By The North Sea Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B CDEFFDDFGHGHGH HFIFGGGG GGGGGJGK GGGGGGGG LMLMGNGN GOGOG G PQPQHGRG BGBGSGSG BHBHGGGG GTGTBGBG UGUGGGGG UUUULGLG BGBGGUGU GGGGPGPG HUHUBUBU BUBUGBGB VGVGVG GBGBGB GUGUGU UBUBUB HWHWHW BXBXBX GYGYGY G G G GGGGGG GUGUGU BGBGBG HBHBHB U U U UUUUUU HZHZHZ UUUUUU BUBUBU GBGBGB GGGGGG A2 A2HGHG VB2VB2GGGG H H BGBG VUVUHUHU HFHFUGUG GUGUGUGU GGGG GUGUBGBG VWVW G G BGBGBUBU BGBGGGGG NBNBNBNB C2UC2UC2GC2G HGHGG G GGGG G GGGGGG FGFGFG BD2BD2BD2 HBHBHB F F F HHHHHH HBHBHB HUHUHU BBBBBB HUHUHU BE2BF2BE2 HG2HG2HG2 U U BGBGBG B B B UUUUUU HGHGHG UGUGUG VBVBVB UH2UH2GBGB BBBBBUBU BUBUBBBB HFHFBUBU HH2HH2UBUB GBGBUFUF G G B B

To Walter Theodore Watts	A
	-
	-
'We are what suns and winds and waters make us ' Landor	B
	-
Sea wind and sun with light and sound and breath	C
The spirit of man fulfilling these create	D
That joy wherewith man's life grown passionate	E
Gains heart to hear and sense to read and faith	F
To know the secret word our Mother saith	F
In silence and to see though doubt wax great	D
Death as the shadow cast by life on fate	D
Passing whose shade we call the shadow of death	F
Brother to whom our Mother as to me	G
Is dearer than all dreams of days undone	H
This song I give you of the sovereign three	G
That are as life and sleep and death are one	H
A song the sea wind gave me from the sea	G
Where nought of man's endures before the sun	H
	-
	-
	-
I	-
	-
A land that is lonelier than ruin	H
A sea that is stranger than death	F
Far fields that a rose never blew in	I
Wan waste where the winds lack breath	F
Waste endless and boundless and flowerless	G
But of marsh blossoms fruitless as free	G
Where earth lies exhausted as powerless	G
To strive with the sea	G
	-
Far flickers the flight of the swallows	G
Far flutters the weft of the grass	G
Spun dense over desolate hollows	G
More pale than the clouds as they pass	G
Thick woven as the weft of a witch is	G
Round the heart of a thrall that hath sinned	J
Whose youth and the wrecks of its riches	G
Are waifs on the wind	K
	-
The pastures are herdless and sheepless	G
No pasture or shelter for herds	G
The wind is relentless and sleepless	G
And restless and songless the birds	G
Their cries from afar fall breathless	G
Their wings are as lightnings that flee	G
For the land has two lords that are deathless	G
Death's self and the sea	G
	-
These twain as a king with his fellow	L
Hold converse of desolate speech	M
And her waters are haggard and yellow	L
And crass with the scurf of the beach	M
And his garments are grey as the hoary	G
Wan sky where the day lies dim	N
And his power is to her and his glory	G
As hers unto him	N
	-
In the pride of his power she rejoices	G
In her glory he glows and is glad	O
In her darkness the sound of his voice is	G
With his breath she dilates and is mad	O
'If thou slay me O death and outlive me	G
Yet thy love hath fulfilled me of thee '	-
'Shall I give thee not back if thou give me	G
O sister O sea '	-
	-
And year upon year dawns living	P
And age upon age drops dead	Q
And his hand is not weary of giving	P
And the thirst of her heart is not fed	Q
And the hunger that moans in her passion	H
And the rage in her hunger that roars	G
As a wolf's that the winter lays lash on	R
Still calls and implores	G
	-
Her walls have no granite for girder	B
No fortalice fronting her stands	G
But reefs the bloodguiltiest of murder	B
Are less than the banks of her sands	G
These number their slain by the thousand	S
For the ship hath no surety to be	G
When the bank is abreast of her bows and	S
Aflush with the sea	G
	-
No surety to stand and no shelter	B
To dawn out of darkness but one	H
Out of waters that hurtle and welter	B
No succour to dawn with the sun	H
But a rest from the wind as it passes	G
Where hardly redeemed from the waves	G
Lie thick as the blades of the grasses	G
The dead in their graves	G
	-
A multitude noteless of numbers	G
As wild weeds cast on an heap	T
And sounder than sleep are their slumbers	G
And softer than song is their sleep	T
And sweeter than all things and stranger	B
The sense if perchance it may be	G
