A Word For The Navy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCDEFE AFGFGHFIF ADJDJDHBH BKBKFHIH FILILHMBM NONOP H OFOFOQHQ RHRHISIS OIQIQOHTH OHUHUBHTH OOHOHHHHH OVHVHOOHOI | A |
Queen born of the sea that hast borne her | B |
The mightiest of seamen on earth | C |
Bright England whose glories adorn her | B |
And bid her rejoice in thy birth | C |
As others made mothers | D |
Rejoice in births sublime | E |
She names thee she claims thee | F |
The lordliest child of time | E |
- | |
II | A |
All hers is the praise of thy story | F |
All thine is the love of her choice | G |
The light of her waves is thy glory | F |
The sound of thy soul is her voice | G |
They fear it who hear it | H |
And love not truth nor thee | F |
They sicken heart stricken | I |
Who see and would not see | F |
- | |
III | A |
The lords of thy fate and thy keepers | D |
Whose charge is the strength of thy ships | J |
If now they be dreamers and sleepers | D |
Or sluggards with lies at their lips | J |
Thy haters and traitors | D |
False friends or foes descried | H |
Might scatter and shatter | B |
Too soon thy princely pride | H |
- | |
IV | - |
Dark Muscovy reptile in rancour | B |
Base Germany blatant in guile | K |
Lay wait for thee riding at anchor | B |
On waters that whisper and smile | K |
They deem thee or dream thee | F |
Less living now than dead | H |
Deep sunken and drunken | I |
With sleep whence fear has fled | H |
- | |
V | F |
And what though thy song as thine action | I |
Wax faint and thy place be not known | L |
While faction is grappling with faction | I |
Twin curs with thy corpse for a bone | L |
They care not who spare not | H |
The noise of pens or throats | M |
Who bluster and muster | B |
Blind ranks and bellowing votes | M |
- | |
VI | - |
Let populace jangle with peerage | N |
And ministers shuffle their mobs | O |
Mad pilots who reck not of steerage | N |
Though tempest ahead of them throbs | O |
That throbbing and sobbing | P |
Of wind and gradual wave | - |
They hear not and fear not | H |
Who guide thee toward thy grave | - |
- | |
VII | - |
No clamour of cries or of parties | O |
Is worth but a whisper from thee | F |
While only the trust of thy heart is | O |
At one with the soul of the sea | F |
In justice her trust is | O |
Whose time her tidestreams keep | Q |
They sink not they shrink not | H |
Time casts them not on sleep | Q |
- | |
VIII | - |
Sleep thou for thy past was so royal | R |
Love hardly would bid thee take heed | H |
Were Russia not faithful and loyal | R |
Nor Germany guiltless of greed | H |
No nation in station | I |
Of story less than thou | S |
Re risen from prison | I |
Can stand against thee now | S |
- | |
IX | O |
Sleep on is the time not a season | I |
For strong men to slumber and sleep | Q |
And wise men to palter with treason | I |
And that they sow tares shall they reap | Q |
The wages of ages | O |
Wherein men smiled and slept | H |
Fame fails them shame veils them | T |
Their record is not kept | H |
- | |
X | O |
Nay whence is it then that we know it | H |
What wages were theirs and what fame | U |
Deep voices of prophet and poet | H |
Bear record against them of shame | U |
Death starker and darker | B |
Than seals the graveyard grate | H |
Entombs them and dooms them | T |
To darkness deep as fate | H |
- | |
XI | O |
But thou though the world should misdoubt thee | O |
Be strong as the seas at thy side | H |
Bind on but thine armour about thee | O |
That girds thee with power and with pride | H |
Where Drake stood where Blake stood | H |
Where fame sees Nelson stand | H |
Stand thou too and now too | H |
Take thou thy fate in hand | H |
- | |
XII | O |
At the gate of the sea in the gateway | V |
They stood as the guards of thy gate | H |
Take now but thy strengths to thee straightway | V |
Though late we will deem it not late | H |
Thy story thy glory | O |
The very soul of thee | O |
It rose not it grows not | H |
It comes not save by sea | O |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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