A Lamentation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDBCDEFGHIIGH JKLMJKLMJKLM NONOPQQPRSRSTUTUVWVW AXYXXYZPSPA2GA2GYB2Y B2C2RC2D2E2F2E2F2D2Y D2YRARARRRRPG2PG2 A2H2I2A2H2I2 J2CK2J2CK2 AL2D2PL2D2PL2D2P M2UN2M2UN2M2M2N2 M2O2M2M2O2M2M2O2M2I | A |
WHO hath known the ways of time | B |
Or trodden behind his feet | C |
There is no such man among men | D |
For chance overcomes him or crime | B |
Changes for all things sweet | C |
In time wax bitter again | D |
Who shall give sorrow enough | E |
Or who the abundance of tears | F |
Mine eyes are heavy with love | G |
And a sword gone thorough mine ears | H |
A sound like a sword and fire | I |
For pity for great desire | I |
Who shall ensure me thereof | G |
Lest I die being full of my fears | H |
- | |
Who hath known the ways and the wrath | J |
The sleepless spirit the root | K |
And blossom of evil will | L |
The divine device of a god | M |
Who shall behold it or hath | J |
The twice tongued prophets are mute | K |
The many speakers are still | L |
No foot has travelled or trod | M |
No hand has meted his path | J |
Man s fate is a blood red fruit | K |
And the mighty gods have their fill | L |
And relax not the rein or the rod | M |
- | |
Ye were mighty in heart from of old | N |
Ye slew with the spear and are slain | O |
Keen after heat is the cold | N |
Sore after summer is rain | O |
And melteth man to the bone | P |
As water he weareth away | Q |
As a flower as an hour in a day | Q |
Fallen from laughter to moan | P |
But my spirit is shaken with fear | R |
Lest an evil thing begin | S |
New born a spear for a spear | R |
And one for another sin | S |
Or ever our tears began | T |
It was known from of old and said | U |
One law for a living man | T |
And another law for the dead | U |
For these are fearful and sad | V |
Vain and things without breath | W |
While he lives let a man be glad | V |
For none hath joy of his death | W |
- | |
II | A |
Who hath known the pain the old pain of earth | X |
Or all the travail of the sea | Y |
The many ways and waves the birth | X |
Fruitless the labour nothing worth | X |
Who hath known who knoweth O gods not we | Y |
There is none shall say he hath seen | Z |
There is none he hath known | P |
Though he saith Lo a lord have I been | S |
I have reaped and sown | P |
I have seen the desire of mine eyes | A2 |
The beginning of love | G |
The season of kisses and sighs | A2 |
And the end thereof | G |
I have known the ways of the sea | Y |
All the perilous ways | B2 |
Strange winds have spoken with me | Y |
And the tongues of strange days | B2 |
I have hewn the pine for ships | C2 |
Where steeds run arow | R |
I have seen from their bridled lips | C2 |
Foam blown as the snow | D2 |
With snapping of chariot poles | E2 |
And with straining of oars | F2 |
I have grazed in the race the goals | E2 |
In the storm the shores | F2 |
As a greave is cleft with an arrow | D2 |
At the joint of the knee | Y |
I have cleft through the sea straits narrow | D2 |
To the heart of the sea | Y |
When air was smitten in sunder | R |
I have watched on high | A |
The ways of the stars and the thunder | R |
In the night of the sky | A |
Where the dark brings forth light as a flower | R |
As from lips that dissever | R |
One abideth the space of an hour | R |
One endureth for ever | R |
Lo what hath he seen or known | P |
Of the way and the wave | G2 |
Unbeholden unsailed on unsown | P |
From the breast to the grave | G2 |
- | |
Or ever the stars were made or skies | A2 |
Grief was born and the kinless night | H2 |
Mother of gods without form or name | I2 |
And light is born out of heaven and dies | A2 |
And one day knows not another s light | H2 |
But night is one and her shape the same | I2 |
- | |
But dumb the goddesses underground | J2 |
Wait and we hear not on earth if their feet | C |
Rise and the night wax loud with their wings | K2 |
Dumb without word or shadow of sound | J2 |
And sift in scales and winnow as wheat | C |
Men s souls and sorrow of manifold things | K2 |
- | |
III | A |
Nor less of grief than ours | L2 |
The gods wrought long ago | D2 |
To bruise men one by one | P |
But with the incessant hours | L2 |
Fresh grief and greener woe | D2 |
Spring as the sudden sun | P |
Year after year makes flowers | L2 |
And these die down and grow | D2 |
And the next year lacks none | P |
- | |
As these men sleep have slept | M2 |
The old heroes in time fled | U |
No dream divided sleep | N2 |
And holier eyes have wept | M2 |
Than ours when on her dead | U |
Gods have seen Thetis weep | N2 |
With heavenly hair far swept | M2 |
Back heavenly hands outspread | M2 |
Round what she could not keep | N2 |
- | |
Could not one day withhold | M2 |
One night and like as these | O2 |
White ashes of no weight | M2 |
Held not his urn the cold | M2 |
Ashes of Heracles | O2 |
For all things born one gate | M2 |
Opens no gate of gold | M2 |
Opens and no man sees | O2 |
Beyond the gods and fate | M2 |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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