Early Sonnets Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CDDCEFF GBHGBH A I JCCJKJJLMNONMM A JNNJJPJPIQRCQR S T CCCCCCCCUVQUVW S C XYYXYXXYFSZFSZ S C UCCUUCCUSCCSCC S CCCCCCCCZA2ZZA2Z S CCCCCCCCZSFSZF Z CSCSCSCSB2ZZB2ZZ Z SC2C2SD2VD2VSZE2ZF2S S C CSS CSS CG2CCG2I | A |
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To | B |
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As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood | C |
And ebb into a former life or seem | D |
To lapse far back in some confused dream | D |
To states of mystical similitude | C |
If one but speaks or hems or stirs his chair | E |
Ever the wonder waxeth more and more | F |
So that we say 'All this hath been before | F |
All this hath been I know not when or where ' | - |
So friend when first I look'd upon your face | G |
Our thought gave answer each to each so true | B |
Opposed mirrors each reflecting each | H |
That tho' I knew not in what time or place | G |
Methought that I had often met with you | B |
And either lived in either's heart and speech | H |
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II | A |
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To J M K | I |
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My hope and heart is with thee thou wilt be | J |
A latter Luther and a soldier priest | C |
To scare church harpies from the master's feast | C |
Our dusted velvets have much need of thee | J |
Thou art no Sabbath drawler of old saws | K |
Distill'd from some worm canker'd homily | J |
But spurr'd at heart with fieriest energy | J |
To embattail and to wall about thy cause | L |
With iron worded proof hating to hark | M |
The humming of the drowsy pulpit drone | N |
Half God's good Sabbath while the worn out clerk | O |
Brow beats his desk below Thou from a throne | N |
Mounted in heaven wilt shoot into the dark | M |
Arrows of lightnings I will stand and mark | M |
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III | A |
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Mine be the strength of spirit full and free | J |
Like some broad river rushing down alone | N |
With the selfsame impulse wherewith he was thrown | N |
From his loud fount upon the echoing lea | J |
Which with increasing might doth forward flee | J |
By town and tower and hill and cape and isle | P |
And in the middle of the green salt sea | J |
Keeps his blue waters fresh for many a mile | P |
Mine be the power which ever to its sway | I |
Will win the wise at once and by degrees | Q |
May into uncongenial spirits flow | R |
Even as the warm gulf stream of Florida | C |
Floats far away into the Northern seas | Q |
The lavish growths of southern Mexico | R |
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IV | S |
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ALEXANDER | T |
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Warrior of God whose strong right arm debased | C |
The throne of Persia when her Satrap bled | C |
At Issus by the Syrian gates or fled | C |
Beyond the Memmian naphtha pits disgraced | C |
For ever thee thy pathway sand erased | C |
Gliding with equal crowns two serpents led | C |
Joyful to that palm planted fountain fed | C |
Ammonian Oasis in the waste | C |
There in a silent shade of laurel brown | U |
Apart the Chamian Oracle divine | V |
Shelter'd his unapproached mysteries | Q |
High things were spoken there unhanded down | U |
Only they saw thee from the secret shrine | V |
Returning with hot cheek and kindled eyes | W |
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V | S |
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BUONAPARTE | C |
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He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak | X |
Madman to chain with chains and bind with bands | Y |
That island queen who sways the floods and lands | Y |
From Ind to Ind but in fair daylight woke | X |
When from her wooden walls lit by sure hands | Y |
With thunders and with lightnings and with smoke | X |
Peal after peal the British battle broke | X |
Lulling the brine against the Coptic sands | Y |
We taught him lowlier moods when Elsinore | F |
Heard the war moan along the distant sea | S |
Rocking with shatter'd spars with sudden fires | Z |
Flamed over at Trafalgar yet once more | F |
We taught him late he learned humility | S |
Perforce like those whom Gideon school'd with briers | Z |
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VI | S |
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POLAND | C |
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How long O God shall men be ridden down | U |
And trampled under by the last and least | C |