That the wind is divested of danger	B
And scatheless the sea	G
	-
That the roar of the banks they breasted	U
Is hurtless as bellowing of herds	G
And the strength of his wings that invested	U
The wind as the strength of a bird's	G
As the sea mew's might or the swallow's	G
That cry to him back if he cries	G
As over the graves and their hollows	G
Days darken and rise	G
	-
As the souls of the dead men disburdened	U
And clean of the sins that they sinned	U
With a lovelier than man's life guerdoned	U
And delight as a wave's in the wind	U
And delight as the wind's in the billow	L
Birds pass and deride with their glee	G
The flesh that has dust for its pillow	L
As wrecks have the sea	G
	-
When the ways of the sun wax dimmer	B
Wings flash through the dusk like beams	G
As the clouds in the lit sky glimmer	B
The bird in the graveyard gleams	G
As the cloud at its wing's edge whitens	G
When the clarions of sunrise are heard	U
The graves that the bird's note brightens	G
Grow bright for the bird	U
	-
As the waves of the numberless waters	G
That the wind cannot number who guides	G
Are the sons of the shore and the daughters	G
Here lulled by the chime of the tides	G
And here in the press of them standing	P
We know not if these or if we	G
Live truliest or anchored to landing	P
Or drifted to sea	G
	-
In the valley he named of decision	H
No denser were multitudes met	U
When the soul of the seer in her vision	H
Saw nations for doom of them set	U
Saw darkness in dawn and the splendour	B
Of judgment the sword and the rod	U
But the doom here of death is more tender	B
And gentler the god	U
	-
And gentler the wind from the dreary	B
Sea banks by the waves overlapped	U
Being weary speaks peace to the weary	B
From slopes that the tide stream hath sapped	U
And sweeter than all that we call so	G
The seal of their slumber shall be	B
Till the graves that embosom them also	G
Be sapped of the sea	B
	-
II	-
	-
For the heart of the waters is cruel	V
And the kisses are dire of their lips	G
And their waves are as fire is to fuel	V
To the strength of the sea faring ships	G
Though the sea's eye gleam as a jewel	V
To the sun's eye back as he dips	G
	-
Though the sun's eye flash to the sea's	G
Live light of delight and of laughter	B
And her lips breathe back to the breeze	G
The kiss that the wind's lips waft her	B
From the sun that subsides and sees	G
No gleam of the storm's dawn after	B
	-
And the wastes of the wild sea marches	G
Where the borderers are matched in their might	U
Bleak fens that the sun's weight parches	G
Dense waves that reject his light	U
Change under the change coloured arches	G
Of changeless morning and night	U
	-
The waves are as ranks enrolled	U
Too close for the storm to sever	B
The fens lie naked and cold	U
But their heart fails utterly never	B
The lists are set from of old	U
And the warfare endureth for ever	B
	-
III	-
	-
Miles and miles and miles of desolation	H
Leagues on leagues on leagues without a change	W
Sign or token of some eldest nation	H
Here would make the strange land not so strange	W
Time forgotten yea since time's creation	H
Seem these borders where the sea birds range	W
	-
Slowly gladly full of peace and wonder	B
Grows his heart who journeys here alone	X
Earth and all its thoughts of earth sink under	B
Deep as deep in water sinks a stone	X
Hardly knows it if the rollers thunder	B
Hardly whence the lonely wind is blown	X
	-
Tall the plumage of the rush flower tosses	G
Sharp and soft in many a curve and line	Y
Gleam and glow the sea coloured marsh mosses	G
Salt and splendid from the circling brine	Y
Streak on streak of glimmering seashine crosses	G
All the land sea saturate as with wine	Y
	-
Far and far between in divers orders	G
Clear grey steeples cleave the low grey sky	-
Fast and firm as time unshaken warders	G
Hearts made sure by faith by hope made high	-
These alone in all the wild sea borders	G
Fear no blast of days and nights that die	-
	-
All the land is like as one man's face is	G
Pale and troubled still with change of cares	G
Doubt and death pervade her clouded spaces	G
Strength and length of life and peace are theirs	G
