Before Dawn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABAAAB CCCDAAAD EEEFAAAF EEEGHHHG CCCIJJJI KKKJAAAJ JJJLAAAL EEEGAAAG LLLLEEEL JJJMCCCMSWEET LIFE if life were stronger | A |
Earth clear of years that wrong her | A |
Then two things might live longer | A |
Two sweeter things than they | B |
Delight the rootless flower | A |
And love the bloomless bower | A |
Delight that lives an hour | A |
And love that lives a day | B |
- | |
From evensong to daytime | C |
When April melts in Maytime | C |
Love lengthens out his playtime | C |
Love lessens breath by breath | D |
And kiss by kiss grows older | A |
On listless throat or shoulder | A |
Turned sideways now turned colder | A |
Than life that dreams of death | D |
- | |
This one thing once worth giving | E |
Life gave and seemed worth living | E |
Sin sweet beyond forgiving | E |
And brief beyond regret | F |
To laugh and love together | A |
And weave with foam and feather | A |
And wind and words the tether | A |
Our memories play with yet | F |
- | |
Ah one thing worth beginning | E |
One thread in life worth spinning | E |
Ah sweet one sin worth sinning | E |
With all the whole soul s will | G |
To lull you till one stilled you | H |
To kiss you till one killed you | H |
To feed you till one filled you | H |
Sweet lips if love could fill | G |
- | |
To hunt sweet Love and lose him | C |
Between white arms and bosom | C |
Between the bud and blossom | C |
Between your throat and chin | I |
To say of shame what is it | J |
Of virtue we can miss it | J |
Of sin we can but kiss it | J |
And it s no longer sin | I |
- | |
To feel the strong soul stricken | K |
Through fleshly pulses quicken | K |
Beneath swift sighs that thicken | K |
Soft hands and lips that smite | J |
Lips that no love can tire | A |
With hands that sting like fire | A |
Weaving the web Desire | A |
To snare the bird Delight | J |
- | |
But love so lightly plighted | J |
Our love with torch unlighted | J |
Paused near us unaffrighted | J |
Who found and left him free | L |
None seeing us cloven in sunder | A |
Will weep or laugh or wonder | A |
Light love stands clear of thunder | A |
And safe from winds at sea | L |
- | |
As when late larks give warning | E |
Of dying lights and dawning | E |
Night murmurs to the morning | E |
Lie still O love lie still | G |
And half her dark limbs cover | A |
The white limbs of her lover | A |
With amorous plumes that hover | A |
And fervent lips that chill | G |
- | |
As scornful day represses | L |
Night s void and vain caresses | L |
And from her cloudier tresses | L |
Unwinds the gold of his | L |
With limbs from limbs dividing | E |
And breath by breath subsiding | E |
For love has no abiding | E |
But dies before the kiss | L |
- | |
So hath it been so be it | J |
For who shall live and flee it | J |
But look that no man see it | J |
Or hear it unaware | M |
Lest all who love and choose him | C |
See Love and so refuse him | C |
For all who find him lose him | C |
But all have found him fair | M |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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