Of men The heart of Poland hath not ceased | C |
To quiver tho' her sacred blood doth drown | U |
The fields and out of every smouldering town | U |
Cries to Thee lest brute Power be increased | C |
Till that o'ergrown Barbarian in the East | C |
Transgress his ample bound to some new crown | U |
Cries to Thee 'Lord how long shall these things be | S |
How long this icy hearted Muscovite | C |
Oppress the region ' Us O Just and Good | C |
Forgive who smiled when she was torn in three | S |
Us who stand now when we should aid the right | C |
A matter to be wept with tears of blood | C |
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VII | S |
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Caress'd or chidden by the slender hand | C |
And singing airy trifles this or that | C |
Light Hope at Beauty's call would perch and stand | C |
And run thro' every change of sharp and flat | C |
And Fancy came and at her pillow sat | C |
When Sleep had bound her in his rosy band | C |
And chased away the still recurring gnat | C |
And woke her with a lay from fairy land | C |
But now they live with Beauty less and less | Z |
For Hope is other Hope and wanders far | A2 |
Nor cares to lisp in love's delicious creeds | Z |
And Fancy watches in the wilderness | Z |
Poor Fancy sadder than a single star | A2 |
That sets at twilight in a land of reeds | Z |
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VIII | S |
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The form the form alone is eloquent | C |
A nobler yearning never broke her rest | C |
Than but to dance and sing be gaily drest | C |
And win all eyes with all accomplishment | C |
Yet in the whirling dances as we went | C |
My fancy made me for a moment blest | C |
To find my heart so near the beauteous breast | C |
That once had power to rob it of content | C |
A moment came the tenderness of tears | Z |
The phantom of a wish that once could move | S |
A ghost of passion that no smiles restore | F |
For ah the slight coquette she cannot love | S |
And if you kiss'd her feet a thousand years | Z |
She still would take the praise and care no more | F |
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IX | Z |
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Wan Sculptor weepest thou to take the cast | C |
Of those dead lineaments that near thee lie | S |
O sorrowest thou pale Painter for the past | C |
In painting some dead friend from memory | S |
Weep on beyond his object Love can last | C |
His object lives more cause to weep have I | S |
My tears no tears of love are flowing fast | C |
No tears of love but tears that Love can die | S |
I pledge her not in any cheerful cup | B2 |
Nor care to sit beside her where she sits | Z |
Ah pity hint it not in human tones | Z |
But breathe it into earth and close it up | B2 |
With secret death for ever in the pits | Z |
Which some green Christmas crams with weary bones | Z |
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X | Z |
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If I were loved as I desire to be | S |
What is there in the great sphere of the earth | C2 |
And range of evil between death and birth | C2 |
That I should fear if I were loved by thee | S |
All the inner all the outer world of pain | D2 |
Clear Love would pierce and cleave if thou wert mine | V |
As I have heard that somewhere in the main | D2 |
Fresh water springs come up through bitter brine | V |
'Twere joy not fear claspt hand in hand with thee | S |
To wait for death mute careless of all ills | Z |
Apart upon a mountain tho' the surge | E2 |
Of some new deluge from a thousand hills | Z |
Flung leagues of roaring foam into the gorge | F2 |
Below us as far on as eye could see | S |
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XI | S |
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THE BRIDESMAID | C |
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O bridesmaid ere the happy knot was tied | C |
Thine eyes so wept that they could hardly see | S |
Thy sister smiled and said 'No tears for me | S |
A happy bridesmaid makes a happy bride ' | - |
And then the couple standing side by side | C |
Love lighted down between them full of glee | S |
And over his left shoulder laugh'd at thee | S |
'O happy bridesmaid make a happy bride ' | - |
And all at once a pleasant truth I learn'd | C |
For while the tender service made thee weep | G2 |
I loved thee for the tear thou couldst not hide | C |
And prest thy hand and knew the press return'd | C |
And thought 'My life is sick of single sleep | G2 |
O happy bridesmaid make a happy bride ' | - |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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