The Sisters (1880) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCC D EEFEEFFFE GD H IIFIFFFI JKKLMNODPOIQRSHTUVW XYZA2B2C2D2DUE2Z SF2G2H2 I2J2ZK2ZL2M2N2F2 O2SP2TF2F2F2ZO2G2 Q2R2S2BF2T2 F2F2U2F2L2S F2F2V2F2W2X2EF2Y2F2 SZZ2A3PB3ZF2 ZF2ZC3G2F2ZD3E3NZF3F 2 SF2G3 SF2F2F2H3ZF2F2SF2R I3F2H3J3ZO2K3L3F2M3N 3F2O3P3NESQ3R3ZH3V2V 2 KF2F2F2O2V2V2KBO2PS3 EF2F2V2F2ZO2T3 F2F2F2V2U3O2F2S2V3KZ F2V2Z N3F2 O2W3V2K3O2PKO2F2O2F2 F2V2KV2V2F2F2 F2X3F2 O2Y3V2EV2F2U2Z3Z A4F2V2V2 F2K3V2B4F2O2F2EV2F2 V2F2F2F2ZH3C4V2F2N2F 2Z3KD4 V2F2E4F2Z3Z3ZO2F2F2F 2F4F2O2K3F2F2E4F2F2Z ZN2ZZ3G4H4F2 V2O2C4O2D2I4F2Z3J4F2

They have left the doors ajar and by their clash	A
And prelude on the keys I know the song	B
Their favourite which I call 'The Tables Turned '	C
Evelyn begins it 'O diviner Air '	C
	-
EVELYN	D
	-
O diviner Air	E
Thro' the heat the drowth the dust the glare	E
Far from out the west in shadowing showers	F
Over all the meadow baked and bare	E
Making fresh and fair	E
All the bowers and the flowers	F
Fainting flowers faded bowers	F
Over all this weary world of ours	F
Breathe diviner Air	E
	-
A sweet voice that you scarce could better that	G
Now follows Edith echoing Evelyn	D
	-
EDITH	H
	-
O diviner light	I
Thro' the cloud that roofs our noon with night	I
Thro' the blotting mist the blinding showers	F
Far from out a sky for ever bright	I
Over all the woodland's flooded bowers	F
Over all the meadow's drowning flowers	F
Over all this ruin'd world of ours	F
Break diviner light	I
	-
Marvellously like their voices and themselves	J
Tho' one is somewhat deeper than the other	K
As one is somewhat graver than the other	K
Edith than Evelyn Your good Uncle whom	L
You count the father of your fortune longs	M
For this alliance let me ask you then	N
Which voice most takes you for I do not doubt	O
Being a watchful parent you are taken	D
With one or other tho' sometimes I fear	P
You may be flickering fluttering in a doubt	O
Between the two which must not be which might	I
Be death to one they both are beautiful	Q
Evelyn is gayer wittier prettier says	R
The common voice if one may trust it she	S
No but the paler and the graver Edith	H
Woo her and gain her then no wavering boy	T
The graver is perhaps the one for you	U
Who jest and laugh so easily and so well	V
For love will go by contrast as by likes	W
	-
No sisters ever prized each other more	X
Not so their mother and her sister loved	Y
More passionately still	Z
But that my best	A2
And oldest friend your Uncle wishes it	B2
And that I know you worthy everyway	C2
To be my son I might perchance be loath	D2
To part them or part from them and yet one	D
Should marry or all the broad lands in your view	U
From this bay window which our house has held	E2
Three hundred years will pass collaterally	Z
	-
My father with a child on either knee	S
A hand upon the head of either child	F2
Smoothing their locks as golden as his own	G2
Were silver 'get them wedded' would he say	H2
And once my prattling Edith ask'd him why '	-
Ay why said he ' for why should I go lame '	-
Then told them of his wars and of his wound	I2
For see this wine the grape from whence it flow'd	J2
Was blackening on the slopes of Portugal	Z
When that brave soldier down the terrible ridge	K2
Plunged in the last fierce charge at Waterloo	Z
And caught the laming bullet He left me this	L2
Which yet retains a memory of its youth	M2
As I of mine and my first passion Come	N2
Here's to your happy union with my child	F2
	-
Yet must you change your name no fault of mine	O2
You say that you can do it as willingly	S
As birds make ready for their bridal time	P2
By change of feather for all that my boy	T
Some birds are sick and sullen when they moult	F2
An old and worthy name but mine that stirr'd	F2
Among our civil wars and earlier too	F2
Among the Roses the more venerable	Z
I care not for a name no fault of mine	O2
Once more a happier marriage than my own	G2
	-
You see yon Lombard poplar on the plain	Q2
The highway running by it leaves a breadth	R2
Of sward to left and right where long ago	S2
One bright May morning in a world of song	B
I lay at leisure watching overhead	F2
The a rial poplar wave an amber spire	T2
	-
I dozed I woke An open landaulet	F2
Whirl'd by which after it had past me show'd	F2
Turning my way the loveliest face on earth	U2
The face of one there sitting opposite	F2
On whom I brought a strange unhappiness	L2
That time I did not see	S
	-
Love at first sight	F2
May seem with goodly rhyme and reason for it	F2
Possible at first glimpse and for a face	V2
