Florence Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHG IJKJ HLHL MJNJ OPOP QRQR STST UVUV WXWX HYHY ZA2ZA2 HB2HB2 C2WC2W HD2HZ HE2HE2 F2HF2H G2H2G2H2 BI2J2I2 K2B2K2B2 HK2HK2City acclaimed from far off days | A |
Fair and baptized in field of flowers | B |
Once more I scan with eager gaze | A |
Your soaring domes your storied towers | B |
- | |
Nigh on eight lustres now have flown | C |
Since first with trembling heart I came | D |
And girdled by your mountain zone | C |
Found you yet fairer than your fame | D |
- | |
It was the season purple sweet | E |
When figs are plucked and grapes are pressed | F |
And all your folk with following feet | E |
Bore a dead Poet to sacred rest | F |
- | |
You seemed to fling your gates ajar | G |
And gently lead me by the hand | H |
Saying Behold henceforth you are | G |
No stranger in this Tuscan land '' | - |
- | |
And though no love my love can wean | I |
From Albion's crags and cradling sea | J |
You Florence since that hour have been | K |
More than a foster nurse to me | J |
- | |
And seems that welcome half profaned | H |
If in your lap lain oft and long | L |
I cherish to have something drained | H |
Of Dante's soul and Petrarch's song | L |
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But more than even Muse can give | M |
Is Love which songless though we be | J |
While the unloving jarring live | N |
Makes life one long sweet melody | J |
- | |
And you with love and friendship still | O |
Have teemed as teem your hills with wine | P |
And through the seasons good or ill | O |
Have made their mellow vintage mine | P |
- | |
But most while Fancy yet was young | Q |
Yet timely cared no more to roam | R |
You lent your tender Tuscan tongue | Q |
To help me in my English home | R |
- | |
So now from soft Sicilian shore | S |
And Tiber's sterner tide I bring | T |
My Autumn sheaves to share once more | S |
The rapture of your rainbow Spring | T |
- | |
I lingering in your palaced town | U |
Asudden 'neath some beetling pile | V |
Catch sight of Dante's awful frown | U |
Or Vinci's enigmatic smile | V |
- | |
Then following olden footsteps stroll | W |
To where from May day's mocking pyre | X |
Savonarola's tortured soul | W |
Went up to Heaven in tongues of fire | X |
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Or Buonarroti's godlike hand | H |
Made marble block from Massa's steep | Y |
Dawn into Day at his command | H |
Or plunged it into Night and Sleep | Y |
- | |
Onward I pass through radiant squares | Z |
And widening ways whose foliage shames | A2 |
Our leafless streets to one that bears | Z |
The best beloved of English names | A2 |
- | |
And climb the white veiled slopes arrayed | H |
In bridal bloom of peach and pear | B2 |
While 'neath the olive's phantom shade | H |
Lupine and beanflower scent the air | B2 |
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The wild bees hum round golden bay | C2 |
The green frog sings on fig tree bole | W |
And see down daisy whitened way | C2 |
Come the slow steers and swaying pole | W |
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The fresh pruned vine stems curving bend | H |
Over the peaceful wheaten spears | D2 |
And with the glittering sunshine blend | H |
Their transitory April tears | Z |
- | |
O'er wall and trellis trailed and wound | H |
Hang roses blushing roses pale | E2 |
And hark what was that silvery sound | H |
The first note of the nightingale | E2 |
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Curtained I close my lids and dream | F2 |
Of Beauty seen not but surmised | H |
And lulled by scent and song I seem | F2 |
Immortally imparadised | H |
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When from the deep sweet swoon I wake | G2 |
And gaze past slopes of grape and grain | H2 |
Where Arno like some lonely lake | G2 |
Silvers the far off seaward plain | H2 |
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I see celestial sunset fires | B |
That lift us from this earthly leaven | I2 |
And darkly silent cypress spires | J2 |
Pointing the way from hill to Heaven | I2 |
- | |
Then something more than mortal steals | K2 |
Over the wavering twilight air | B2 |
And messenger of nightfall peals | K2 |
From each crowned peak a call to prayer | B2 |
- | |
And now the last meek prayer is said | H |
And in the hallowed hush there is | K2 |
Only a starry dome o'erhead | H |
Propped by columnar cypresses | K2 |
Alfred Austin
(1)
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