Michael Oaktree Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSSR TRUFVWRXYZA2B2RNC2CD 2RR E2BF2G2CH2DFRI2RRA2R EA2J2 K2RRRBRRL2M2N2RBO2P2 N2Q2R2S2RT2VU2RV2P2 V2G2RRDOW2RX2Y2Z2A3R CRRW2B3C3CRJ2D3 RE3S2RF3G3RG3BH3I3J3 K3L3M3N3 O3J2CPL3RRORP3Q3C RRG2RR3 S3T3TU3RF RV3W3B RP3FCN3E3R2W2X3U3V2K 3L3M3R RY3Z3A4U2B4DJ2C4D4M E4HRE4RR3F4C3RPUnder an arch of glorious leaves I passed | A |
Out of the wood and saw the sickle moon | B |
Floating in daylight o'er the pale green sea | C |
- | |
It was the quiet hour before the sun | D |
Gathers the clouds to prayer and silently | C |
Utters his benediction on the waves | E |
That whisper round the death bed of the day | F |
The labourers were returning from the farms | G |
And children danced to meet them From the doors | H |
Of cottages there came a pleasant clink | I |
Where busy hands laid out the evening meal | J |
From smouldering elms around the village spire | K |
There soared and sank the caw of gathering rooks | L |
The faint flushed clouds were listening to the tale | M |
The sea tells to the sunset with one sigh | N |
The last white wistful sea bird sought for peace | O |
And the last fishing boat stole o'er the bar | P |
And fragrant grasses murmuring a prayer | Q |
Bowed all together to the holy west | R |
Bowed all together thro' the golden hush | S |
The breathing hush the solemn scented hush | S |
The holy holy hush of eventide | R |
- | |
And in among the ferns that crowned the hill | T |
With waving green and whispers of the wind | R |
A boy and girl carelessly linking hands | U |
Into their golden dream drifted away | F |
On that rich afternoon of scent and song | V |
Old Michael Oaktree died It was not much | W |
He wished for but indeed I think he longed | R |
To see the light of summer once again | X |
Blossoming o'er the far blue hills I know | Y |
He used to like his rough hewn wooden bench | Z |
Placed in the sun outside the cottage door | A2 |
Where in the listening stillness he could hear | B2 |
Across the waving gilly flowers that crowned | R |
His crumbling garden wall the long low sigh | N |
Of supreme peace that whispers to the hills | C2 |
The sacred consolation of the sea | C |
He did not hope for much he longed to live | D2 |
Until the winter came again he said | R |
But on the last sweet eve of May he died | R |
- | |
I wandered sadly through the dreaming lanes | E2 |
Down to the cottage on that afternoon | B |
For I had known old Michael Oaktree now | F2 |
So many years so many happy years | G2 |
When I was little he had carried me | C |
High on his back to see the harvest home | H2 |
And given me many a ride upon his wagon | D |
Among the dusty scents of sun and hay | F |
He showed me how to snare the bulky trout | R |
That lurked under the bank of yonder brook | I2 |
Indeed he taught me many a country craft | R |
For I was apt to learn and as I learnt | R |
I loved the teacher of that homely lore | A2 |
Deep in my boyish heart he shared the glad | R |
Influence of the suns and winds and waves | E |
Giving my childhood what it hungered for | A2 |
The rude earth wisdom of the primal man | J2 |
- | |
He had retained his childhood Death for him | K2 |
Had no more terror than his bed He walked | R |
With wind and sunlight like a brother glad | R |
Of their companionship and mutual aid | R |
We toilers after truth are weaned too soon | B |
From earth's dark arms and naked barbarous breast | R |
Too soon too soon we leave the golden feast | R |
Fetter the dancing limbs and pluck the crown | L2 |
Of roses from the dreaming brow We pass | M2 |
Our lives in most laborious idleness | N2 |
For we have lost the meaning of the world | R |
We have gone out into the night too soon | B |
We have mistaken all the means of grace | O2 |
And over rated our small power to learn | P2 |
And the years move so swiftly over us | N2 |
We have so little time to live in worlds | Q2 |
Unrealised and unknown realms of joy | R2 |
We are so old before we learn how vain | S2 |
Our effort was how fruitlessly we cast | R |
Our Bread upon the waters and how weak | T2 |
Our hearts were but our chance desires how strong | V |
Then in the dark our sense of light decays | U2 |
We cannot cry to God as once we cried | R |
Lost in the gloom our faith perhaps our love | V2 |
Lies dead with years that never can return | P2 |
- | |
But Michael Oaktree was a man whose love | V2 |
Had never waned through all his eighty years | G2 |
His faith was hardly faith He seemed a part | R |
Of all that he believed in He had lived | R |
In constant conversation with the sun | D |
The wind the silence and the heart of peace | O |