Gone in a moment strange Yet once when first	F2
I came on lake Llanberris in the dark	W2
A moonless night with storm one lightning fork	X2
Flash'd out the lake and tho' I loiter'd there	E
The full day after yet in retrospect	F2
That less than momentary thunder sketch	Y2
Of lake and mountain conquers all the day	F2
	-
The Sun himself has limn'd the face for me	S
Not quite so quickly no nor half as well	Z
For look you here the shadows are too deep	Z2
And like the critic's blurring comment make	A3
The veriest beauties of the work appear	P
The darkest faults the sweet eyes frown the lips	B3
Seem but a gash My sole memorial	Z
Of Edith no the other both indeed	F2
	-
So that bright face was flash'd thro' sense and soul	Z
And by the poplar vanish'd to be found	F2
Long after as it seem'd beneath the tall	Z
Tree bowers and those long sweeping beechen boughs	C3
Of our New Forest I was there alone	G2
The phantom of the whirling landaulet	F2
For ever past me by when one quick peal	Z
Of laughter drew me thro' the glimmering glades	D3
Down to the snowlike sparkle of a cloth	E3
On fern and foxglove Lo the face again	N
My Rosalind in this Arden Edith all	Z
One bloom of youth health beauty happiness	F3
And moved to merriment at a passing jest	F2
	-
There one of those about her knowing me	S
Call'd me to join them so with these I spent	F2
What seem'd my crowning hour my day of days	G3
	-
I wood her then nor unsuccessfully	S
The worse for her for me was I content	F2
Ay no not quite for now and then I thought	F2
Laziness vague love longings the bright May	F2
Had made a heated haze to magnify	H3
The charm of Edith that a man's ideal	Z
Is high in Heaven and lodged with Plato's God	F2
Not findable here content and not content	F2
In some such fashion as a man may be	S
That having had the portrait of his friend	F2
Drawn by an artist looks at it and says	R
'Good very like not altogether he '	-
	-
As yet I had not bound myself by words	I3
Only believing I loved Edith made	F2
Edith love me Then came the day when I	H3
Flattering myself that all my doubts were fools	J3
Born of the fool this Age that doubts of all	Z
Not I that day of Edith's love or mine	O2
Had braced my purpose to declare myself	K3
I stood upon the stairs of Paradise	L3
The golden gates would open at a word	F2
I spoke it told her of my passion seen	M3
And lost and found again had got so far	N3
Had caught her hand her eyelids fell I heard	F2
Wheels and a noise of welcome at the doors	O3
On a sudden after two Italian years	P3
I lad set the blossom of her health again	N
The younger sister Evelyn enter'd there	E
There was the face and altogether she	S
The mother fell about the daughter's neck	Q3
The sisters closed in one another's arms	R3
Their people throng'd about them from the hall	Z
And in the thick of question and reply	H3
I fled the house driven by one angel face	V2
And all the Furies	V2
	-
I was bound to her	K
I could not free myself in honour bound	F2
Not by the sounded letter of the word	F2
Put counterpressures of the yielded hand	F2
That timorously and faintly echoed mine	O2
Quick blushes the sweet dwelling of her eyes	V2
Upon me when she thought I did not see	V2
Were these not bonds nay nay but could I wed her	K
Loving the other do her that great wrong	B
Had I not dream'd I loved her yestermorn	O2
Had I not known where Love at first a fear	P
Grew after marriage to full height and form	S3
Yet after marriage that mock sister there	E
Brother in law the fiery nearness of it	F2
Unlawful and disloyal brotherhood	F2
What end but darkness could ensue from this	V2
For all the three So Love and Honour jarr'd	F2
Tho' Love and honour join'd to raise the full	Z
High tide of doubt that sway'd me up and down	O2
Advancing nor retreating	T3
	-
Edith wrote	F2
'My mother bid me ask' I did not tell you	F2
A widow with less guile than many a child	F2
God help the wrinkled children that are Christ's	V2
As well as the plump cheek she wrought us harm	U3
Poor soul not knowing 'are you ill ' so ran	O2
The letter 'you have not been here of late	F2
You will not find me here At last I go	S2
On that long promised visit to the North	V3
I told your wayside story to my mother	K
And Evelyn She remembers you Farewell	Z
Pray come and see my mother Almost blind	F2
With ever growing cataract yet she thinks	V2
She sees you when she hears Again farewell	Z
	-
Cold words from one I had hoped to warm so far	N3
That I could stamp my image on her heart	F2
'Pray come and see my mother and farewell '	-