Theirs alone amid these weary places	G
Seeing not how the wild world frets and fares	G
	-
Firm and fast where all is cloud that changes	G
Cloud clogged sunlight cloud by sunlight thinned	U
Stern and sweet above the sand hill ranges	G
Watch the towers and tombs of men that sinned	U
Once now calm as earth whose only change is	G
Wind and light and wind and cloud and wind	U
	-
Out and in and out the sharp straits wander	B
In and out and in the wild way strives	G
Starred and paved and lined with flowers that squander	B
Gold as golden as the gold of hives	G
Salt and moist and multiform but yonder	B
See what sign of life or death survives	G
	-
Seen then only when the songs of olden	H
Harps were young whose echoes yet endure	B
Hymned of Homer when his years were golden	H
Known of only when the world was pure	B
Here is Hades manifest beholden	H
Surely surely here if aught be sure	B
	-
Where the border line was crossed that sundering	-
Death from life keeps weariness from rest	U
None can tell who fares here forward wondering	-
None may doubt but here might end his quest	U
Here life's lightning joys and woes once thundering	-
Sea like round him cease like storm suppressed	U
	-
Here the wise wave wandering steadfast hearted	U
Guest of many a lord of many a land	U
Saw the shape or shade of years departed	U
Saw the semblance risen and hard at hand	U
Saw the mother long from love's reach parted	U
Anticleia like a statue stand	U
	-
Statue nay nor tissued image woven	H
Fair on hangings in his father's hall	Z
Nay too fast her faith of heart was proven	H
Far too firm her loveliest love of all	Z
Love wherethrough the loving heart was cloven	H
Love that hears not when the loud Fates call	Z
	-
Love that lives and stands up re created	U
Then when life has ebbed and anguish fled	U
Love more strong than death or all things fated	U
Child's and mother's lit by love and led	U
Love that found what life so long awaited	U
Here when life came down among the dead	U
	-
Here where never came alive another	B
Came her son across the sundering tide	U
Crossed before by many a warrior brother	B
Once that warred on Ilion at his side	U
Here spread forth vain hands to clasp the mother	B
Dead that sorrowing for his love's sake died	U
	-
Parted though by narrowest of divisions	G
Clasp he might not only might implore	B
Sundered yet by bitterest of derisions	G
Son and mother from the son she bore	B
Here But all dispeopled here of visions	G
Lies forlorn of shadows even the shore	B
	-
All too sweet such men's Hellenic speech is	G
All too fain they lived of light to see	G
Once to see the darkness of these beaches	G
Once to sing this Hades found of me	G
Ghostless all its gulfs and creeks and reaches	G
Sky and shore and cloud and waste and sea	G
	-
IV	-
	-
But aloft and afront of me faring	-
Far forward as folk in a dream	A2
That strive between doubting and daring	-
Right on till the goal for them gleam	A2
Full forth till their goal on them lighten	H
The harbour where fain they would be	G
What headlands there darken and brighten	H
What change in the sea	G
	-
What houses and woodlands that nestle	V
Safe inland to lee of the hill	B2
As it slopes from the headlands that wrestle	V
And succumb to the strong sea's will	B2
Truce is not nor respite nor pity	G
For the battle is waged not of hands	G
Where over the grave of a city	G
The ghost of it stands	G
	-
Where the wings of the sea wind slacken	H
Green lawns to the landward thrive	-
Fields brighten and pine woods blacken	H
And the heat in their heart is alive	-
They blossom and warble and murmur	B
For the sense of their spirit is free	G
But harder to shoreward and firmer	B
The grasp of the sea	G
	-
Like ashes the low cliffs crumble	V
The banks drop down into dust	U
The heights of the hills are made humble	V
As a reed's is the strength of their trust	U
As a city's that armies environ	H
The strength of their stay is of sand	U
But the grasp of the sea is as iron	H
Laid hard on the land	U
	-
A land that is thirstier than ruin	H
A sea that is hungrier than death	F
Heaped hills that a tree never grew in	H
Wide sands where the wave draws breath	F
