A Nympholept Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABBABCDCDDCDEFEFFE FGHHHHHHHIHIIHIHJHJJ HJKLKLLKLHMHMMHMKNKN NKOPHPHHPHOHOHHOHQHQ HHQHRHRHHRHOHOHHOHOD ODDODSTSTTSTUVUVVUVD WDWXDWKYKYYKYZKZKKZK A2UYUUYUOB2OB2B2OB2D UDUUDUHHHHHHHHOHOOHO C2HC2HHC2HOIOIIOIKD2 KD2D2KD2HOHOOHOYHYHH YHE2HE2HHE2HF2KF2KKF 2KYKYKKYKG2HG2HHG2HY KYKKYKE2KE2KKE2KH2HH 2HHH2HVOVOOVOHUHUUHU

Summer and noon and a splendour of silence felt	A
Seen and heard of the spirit within the sense	B
Soft through the frondage the shades of the sunbeams melt	A
Sharp through the foliage the shafts of them keen and dense	B
Cleave as discharged from the string of the God's bow tense	B
As a war steed's girth and bright as a warrior's belt	A
Ah why should an hour that is heaven for an hour pass hence	B
I dare not sleep for delight of the perfect hour	C
Lest God be wroth that his gift should be scorned of man	D
The face of the warm bright world is the face of a flower	C
The word of the wind and the leaves that the light winds fan	D
As the word that quickened at first into flame and ran	D
Creative and subtle and fierce with invasive power	C
Through darkness and cloud from the breath of the one God Pan	D
The perfume of earth possessed by the sun pervades	E
The chaster air that he soothes but with sense of sleep	F
Soft imminent strong as desire that prevails and fades	E
The passing noon that beholds not a cloudlet weep	F
Imbues and impregnates life with delight more deep	F
Than dawn or sunset or moonrise on lawns or glades	E
Can shed from the skies that receive it and may not keep	F
The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast	G
It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day	H
And the moon triumphant when twilight is overpast	H
Takes pride but awhile in the hours of her stately sway	H
But the might of the noon though the light of it pass away	H
Leaves earth fulfilled of desires and of dreams that last	H
But if any there be that hath sense of them none can say	H
For if any there be that hath sight of them sense or trust	H
Made strong by the might of a vision the strength of a dream	I
His lips shall straiten and close as a dead man's must	H
His heart shall be sealed as the voice of a frost bound stream	I
For the deep mid mystery of light and of heat that seem	I
To clasp and pierce dark earth and enkindle dust	H
Shall a man's faith say what it is or a man's guess deem	I
Sleep lies not heavier on eyes that have watched all night	H
Than hangs the heat of the noon on the hills and trees	J
Why now should the haze not open and yield to sight	H
A fairer secret than hope or than slumber sees	J
I seek not heaven with submission of lips and knees	J
With worship and prayer for a sign till it leap to light	H
I gaze on the gods about me and call on these	J
I call on the gods hard by the divine dim powers	K
Whose likeness is here at hand in the breathless air	L
In the pulseless peace of the fervid and silent flowers	K
In the faint sweet speech of the waters that whisper there	L
Ah what should darkness do in a world so fair	L
The bent grass heaves not the couch grass quails not or cowers	K
The wind's kiss frets not the rowan's or aspen's hair	L
But the silence trembles with passion of sound suppressed	H
And the twilight quivers and yearns to the sunward wrung	M
With love as with pain and the wide wood's motionless breast	H
Is thrilled with a dumb desire that would fain find tongue	M
And palpitates tongueless as she whom a man snake stung	M
Whose heart now heaves in the nightingale never at rest	H
Nor satiated ever with song till her last be sung	M
Is it rapture or terror that circles me round and invades	K
Each vein of my life with hope if it be not fear	N
Each pulse that awakens my blood into rapture fades	K
Each pulse that subsides into dread of a strange thing near	N
Requickens with sense of a terror less dread than dear	N
Is peace not one with light in the deep green glades	K
Where summer at noonday slumbers Is peace not here	O
The tall thin stems of the firs and the roof sublime	P
That screens from the sun the floor of the steep still wood	H
Deep silent splendid and perfect and calm as time	P
Stand fast as ever in sight of the night they stood	H
When night gave all that moonlight and dewfall could	H
The dense ferns deepen the moss glows warm as the thyme	P
The wild heath quivers about me the world is good	H
Is it Pan's breath fierce in the tremulous maidenhair	O
That bids fear creep as a snake through the woodlands felt	H
In the leaves that it stirs not yet in the mute bright air	O
In the stress of the sun For here has the great God dwelt	H
For hence were the shafts of his love or his anger dealt	H
For here has his wrath been fierce as his love was fair	O
When each was as fire to the darkness its breath bade melt	H
Is it love is it dread that enkindles the trembling noon	Q
That yearns reluctant in rapture that fear has fed	H
As man for woman as woman for man Full soon	Q
If I live and the life that may look on him drop not dead	H
Shall the ear that hears not a leaf quake hear his tread	H
The sense that knows not the sound of the deep day's tune	Q
Receive the God be it love that he brings or dread	H
The naked noon is upon me the fierce dumb spell	R