Cold but as welcome as free airs of heaven	O2
After a dungeon's closeness Selfish strange	W3
What dwarfs are men my strangled vanity	V2
Utter'd a stifled cry to have vext myself	K3
And all in vain for her cold heart or none	O2
No bride for me Yet so my path was clear	P
To win the sister	K
Whom I woo'd and won	O2
For Evelyn knew not of my former suit	F2
Because the simple mother work'd upon	O2
By Edith pray it me not to whisper of it	F2
And Edith would be bridesmaid on the day	F2
But on that day not being all at ease	V2
I from the altar glancing back upon her	K
Before the first 'I will' was utter'd saw	V2
The bridesmaid pale statuelike passionless	V2
'No harm no harm' I turn'd again and placed	F2
My ring upon the finger of my bride	F2
	-
So when we parted Edith spoke no word	F2
She wept no tear but round my Evelyn clung	X3
In utter silence for so long I thought	F2
'What will she never set her sister free '	-
	-
We left her happy each in each and then	O2
As tho' the happiness of each in each	Y3
Were not enough must fain have torrents lakes	V2
Hills the great things of Nature and the fair	E
To lift us as it were from commonplace	V2
And help us to our joy Better have sent	F2
Our Edith thro' the glories of the earth	U2
To change with her horizon if true Love	Z3
Were not his own imperial all in all	Z
	-
Far off we went My God I would not live	A4
Save that I think this gross hard seeming world	F2
Is our misshaping vision of the Powers	V2
Behind the world that make our griefs our gains	V2
	-
For on the dark night of our marriage day	F2
The great Tragedian that had quench'd herself	K3
In that assumption of the bridesmaid she	V2
That loved me our true Edith her brain broke	B4
With over acting till she rose and fled	F2
Beneath a pitiless rush of Autumn rain	O2
To the deaf church to be let in to pray	F2
Before that altar so I think and there	E
They found her beating the hard Protestant doors	V2
She died and she was buried ere we knew	F2
	-
I learnt it first I had to speak At once	V2
The bright quick smile of Evelyn that had sunn'd	F2
The morning of our marriage past away	F2
And on our home return the daily want	F2
Of Edith in the house the garden still	Z
Haunted us like her ghost and by and by	H3
Either from that necessity for talk	C4
Which lives with blindness or plain innocence	V2
Of nature or desire that her lost child	F2
Should earn from both the praise of heroism	N2
The mother broke her promise to the dead	F2
And told the living daughter with what love	Z3
Edith had welcomed my brief wooing of her	K
And all her sweet self sacrifice and death	D4
	-
Henceforth that mystic bond betwixt the twins	V2
Did I not tell you they were twins prevail'd	F2
So far that no caress could win my wife	E4
Back to that passionate answer of full heart	F2
I had from her at first Not that her love	Z3
Tho' scarce as great as Edith's power of love	Z3
Had lessen'd but the mother's garrulous wail	Z
For ever woke the unhappy Past again	O2
Till that dead bridesmaid meant to be my bride	F2
Put forth cold hands between us and I fear'd	F2
The very fountains of her life were chill'd	F2
So took her thence and brought her here and here	F4
She bore a child whom reverently we call'd	F2
Edith and in the second year was born	O2
A second this I named from her own self	K3
Evelyn then two weeks no more she joined	F2
In and beyond the grave that one she loved	F2
Now in this quiet of declining life	E4
Thro' dreams by night and trances of the day	F2
The sisters glide about me hand in hand	F2
Both beautiful alike nor can I tell	Z
One from the other no nor care to tell	Z
One from the other only know they come	N2
They smile upon me till remembering all	Z
The love they both have borne me and the love	Z3
I bore them both divided as I am	G4
From either by the stillness of the grave	H4
I know not which of these I love the best	F2
	-
But you love Edith and her own true eyes	V2
Are traitors to her our quick Evelyn	O2
The merrier prettier wittier as they talk	C4
And not without good reason my good son	O2
Is yet untouch'd and I that hold them both	D2
Dearest of all things well I am not sure	I4
But if there lie a preference eitherway	F2
And in the rich vocabulary of Love	Z3
'Most dearest' be a true superlative	J4
I think I likewise love your Edith most	F2

Alfred Lord Tennyson

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The Sisters (1880) is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.

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