A Word For The Nation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCDDEEFGHG ABIBIJJKKLLLL AMNMNOOPPFGFG QBRBRMMSSFLFL LTQTQBBUUHGHG QBVVVLLWWVVVV QVXVXXXYYVGVG QVZVZHHFFGVGV VFVFVFFVVVVVVI | A |
A word across the water | B |
Against our ears is borne | C |
Of threatenings and of slaughter | B |
Of rage and spite and scorn | C |
We have not alack an ally to befriend us | D |
And the season is ripe to extirpate and end us | D |
Let the German touch hands with the Gaul | E |
And the fortress of England must fall | E |
And the sea shall be swept of her seamen | F |
And the waters they ruled be their graves | G |
And Dutchmen and Frenchmen be free men | H |
And Englishmen slaves | G |
- | |
II | A |
Our time once more is over | B |
Once more our end is near | I |
A bull without a drover | B |
The Briton reels to rear | I |
And the van of the nations is held by his betters | J |
And the seas of the world shall be loosed from his fetters | J |
And his glory shall pass as a breath | K |
And the life that is in him be death | K |
And the sepulchre sealed on his glory | L |
For a sign to the nations shall be | L |
As of Tyre and of Carthage in story | L |
Once lords of the sea | L |
- | |
III | A |
The lips are wise and loyal | M |
The hearts are brave and true | N |
Imperial thoughts and royal | M |
Make strong the clamorous crew | N |
Whence louder and prouder the noise of defiance | O |
Rings rage from the grave of a trustless alliance | O |
And bids us beware and be warned | P |
As abhorred of all nations and scorned | P |
As a swordless and spiritless nation | F |
A wreck on the waste of the waves | G |
So foams the released indignation | F |
Of masterless slaves | G |
- | |
IV | Q |
Brute throats that miss the collar | B |
Bowed backs that ask the whip | R |
Stretched hands that lack the dollar | B |
And many a lie seared lip | R |
Forefeel and foreshow for us signs as funereal | M |
As the signs that were regal of yore and imperial | M |
We shall pass as the princes they served | S |
We shall reap what our fathers deserved | S |
And the place that was England's be taken | F |
By one that is worthier than she | L |
And the yoke of her empire be shaken | F |
Like spray from the sea | L |
- | |
V | L |
French hounds whose necks are aching | T |
Still from the chain they crave | Q |
In dog day madness breaking | T |
The dog leash thus may rave | Q |
But the seas that for ages have fostered and fenced her | B |
Laugh echoing the yell of their kennel against her | B |
And their moan if destruction draw near them | U |
And the roar of her laughter to hear them | U |
For she knows that if Englishmen be men | H |
Their England has all that she craves | G |
All love and all honour from free men | H |
All hatred from slaves | G |
- | |
VI | Q |
All love that rests upon her | B |
Like sunshine and sweet air | V |
All light of perfect honour | V |
And praise that ends in prayer | V |
She wins not more surely she wears not more proudly | L |
Than the token of tribute that clatters thus loudly | L |
The tribute of foes when they meet | W |
That rattles and rings at her feet | W |
The tribute of rage and of rancour | V |
The tribute of slaves to the free | V |
To the people whose hope hath its anchor | V |
Made fast in the sea | V |
- | |
VII | Q |
No fool that bows the back he | V |
Feels fit for scourge or brand | X |
No scurril scribes that lackey | V |
The lords of Lackeyland | X |
No penman that yearns as he turns on his pallet | X |
For the place or the pence of a peer or a valet | X |
No whelp of as currish a pack | Y |
As the litter whose yelp it gives back | Y |
Though he answer the cry of his brother | V |
As echoes might answer from caves | G |
Shall be witness as though for a mother | V |
Whose children were slaves | G |
- | |
VIII | Q |
But those found fit to love her | V |
Whose love has root in faith | Z |
Who hear though darkness cover | V |
Time's face what memory saith | Z |
Who seek not the service of great men or small men | H |
But the weal that is common for comfort of all men | H |
Those yet that in trust have beholden | F |
Truth's dawn over England grow golden | F |
And quicken the darkness that stagnates | G |
And scatter the shadows that flee | V |
Shall reply for her meanest as magnates | G |
And masters by sea | V |
- | |
IX | V |
And all shall mark her station | F |
Her message all shall hear | V |
When equal eyed the nation | F |
Bids all her sons draw near | V |
And freedom be more than tradition or faction | F |
And thought be no swifter to serve her than action | F |
And justice alone be above her | V |
That love may be prouder to love her | V |
And time on the crest of her story | V |
Inscribe as remembrance engraves | V |
The sign that subdues with its glory | V |
Kings princes and slaves | V |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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