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 V2O2C4O2D2I4F2Z3J4F2They 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 |
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A sweet voice that you scarce could better that | G |
Now follows Edith echoing Evelyn | D |
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EDITH | H |
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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 |
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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 |
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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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