The fearful charm of the strong sun's imminent might	H
Unmerciful steadfast deeper than seas that swell	R
Pervades invades appals me with loveless light	H
With harsher awe than breathes in the breath of night	H
Have mercy God who art all For I know thee well	R
How sharp is thine eye to lighten thine hand to smite	H
The whole wood feels thee the whole air fears thee but fear	O
So deep so dim so sacred is wellnigh sweet	H
For the light that hangs and broods on the woodlands here	O
Intense invasive intolerant imperious and meet	H
To lighten the works of thine hands and the ways of thy feet	H
Is hot with the fire of the breath of thy life and dear	O
As hope that shrivels or shrinks not for frost or heat	H
Thee thee the supreme dim godhead approved afar	O
Perceived of the soul and conceived of the sense of man	D
We scarce dare love and we dare not fear the star	O
We call the sun that lit us when life began	D
To brood on the world that is thine by his grace for a span	D
Conceals and reveals in the semblance of things that are	O
Thine immanent presence the pulse of thy heart's life Pan	D
The fierce mid noon that wakens and warms the snake	S
Conceals thy mercy reveals thy wrath and again	T
The dew bright hour that assuages the twilight brake	S
Conceals thy wrath and reveals thy mercy then	T
Thou art fearful only for evil souls of men	T
That feel with nightfall the serpent within them wake	S
And hate the holy darkness on glade and glen	T
Yea then we know not and dream not if ill things be	U
Or if aught of the work of the wrong of the world be thine	V
We hear not the footfall of terror that treads the sea	U
We hear not the moan of winds that assail the pine	V
We see not if shipwreck reign in the storm's dim shrine	V
If death do service and doom bear witness to thee	U
We see not know not if blood for thy lips be wine	V
But in all things evil and fearful that fear may scan	D
As in all things good as in all things fair that fall	W
We know thee present and latent the lord of man	D
In the murmuring of doves in the clamouring of winds that call	W
And wolves that howl for their prey in the midnight's pall	X
In the naked and nymph like feet of the dawn O Pan	D
And in each life living O thou the God who art all	W
Smiling and singing wailing and wringing of hands	K
Laughing and weeping watching and sleeping still	Y
Proclaim but and prove but thee as the shifted sands	K
Speak forth and show but the strength of the sea's wild will	Y
That sifts and grinds them as grain in the storm wind's mill	Y
In thee is the doom that falls and the doom that stands	K
The tempests utter thy word and the stars fulfil	Y
Where Etna shudders with passion and pain volcanic	Z
That rend her heart as with anguish that rends a man's	K
Where Typho labours and finds not his thews Titanic	Z
In breathless torment that ever the flame's breath fans	K
Men felt and feared thee of old whose pastoral clans	K
Were given to the charge of thy keeping and soundless panic	Z
Held fast the woodland whose depths and whose heights were Pan's	K
And here though fear be less than delight and awe	A2
Be one with desire and with worship of earth and thee	U
So mild seems now thy secret and speechless law	Y
So fair and fearless and faithful and godlike she	U
So soft the spell of thy whisper on stream and sea	U
Yet man should fear lest he see what of old men saw	Y
And withered yet shall I quail if thy breath smite me	U
Lord God of life and of light and of all things fair	O
Lord God of ravin and ruin and all things dim	B2
Death seals up life and darkness the sunbright air	O
And the stars that watch blind earth in the deep night swim	B2
Laugh saying What God is your God that ye call on him	B2
What is man that the God who is guide of our way should care	O
If day for a man be golden or night be grim	B2
But thou dost thou hear Stars too but abide for a span	D
Gods too but endure for a season but thou if thou be	U
God more than shadows conceived and adored of man	D
Kind Gods and fierce that bound him or made him free	U
The skies that scorn us are less in thy sight than we	U
Whose souls have strength to conceive and perceive thee Pan	D
With sense more subtle than senses that hear and see	U
Yet may not it say though it seek thee and think to find	H
One soul of sense in the fire and the frost bound clod	H
What heart is this what spirit alive or blind	H
That moves thee only we know that the ways we trod	H
We tread with hands unguided with feet unshod	H
With eyes unlightened and yet if with steadfast mind	H
Perchance may we find thee and know thee at last for God	H
Yet then should God be dark as the dawn is bright	H
And bright as the night is dark on the world no more	O
Light slays not darkness and darkness absorbs not light	H
And the labour of evil and good from the years of yore	O
Is even as the labour of waves on a sunless shore	O
And he who is first and last who is depth and height	H
Keeps silence now as the sun when the woods wax hoar	O
The dark dumb godhead innate in the fair world's life	C2
Imbues the rapture of dawn and of noon with dread	H
Infects the peace of the star shod night with strife	C2
Informs with terror the sorrow that guards the dead	H
No service of bended knee or of humbled head	H