All solace is here for the spirit	U
That ever for ever may be	G
For the soul of thy son to inherit	U
My mother my sea	G
	-
O delight of the headlands and beaches	G
O desire of the wind on the wold	U
More glad than a man's when it reaches	G
That end which it sought from of old	U
And the palm of possession is dreary	G
To the sense that in search of it sinned	U
But nor satisfied ever nor weary	G
Is ever the wind	U
	-
The delight that he takes but in living	-
Is more than of all things that live	-
For the world that has all things for giving	-
Has nothing so goodly to give	-
But more than delight his desire is	G
For the goal where his pinions would be	G
Is immortal as air or as fire is	G
Immense as the sea	G
	-
Though hence come the moan that he borrows	G
From darkness and depth of the night	U
Though hence be the spring of his sorrows	G
Hence too is the joy of his might	U
The delight that his doom is for ever	B
To seek and desire and rejoice	G
And the sense that eternity never	B
Shall silence his voice	G
	-
That satiety never may stifle	V
Nor weariness ever estrange	W
Nor time be so strong as to rifle	V
Nor change be so great as to change	W
His gift that renews in the giving	-
The joy that exalts him to be	G
Alone of all elements living	-
The lord of the sea	G
	-
What is fire that its flame should consume her	B
More fierce than all fires are her waves	G
What is earth that its gulfs should entomb her	B
More deep are her own than their graves	G
Life shrinks from his pinions that cover	B
The darkness by thunders bedinned	U
But she knows him her lord and her lover	B
The godhead of wind	U
	-
For a season his wings are about her	B
His breath on her lips for a space	G
Such rapture he wins not without her	B
In the width of his worldwide race	G
Though the forests bow down and the mountains	G
Wax dark and the tribes of them flee	G
His delight is more deep in the fountains	G
And springs of the sea	G
	-
There are those too of mortals that love him	N
There are souls that desire and require	B
Be the glories of midnight above him	N
Or beneath him the daysprings of fire	B
And their hearts are as harps that approve him	N
And praise him as chords of a lyre	B
That were fain with their music to move him	N
To meet their desire	B
	-
To descend through the darkness to grace them	C2
Till darkness were lovelier than light	U
To encompass and grasp and embrace them	C2
Till their weakness were one with his might	U
With the strength of his wings to caress them	C2
With the blast of his breath to set free	G
With the mouths of his thunders to bless them	C2
For sons of the sea	G
	-
For these have the toil and the guerdon	H
That the wind has eternally these	G
Have part in the boon and the burden	H
Of the sleepless unsatisfied breeze	G
That finds not but seeking rejoices	G
That possession can work him no wrong	-
And the voice at the heart of their voice is	G
The sense of his song	-
	-
For the wind's is their doom and their blessing	-
To desire and have always above	-
A possession beyond their possessing	-
A love beyond reach of their love	-
Green earth has her sons and her daughters	G
And these have their guerdons but we	G
Are the wind's and the sun's and the water's	G
Elect of the sea	G
	-
V	G
	-
For the sea too seeks and rejoices	G
Gains and loses and gains	G
And the joy of her heart's own choice is	G
As ours and as ours are her pains	G
As the thoughts of our hearts are her voices	G
And as hers is the pulse of our veins	G
	-
Her fields that know not of dearth	F
Nor lie for their fruit's sake fallow	G
Laugh large in the depth of their mirth	F
But inshore here in the shallow	G
Embroiled with encumbrance of earth	F
Their skirts are turbid and yellow	G
	-
The grime of her greed is upon her	B
The sign of her deed is her soil	D2
As the earth's is her own dishonour	B
And corruption the crown of her toil	D2
She hath spoiled and devoured and her honour	B
Is this to be shamed by her spoil	D2
	-
But afar where pollution is none	H
Nor ensign of strife nor endeavour	B
Where her heart and the sun's are one	H
And the soil of her sin comes never	B
