joined by all things swift and sweet | E2 |
Following him with noiseless feet | E2 |
Pelting him with April showers | M |
Chasing and chanting his defeat | E2 |
Till with undisputed flowers | M |
Thronged are all the lanes to greet | E2 |
Dove like inspiring Spring many voiced Paraclete | E2 |
- | |
V | G |
Therefore glad bird warble and shrill and carol | G |
Now that Earth whom winter stripped | E2 |
Putteth on her Spring apparel | G |
Daintily woven gaily tipped | E2 |
Now that in the tussocked mead | E2 |
Lambkins one another jostle | G |
Carol carol jocund throstle | G |
Impregnating the air with thy melodious seed | E2 |
Which albeit scattered late | E2 |
Now will quickly germinate | E2 |
Giving us who waited long | C |
Vernal harvest of ripe song | C |
Which I do perceive was sent | E2 |
Nowise to deepen argument | E2 |
Rather to teach me how like thee | G |
To merge doubt in melody | G |
Sing sing away | G |
All through the day | G |
Lengthening out the twilight gray | G |
And with thy trebles of delight | E2 |
Invade the threshold of the night | E2 |
Until felicity too high too deep | F2 |
Saturated senses steep | F2 |
And all that lives and loves subside to songless sleep | F2 |
Alfred Austin
(1)
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