May soothe or subdue the God who has change to wife	C2
And life with death is as morning with evening wed	H
And yet if the light and the life in the light that here	O
Seem soft and splendid and fervid as sleep may seem	I
Be more than the shine of a smile or the flash of a tear	O
Sleep change and death are less than a spell struck dream	I
And fear than the fall of a leaf on a starlit stream	I
And yet if the hope that hath said it absorb not fear	O
What helps it man that the stars and the waters gleam	I
What helps it man that the noon be indeed intense	K
The night be indeed worth worship Fear and pain	D2
Were lords and masters yet of the secret sense	K
Which now dares deem not that light is as darkness fain	D2
Though dark dreams be to declare it crying in vain	D2
For whence thou God of the light and the darkness whence	K
Dawns now this vision that bids not the sunbeams wane	D2
What light what shadow diviner than dawn or night	H
Draws near makes pause and again or I dream draws near	O
More soft than shadow more strong than the strong sun's light	H
More pure than moonbeams yea but the rays run sheer	O
As fire from the sun through the dusk of the pinewood clear	O
And constant yea but the shadow itself is bright	H
That the light clothes round with love that is one with fear	O
Above and behind it the noon and the woodland lie	Y
Terrible radiant with mystery superb and subdued	H
Triumphant in silence and hardly the sacred sky	Y
Seems free from the tyrannous weight of the dumb fierce mood	H
Which rules as with fire and invasion of beams that brood	H
The breathless rapture of earth till its hour pass by	Y
And leave her spirit released and her peace renewed	H
I sleep not never in sleep has a man beholden	E2
This From the shadow that trembles and yearns with light	H
Suppressed and elate and reluctant obscure and golden	E2
As water kindled with presage of dawn or night	H
A form a face a wonder to sense and sight	H
Grows great as the moon through the month and her eyes embolden	E2
Fear till it change to desire and desire to delight	H
I sleep not sleep would die of a dream so strange	F2
A dream so sweet would die as a rainbow dies	K
As a sunbow laughs and is lost on the waves that range	F2
And reck not of light that flickers or spray that flies	K
But the sun withdraws not the woodland shrinks not or sighs	K
No sweet thing sickens with sense or with fear of change	F2
Light wounds not darkness blinds not my steadfast eyes	K
Only the soul in my sense that receives the soul	Y
Whence now my spirit is kindled with breathless bliss	K
Knows well if the light that wounds it with love makes whole	Y
If hopes that carol be louder than fears that hiss	K
If truth be spoken of flowers and of waves that kiss	K
Of clouds and stars that contend for a sunbright goal	Y
And yet may I dream that I dream not indeed of this	K
An earth born dreamer constrained by the bonds of birth	G2
Held fast by the flesh compelled by his veins that beat	H
And kindle to rapture or wrath to desire or to mirth	G2
May hear not surely the fall of immortal feet	H
May feel not surely if heaven upon earth be sweet	H
And here is my sense fulfilled of the joys of earth	G2
Light silence bloom shade murmur of leaves that meet	H
Bloom fervour and perfume of grasses and flowers aglow	Y
Breathe and brighten about me the darkness gleams	K
The sweet light shivers and laughs on the slopes below	Y
Made soft by leaves that lighten and change like dreams	K
The silence thrills with the whisper of secret streams	K
That well from the heart of the woodland these I know	Y
Earth bore them heaven sustained them with showers and beams	K
I lean my face to the heather and drink the sun	E2
Whose flame lit odour satiates the flowers mine eyes	K
Close and the goal of delight and of life is one	E2
No more I crave of earth or her kindred skies	K
No more But the joy that springs from them smiles and flies	K
The sweet work wrought of them surely the good work done	E2
If the mind and the face of the season be loveless dies	K
Thee therefore thee would I come to cleave to cling	H2
If haply thy heart be kind and thy gifts be good	H
Unknown sweet spirit whose vesture is soft in spring	H2
In summer splendid in autumn pale as the wood	H
That shudders and wanes and shrinks as a shamed thing should	H
In winter bright as the mail of a war worn king	H2
Who stands where foes fled far from the face of him stood	H
My spirit or thine is it breath of thy life or of mine	V
Which fills my sense with a rapture that casts out fear	O
Pan's dim frown wanes and his wild eyes brighten as thine	V
Transformed as night or as day by the kindling year	O
Earth born or mine eye were withered that sees mine ear	O
That hears were stricken to death by the sense divine	V
Earth born I know thee but heaven is about me here	O
The terror that whispers in darkness and flames in light	H
The doubt that speaks in the silence of earth and sea	U
The sense more fearful at noon than in midmost night	H
Of wrath scarce hushed and of imminent ill to be	U
Where are they Heaven is as earth and as heaven to me	U
Earth for the shadows that sundered them here take flight	H
And nought is all as am I but a dream of thee	U

Algernon Charles Swinburne

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