In absolute communion with the Power | W2 |
That rules all action and all tides of thought | R |
And all the secret courses of the stars | X2 |
The Power that still establishes on earth | Y2 |
Desire and worship through the radiant laws | Z2 |
Of Duty Love and Beauty for through these | A3 |
As through three portals of the self same gate | R |
The soul of man attains infinity | C |
And enters into Godhead So he gained | R |
On earth a fore taste of Nirvana not | R |
The void of eastern dream but the desire | W2 |
And goal of all of us whether thro' lives | B3 |
Innumerable by slow degrees we near | C3 |
The death divine or from this breaking body | C |
Of earthly death we flash at once to God | R |
Through simple love and simple faith this man | J2 |
Attained a height above the hope of kings | D3 |
- | |
Yet as I softly shut the little gate | R |
And walked across the garden all the scents | E3 |
Of mingling blossom ached like inmost pain | S2 |
Deep in my heart I know not why They seemed | R |
Distinct distinct as distant evening bells | F3 |
Tolling over the sea a secret chime | G3 |
That breaks and breaks and breaks upon the heart | R |
In sorrow rather than in sound a chime | G3 |
Strange as a streak of sunset to the moon | B |
Strange as a rose upon a starlit grave | H3 |
Strange as a smile upon a dead man's lips | I3 |
A chime of melancholy mute as death | J3 |
But strong as love uttered in plangent tones | K3 |
Of honeysuckle jasmine gilly flowers | L3 |
Jonquils and aromatic musky leaves | M3 |
Lilac and lilies to the rose wreathed porch | N3 |
- | |
At last I tapped and entered and was drawn | O3 |
Into the bedroom of the dying man | J2 |
Who lay propped up with pillows quietly | C |
Gazing for through his open casement far | P |
Beyond the whispers of the gilly flowers | L3 |
He saw the mellow light of eventide | R |
Hallow the west once more and as he gazed | R |
I think I never saw so great a peace | O |
On any human face There was no sound | R |
Except the slumbrous pulsing of a clock | P3 |
The whisper of the garden and far off | Q3 |
The sacred consolation of the sea | C |
- | |
His wife sat at his bed side she had passed | R |
Her eightieth year her only child was dead | R |
She had been wedded more than sixty years | G2 |
And she sat gazing with the man she loved | R |
Quietly out into that unknown Deep | R3 |
- | |
A butterfly floated into the room | S3 |
And back again pausing awhile to bask | T3 |
And wink its painted fans on the warm sill | T |
A bird piped in the roses and there came | U3 |
Into the childless mother's ears a sound | R |
Of happy laughing children far away | F |
- | |
Then Michael Oaktree took his wife's thin hand | R |
Between his big rough hands His eyes grew dark | V3 |
And as he turned to her and died he spoke | W3 |
Two words of perfect faith and love Come soon | B |
- | |
O then in all the world there was no sound | R |
Except the slumbrous pulsing of a clock | P3 |
The whisper of the leaves and far away | F |
The infinite compassion of the sea | C |
But as I softly passed out of the porch | N3 |
And walked across the garden all the scents | E3 |
Of mingling blossoms ached like inmost joy | R2 |
Distinct no more but like one heavenly choir | W2 |
Pealing one mystic music still and strange | X3 |
As voices of the holy Seraphim | U3 |
One voice of adoration mute as love | V2 |
Stronger than death and pure with wedded tones | K3 |
Of honeysuckle jasmine gilly flowers | L3 |
Jonquils and aromatic musky leaves | M3 |
Lilac and lilies to the garden gate | R |
- | |
O then indeed I knew how closely knit | R |
To stars and flowers we are how many means | Y3 |
Of grace there are for those that never lose | Z3 |
Their sense of membership in this divine | A4 |
Body of God for those that all their days | U2 |
Have walked in quiet communion with the Life | B4 |
That keeps the common secret of the sun | D |
The wind the silence and the heart of man | J2 |
There is one God one Love one everlasting | C4 |
Mystery of Incarnation one creative | D4 |
Passion behind the many coloured veil | M |
- | |
We have obscured God's face with partial truths | E4 |
The cause of all our sorrow and sin our wars | H |
Of force and thought in this unheavened world | R |
Yet by the battle of our partial truths | E4 |
The past against the present and the swift | R |
Moment of passing joy against the deep | R3 |
Eternal love ever the weaker truth | F4 |
Falls to the stronger till once more we near | C3 |
The enfolding splendour of the whole Our God | R |
Has been too long a partial God We ar | P |
Alfred Noyes
(1)
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