To Ireland Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABACADEEDD FGFGFHIIJ KLKLKMAAMM NONONPQQPP RQRQROSSOO TUTUTVQQV WXYXWZTTZZ QQQQQDA2A2DD B2RB2RB2WOOC2C2 D2QD2QD2VQQVV YE2YE2YF2FFF2F2 G2QG2QG2H2GGH2

What ails you Sister Erin that your faceA
Is like your mountains still bedewed with tearsB
As though some ancient sorrow or disgraceA
Some unforgettable wrong from far off yearsC
Done to your name or wreaked upon your raceA
Broods in your heart and shadows all your mindD
So that no change of Season nor the voiceE
Of hopeful Time who bids the sad rejoiceE
Can lift your gloom but you to kind unkindD
Keep moaning with the wave and wailing with the windD
-
Come let us sit upon yon cliff we twainF
Whence we may gaze across your soft green IsleG
Girt by the strong immeasurable mainF
That see looks up and sweetens to a smileG
And you shall talk to me of all your painF
Through deep blue eyes and dark unbraided tressesH
Hooded by wimple that your own hands weavedI
When you and Winter last together grievedI
While far beneath our feet the fast foam pressesJ
Round bluff and creek and bay and seabird sung to nesses ''-
-
Then half withholding yielding half her gazeK
She smoothed her kirtle under her and claspedL
Her hands about her knees as one who praysK
Watching the clambering billows as they graspedL
At slippery rocks where wild goats may not grazeK
Then fell back foiled shivered to spray and smokeM
And I could see the warm blood of her raceA
Crimson beneath her weather beaten faceA
As though her heart would break her voice would chokeM
In accents harsh with hate and brimmed with sobs she spokeM
-
They came across the sea with greed of spoilN
And drove me hither and thither from fen to foamO
Reaving and burning till the blackened soilN
Waxed bitter barren as the brine they clombO
Sterile to seed and thankless unto toilN
Harried and hunted fleeing through the landP
I hid among the caves the woods the hillsQ
Where the mist curdles and the blind gust shrillsQ
Suckling my hate and sharpening my brandP
My heart against their heart my hand against their handP
-
And ever as I fled they ever pursuedR
They drove away my cattle and my flocksQ
And left me me a Mother to claw for foodR
'Mong ocean boulders and the brackish rocksQ
Where sea hogs wallow and gorged cormorants broodR
Unroofed my hut set the sere thatch aflameO
Scattered my hearth fire to the wintry airS
Made what was bare before stretch yet more bareS
I waxing wilder more they strove to tameO
To force and guile alike implacably the sameO
-
They would not suffer me to weep or prayT
Upon the altar of my Saints they trodU
They banned my Faith they took my Heaven awayT
And tried to rob me of my very GodU
And when I sued them leave me where I layT
And get them hence still still they would not goV
They reft the spindle from my famished handsQ
My kith and kin they drove to other landsQ
Widowed and orphaned me And now you knowV
Why all my face is wet and all my voice is woe ''-
-
I crept a little nearer and I laidW
My hand on hers and fondled it with mineX
And Listen dear Sister Erin '' soft I saidY
Not to the moaning of the salt sea brineX
Nor to the melancholy crooning madeW
By thoughts attuned to Sorrow's ancient songZ
But to the music of a mellower dayT
Forgive Forget lest harsher lips should sayT
Like your turf fire your rancour smoulders longZ
Now let Oblivion strew Time's ashes o'er this wrongZ
-
The robber bands that filled the Isle with groansQ
Were long since clamped and prisoned in their gravesQ
The flesh hath dried and shrivelled from their bonesQ
Their wild war standards rotted from their stavesQ
Their name is nought 'Tis thus that Time atonesQ
For all the griefs man fastens on his kindD
The days were dire his passions swift and fellA2
His very Heaven was but a sterner HellA2
His love was thraldom hatred black and blindD
As headstrong as the wave as wayward as the windD
-
Nor did alone you suffer You too dealtB2
Full many a stroke too fierce to be subduedR
Till you had made the fangs of vengeance feltB2
Mercy and truce you spurned and fed the feudR
Of Celt with Saxon Saxon against CeltB2
Till lust enforced whatever law forbadeW
Nay do not linger on that painful dreamO
But turn and smile as when a silvery gleamO
Dimples your loughs that whilom seemed so sadC2
And runs along the wave and glistens and is gladC2
-
We own our fault the greater so we nowD2
For balance of that wrong would make amendsQ
Lift the low wimple from your clouded browD2
Give me your gaze and say that we are friendsQ
And be your mountains witness of that vowD2
Your dewy dingles white with blossoming sloeV
Your tawny torrents tumbling to the seaQ
For You are far the fairest of the ThreeQ
And we can never never let you goV
Long as your warm heart beats long as your bright eyes glowV
-
The Triune Flag none now save Tyrants dreadY
That with Imperial peace protects the worldE2
Hath by the sinewy sons you bore and bredY
Round the wide globe been carried and unfurledE2
Where danger greatest they it was who ledY
And stormed death rather than be backward drivenF2
Now gaze no more across the western mainF
Whose barren furrows hope still ploughs in vainF
Turn Eastward where through clouds by sunrise rivenF2
England holds out her hand and craves to be forgivenF2
-
Live your own life but ever at our sideG2
Have your own Heaven but blend your prayer with oursQ
Remain your own fair self to bridegroom brideG2
Veiled in your mist and diamonded with showersQ
We twain love linked whom nothing can divideG2
Look up From Slievemore's brow to Dingle's shoreH2
From Inagh's lake to Innisfallen's IsleG
And Garriffe's glen the land is one green smileG
The dolphins gambol and the laverocks soarH2
Lift up your heart and live enthralled to grief no more ''-

Alfred Austin



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