A Year's Carols Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEEDFG ACCHIIHJK LMMNEENDD OMMPEEPQQ NEEERRENN SEEHTTHUU VWWEAAESS EXXMYYMTT ZIISA2A2SCC ZSSPEEPEE ZB2B2C2D2D2C2AA ZXXSMMSAAJANUARY | A |
HAIL January that bearest here | B |
On snowbright breasts the babe faced year | C |
That weeps and trembles to be born | D |
Hail maid and mother strong and bright | E |
Hooded and cloaked and shod with white | E |
Whose eyes are stars that match the morn | D |
Thy forehead braves the storm's bent bow | F |
Thy feet enkindle stars of snow | G |
- | |
FEBRUARY | A |
Wan February with weeping cheer | C |
Whose cold hand guides the youngling year | C |
Down misty roads of mire and rime | H |
Before thy pale and fitful face | I |
The shrill wind shifts the clouds apace | I |
Through skies the morning scarce may climb | H |
Thine eyes are thick with heavy tears | J |
But lit with hopes that light the year's | K |
- | |
MARCH | L |
Hail happy March whose foot on earth | M |
Rings as the blast of martial mirth | M |
When trumpets fire men's hearts for fray | N |
No race of wild things winged or finned | E |
May match the might that wings thy wind | E |
Through air and sea through scud and spray | N |
Strong joy and thou were powers twin born | D |
Of tempest and the towering morn | D |
- | |
APRIL | O |
Crowned April king whose kiss bade earth | M |
Bring forth to time her lordliest birth | M |
When Shakespeare from thy lips drew breath | P |
And laughed to hold in one soft hand | E |
A spell that bade the world's wheel stand | E |
And power on life and power on death | P |
With quiring suns and sunbright showers | Q |
Praise him the flower of all thy flowers | Q |
- | |
MAY | N |
Hail May whose bark puts forth full sailed | E |
For summer May whom Chaucer hailed | E |
With all his happy might of heart | E |
And gave thy rosebright daisy tips | R |
Strange frarance from his amorous lips | R |
That still thine own breath seems to part | E |
And sweeten till each word they say | N |
Is even a flower of flowering May | N |
- | |
JUNE | S |
Strong June superb serene elate | E |
With conscience of thy sovereign state | E |
Untouched of thunder though the storm | H |
Scathe here and there thy shuddering skies | T |
And bid its lightning cross thine eyes | T |
With fire thy golden hours inform | H |
Earth and the souls of men with life | U |
That brings forth peace from shining strife | U |
- | |
JULY | V |
Hail proud July whose fervent mouth | W |
Bids even be morn and north be south | W |
By grace and gospel of thy word | E |
Whence all the splendour of the sea | A |
Lies breathless with delight in thee | A |
And marvel at the music heard | E |
From the ardent silent lips of noon | S |
And midnight's rapturous plenilune | S |
- | |
AUGUST | E |
Great August lord of golden lands | X |
Whose lordly joy through seas and strands | X |
And all the red ripe heart of earth | M |
Strikes passion deep as life and stills | Y |
The folded vales and folding hills | Y |
With gladness too divine for mirth | M |
The gracious glories of thine eyes | T |
Make night a noon where darkness dies | T |
- | |
SEPTEMBER | Z |
Hail kind September friend whose grace | I |
Renews the bland year's bounteous face | I |
With largess given of corn and wine | S |
Through many a land that laughs with love | A2 |
Of thee and all the heaven above | A2 |
More fruitful found than all save thine | S |
Whose skies fulfil with strenuous cheer | C |
The fervent fields that knew thee near | C |
- | |
OCTOBER | Z |
October of the tawny crown | S |
Whose heavy laden hands drop down | S |
Blessing the bounties of thy breath | P |
And mildness of thy mellowing might | E |
Fill earth and heaven with love and light | E |
Too sweet for fear to dream of death | P |
Or memory while thy joy lives yet | E |
To know what joy would fain forget | E |
- | |
NOVEMBER | Z |
Hail soft November though thy pale | B2 |
Sad smile rebuke the words that hail | B2 |
Thy sorrow with no sorrowing words | C2 |
Or gratulate thy grief with song | D2 |
Less bitter than the winds that wrong | D2 |
Thy withering woodlands where the birds | C2 |
Keep hardly heart to sing or see | A |
How fair thy faint wan face may be | A |
- | |
DECEMBER | Z |
December thou whose hallowing hands | X |
On shuddering seas and hardening lands | X |
Set as a sacramental sign | S |
The seal of Christmas felt on earth | M |
As witness toward a new year's birth | M |
Whose promise makes thy death divine | S |
The crowning joy that comes of thee | A |
Makes glad all grief on land or sea | A |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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