On Returning To England Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLL MMCNJJOOPPQQRRSS TTUUVVWWXYZZA2A2B2B2 C2D2E2E2JJF2F2G2G2 H2H2TTI2I2J2J2VVK2K2 L2L2M2M2AAN2N2O2O2JJ P2P2Q2Q2JJR2R2M2M2M2 M2M2M2F2F2AAM2M2JJJJ JJM2M2RRS2S2M2M2JJPP M2M2L2L2 I2I2DI2RRK2K2JJDDT2T 2G2G2AAThere once again I stand on home | A |
Though round me still there swirls the foam | A |
Leaping athwart the vessel's track | B |
To bid a wanderer welcome back | B |
And though as yet through softening haze | C |
White cliffs but vaguely greet my gaze | C |
For England yours the waves the spray | D |
And be one's foothold what it may | D |
Wherever billow wafts or wends | E |
Your soil is trodden your shore extends | E |
How stern how sweet Though fresh from lands | F |
Where soft seas heave on slumbering strands | F |
And zephyrs moistened by the south | G |
Seem kisses from an infant's mouth | G |
My northern blood exults to face | H |
The rapture of this rough embrace | H |
Glowing in every vein to feel | I |
The cordial caress of steel | I |
From spear blue air and sword blue sea | J |
The armour of your liberty | J |
Braced by the manly air I reach | K |
My soul out to the approaching beach | K |
And own the instant I arrive | L |
The dignity of being alive | L |
- | |
And now with forward faring feet | M |
Eager I leap to land and greet | M |
The hearty grasp the honest gaze | C |
The voice that means the thing it says | N |
The gait of men by birthright free | J |
Unceremonial courtesy | J |
None frown none cringe but fearless eyed | O |
Are kindly all since side by side | O |
Authority and Freedom reign | P |
In twin equality and drain | P |
Their sanction from the self same breast | Q |
And Law is wise Will manifest | Q |
Yes this is England frank and fair | R |
I tread its turf I breathe its air | R |
And catch from every stalwart lung | S |
The music of my mother tongue | S |
- | |
And who are these that cluster round | T |
With hastening feet and silvery sound | T |
And eyes as liquid as the dawn | U |
When laughs the dew on Kentish lawn | U |
These England's daughters frank yet arch | V |
Supple as April strong as March | V |
Like pink white windflowers in the grove | W |
That came while east and west wind strove | W |
For mastery and Spring seemed late | X |
Hardy alike and delicate | Y |
How well their faces fit the scene | Z |
The copses gray the hedgerows green | Z |
The white veiled blackthorn gorse afire | A2 |
The cottage yew the village spire | A2 |
The pastures flecked with frisking lambs | B2 |
Around their gravely grazing dams | B2 |
The children loitering home from school | C2 |
Their hands and pinafores all full | D2 |
Of cuckoo pint and bluebell spike | E2 |
Gathered in dingle dell and dyke | E2 |
The comely homes one just can see | J |
Through flowering belts of bush and tree | J |
That all combine all all conspire | F2 |
To more than satisfy desire | F2 |
To make one love this lovely earth | G2 |
And bless Heaven for one's British birth | G2 |
- | |
Bewitching climes where late I sought | H2 |
In change of scene a change of thought | H2 |
Refreshment from familiar ground | T |
And what I sought for more than found | T |
Where old enchantment haunteth still | I2 |
Ligurian coast and Tuscan hill | I2 |
Climes I have ventured oft and long | J2 |
To celebrate in faltering song | J2 |
Where fearless almond faery larch | V |
Smiling disarm the frown of March | V |
Snow hath no terrors frost no sting | K2 |
And playful Winter mimics Spring | K2 |
Deem me not thankless nor deny | L2 |
Fresh welcome from your shore and sky | L2 |
Repose from thought so oft implored | M2 |
And ne'er refused if now restored | M2 |
By you to health by you to home | A |
Glad I return late glad to roam | A |
For dear to me though wayside shrine | N2 |
By silent gorge or murmuring brine | N2 |
Dear though the barefoot peasant folk | O2 |
Who lop the vine and steer the yoke | O2 |
Of soft eyed sleek skinned creamy beeves | J |
Up narrow ways to broad slant eaves | J |
The stony mule tracks twisting slow | P2 |
Up slopes where cherry blossoms blow | P2 |
'Mid olive gray and ilex brown | Q2 |
On to some sun bronzed mountain town | Q2 |
The hush and cool of marble domes | J |
Where wed to reverie one roams | J |
Through transept chancel cloister cell | R2 |
Where still with far off faces dwell | R2 |
Sages and saints devoutly limned | M2 |
By hands long dust and eyes long dimmed | M2 |
Dear though all these and ne'er forgot | M2 |
No southern shore no sunniest spot | M2 |
Not Roccabruna's hamlet crest | M2 |
Not Eza's brow not Taggia's breast | M2 |
Not Bellosguardo's sunset hour | F2 |
Not Dante's seat nor Giotto's Tower | F2 |
Nor even Spiaggiascura's foam | A |
Moisten and melt my heart like home | A |
For here the cuckoo seems more glad | M2 |
The nightingale more sweetly sad | M2 |
Primroses more akin in gaze | J |
To childlike wonder childlike ways | J |
And all things that one sees and hears | J |
Since rooted in the bygone years | J |
And blending with their warm caress | J |
A touch of homely tenderness | J |
Bid the quick instinct in one's blood | M2 |
Pay tribute unto motherhood | M2 |
How should strange lands it boots not where | R |
Divorce one from one's native air | R |
Or in a loyal breast dethrone | S2 |
Unreasoning reverence for one's own | S2 |
Yet love and reason surely blend | M2 |
To stir this passion and commend | M2 |
And who will blame if though one seeks | J |
In gentler tides and sterner peaks | J |
That tower above a wider plain | P |
Contrast to northern hill and main | P |
I cherish still and hold apart | M2 |
The fondest feeling in my heart | M2 |
For where beneath one's parent sky | L2 |
Our dear ones live our dead ones lie | L2 |
- | |
And you dear friend who linger still | I2 |
Beside the iris crested rill | I2 |
That silvers through your olives gray | D |
From convent capped Fiesole | I2 |
Think not that I forget forswear | R |
The scenes we lately vowed so fair | R |
To these your wandering footsteps bring | K2 |
The freshness of an English Spring | K2 |
And even Florence sunnier glows | J |
When Phyllis prattles and Ivor crows | J |
And though among them still you stray | D |
Sweet lengthening out a Tuscan May | D |
You too will here return before | T2 |
Our Northern roses blow once more | T2 |
To prove to all of kindred birth | G2 |
For winsome grace and sterling worth | G2 |
Nothing can match where'er we roam | A |
An English wife in English home | A |
Alfred Austin
(1)
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