Demeter And Persephone Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNHOMAMH PQ AAIRSMRAMTM MUVWXYQRZYA2B2RMC2D2 IE2 MF2G2H2RUMRKRKI2RRJ2 MK2L2M2RG2RMG2N2RO2M G2RJ2RG2MMM MMP2TH2RRRRIQ2P2R2 RMG2S2RIS2RRMMS2MT2M G2RRS2A2G2O MHU2P2V2RS2S2MS2HRW2 MMRG2S2X2MX2RMS2G2WP 2S2S2RA2

Faint as a climate changing bird that fliesA
All night across the darkness and at dawnB
Falls on the threshold of her native landC
And can no more thou camest O my childD
Led upward by the God of ghosts and dreamsE
Who laid thee at Eleusis dazed and dumbF
With passing thro' at once from state to stateG
Until I brought thee hither that the dayH
When here thy hands let fall the gather'd flowerI
Might break thro' clouded memories once againJ
On thy lost self A sudden nightingaleK
Saw thee and flash'd into a frolic of songL
And welcome and a gleam as of the moonM
When first she peers along the tremulous deepN
Fled wavering o'er thy face and chased awayH
That shadow of a likeness to the kingO
Of shadows thy dark mate PersephoneM
Queen of the dead no more my child Thine eyesA
Again were human godlike and the SunM
Burst from a swimming fleece of winter grayH
And robed thee in his day from head to feetP
Mother and I was folded in thine armsQ
-
Child those imperial disimpassion'd eyesA
Awed even me at first thy mother eyesA
That oft had seen the serpent wanded powerI
Draw downward into Hades with his driftR
Of fickering spectres lighted from belowS
By the red race of fiery PhlegethonM
But when before have Gods or men beheldR
The Life that had descended re ariseA
And lighted from above him by the SunM
So mighty was the mother's childless cryT
A cry that ran thro' Hades Earth and HeavenM
-
So in this pleasant vale we stand againM
The field of Enna now once more ablazeU
With flowers that brighten as thy footstep fallsV
All flowers but for one black blur of earthW
Left by that closing chasm thro' which the carX
Of dark Aidoneus rising rapt thee henceY
And here my child tho' folded in thine armsQ
I feel the deathless heart of motherhoodR
Within me shudder lest the naked glebeZ
Should yawn once more into the gulf and thenceY
The shrilly whinnyings of the team of HellA2
Ascending pierce the glad and songful airB2
And all at once their arch'd necks midnight manedR
Jet upward thro' the mid day blossom NoM
For see thy foot has touch'd it all the spaceC2
Of blank earth baldness clothes itself afreshD2
And breaks into the crocus purple hourI
That saw thee vanishE2
-
Child when thou wert goneM
I envied human wives and nested birdsF2
Yea the cubb'd lioness went in search of theeG2
Thro' many a palace many a cot and gaveH2
Thy breast to ailing infants in the nightR
And set the mother waking in amazeU
To find her sick one whole and forth againM
Among the wail of midnight winds and criedR
Where is my loved one Wherefore do ye wailK
And out from all the night an answer shrill'dR
We know not and we know not why we wailK
I climb'd on all the cliffs of all the seasI2
And ask'd the waves that moan about the worldR
Where do ye make your moaning for my childR
And round from all the world the voices cameJ2
We know not and we know not why we moanM
Where and I stared from every eagle peakK2
I thridded the black heart of all the woodsL2
I peer'd thro' tomb and cave and in the stormsM2
Of Autumn swept across the city and heardR
The murmur of their temples chanting meG2
Me me the desolate Mother Where and turn'dR
And fled by many a waste forlorn of manM
And grieved for man thro' all my grief for theeG2
The jungle rooted in his shatter'd hearthN2
The serpent coil'd about his broken shaftR
The scorpion crawling over naked skullsO2
I saw the tiger in the ruin'd faneM
Spring from his fallen God but trace of theeG2
I saw not and far on and following outR
A league of labyrinthine darkness cameJ2
On three gray heads beneath a gleaming riftR
Where and I heard one voice from all the threeG2
We know not for we spin the lives of menM
And not of Gods and know not why we spinM
There is a Fate beyond us Nothing knewM
-
Last as the likeness of a dying manM
Without his knowledge from him flits to warnM
A far off friendship that he comes no moreP2
So he the God of dreams who heard my cryT
Drew from thyself the likeness of thyselfH2
Without thy knowledge and thy shadow pastR
Before me crying The Bright one in the highestR
Is brother of the Dark one in the lowestR
And Bright and Dark have sworn that I the childR
Of thee the great Earth Mother thee the PowerI
That lifts her buried life from loom to bloomQ2
Should be for ever and for evermoreP2
The Bride of DarknessR2
-
So the Shadow wail'dR
Then I Earth Goddess cursed the Gods of HeavenM
I would not mingle with their feasts to meG2
Their nectar smack'd of hemlock on the lipsS2
Their rich ambrosia tasted aconiteR
The man that only lives and loves an hourI
Seem'd nobler than their hard EternitiesS2
My quick tears kill'd the flower my ravings hush'dR
The bird and lost in utter grief I fail'dR
To send my life thro' olive yard and vineM
And golden grain my gift to helpless manM
Rain rotten died the wheat the barley spearsS2
Were hollow husk'd the leaf fell and the sunM
Pale at my grief drew down before his timeT2
Sickening and Aetna kept her winter snowM
Then He the brother of this Darkness HeG2
Who still is highest glancing from his heightR
On earth a fruitless fallow when he miss'dR
The wonted steam of sacrifice the praiseS2
And prayer of men decreed that thou should'st dwellA2
For nine white moons of each whole year with meG2
Three dark ones in the shadow with thy KingO
-
Once more the reaper in the gleam of dawnM
Will see me by the landmark far awayH
Blessing his field or seated in the duskU2
Of even by the lonely threshing floorP2
Rejoicing in the harvest and the grangeV2
Yet I Earth Goddess am but ill contentR
With them who still are highest Those gray headsS2
What meant they by their Fate beyond the FatesS2
But younger kindlier Gods to bear us downM
As we bore down the Gods before us GodsS2
To quench not hurl the thunderbolt to stayH
Not spread the plague the famine Gods indeedR
To send the noon into the night and breakW2
The sunless halls of Hades into HeavenM
Till thy dark lord accept and love the SunM
And all the Shadow die into the LightR
When thou shalt dwell the whole bright year with meG2
And souls of men who grew beyond their raceS2
And made themselves as Gods against the fearX2
Of Death and Hell and thou that hast from menM
As Queen of Death that worship which is FearX2
Henceforth as having risen from out the deadR
Shalt ever send thy life along with mineM
From buried grain thro' springing blade and blessS2
Their garner'd Autumn also reap with meG2
Earth mother in the harvest hymns of EarthW
The worship which is Love and see no moreP2
The Stone the Wheel the dimly glimmering lawnsS2
Of that Elysium all the hateful firesS2
Of torment and the shadowy warrior glideR
Along the silent field of AsphodelA2

Alfred Lord Tennyson



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