She is pure as the wind and the sun	H
And her sweetness endureth for ever	B
	-
VI	-
	-
Death and change and darkness everlasting	-
Deaf that hears not what the daystar saith	F
Blind past all remembrance and forecasting	-
Dead past memory that it once drew breath	F
These above the washing tides and wasting	-
Reign and rule this land of utter death	F
	-
Change of change darkness of darkness hidden	H
Very death of very death begun	H
When none knows the knowledge is forbidden	H
Self begotten self proceeding one	H
Born not made abhorred unchained unchidden	H
Night stands here defiant of the sun	H
	-
Change of change and death of death begotten	H
Darkness born of darkness one and three	B
Ghostly godhead of a world forgotten	H
Crowned with heaven enthroned on land and sea	B
Here where earth with dead men's bones is rotten	H
God of Time thy likeness worships thee	B
	-
Lo thy likeness of thy desolation	H
Shape and figure of thy might O Lord	U
Formless form incarnate miscreation	H
Served of all things living and abhorred	U
Earth herself is here thine incarnation	H
Time of all things born on earth adored	U
	-
All that worship thee are fearful of thee	B
No man may not worship thee for fear	B
Prayers nor curses prove not nor disprove thee	B
Move nor change thee with our change of cheer	B
All at last though all abhorred thee love thee	B
God the sceptre of whose throne is here	B
	-
Here thy throne and sceptre of thy station	H
Here the palace paven for thy feet	U
Here thy sign from nation unto nation	H
Passed as watchword for thy guards to greet	U
Guards that go before thine exaltation	H
Ages clothed with bitter years and sweet	U
	-
Here where sharp the sea bird shrills his ditty	B
Flickering flame wise through the clear live calm	E2
Rose triumphal crowning all a city	B
Roofs exalted once with prayer and psalm	F2
Built of holy hands for holy pity	B
Frank and fruitful as a sheltering palm	E2
	-
Church and hospice wrought in faultless fashion	H
Hall and chancel bounteous and sublime	G2
Wide and sweet and glorious as compassion	H
Filled and thrilled with force of choral chime	G2
Filled with spirit of prayer and thrilled with passion	H
Hailed a God more merciful than Time	G2
	-
Ah less mighty less than Time prevailing	-
Shrunk expelled made nothing at his nod	U
Less than clouds across the sea line sailing	-
Lies he stricken by his master's rod	U
'Where is man ' the cloister murmurs wailing	-
Back the mute shrine thunders 'Where is God '	-
	-
Here is all the end of all his glory	B
Dust and grass and barren silent stones	G
Dead like him one hollow tower and hoary	B
Naked in the sea wind stands and moans	G
Filled and thrilled with its perpetual story	B
Here where earth is dense with dead men's bones	G
	-
Low and loud and long a voice for ever	B
Sounds the wind's clear story like a song	-
Tomb from tomb the waves devouring sever	B
Dust from dust as years relapse along	-
Graves where men made sure to rest and never	B
Lie dismantled by the seasons' wrong	-
	-
Now displaced devoured and desecrated	U
Now by Time's hands darkly disinterred	U
These poor dead that sleeping here awaited	U
Long the archangel's re creating word	U
Closed about with roofs and walls high gated	U
Till the blast of judgment should be heard	U
	-
Naked shamed cast out of consecration	H
Corpse and coffin yea the very graves	G
Scoffed at scattered shaken from their station	H
Spurned and scourged of wind and sea like slaves	G
Desolate beyond man's desolation	H
Shrink and sink into the waste of waves	G
	-
Tombs with bare white piteous bones protruded	U
Shroudless down the loose collapsing banks	G
Crumble from their constant place detruded	U
That the sea devours and gives not thanks	G
Graves where hope and prayer and sorrow brooded	U
Gape and slide and perish ranks on ranks	G
	-
Rows on rows and line by line they crumble	V
They that thought for all time through to be	B
Scarce a stone whereon a child might stumble	V
Breaks the grim field paced alone of me	B
Earth and man and all their gods wax humble	V
Here where Time brings pasture to the sea	B
	-
VII	-
	-
But afar on the headland exalted	U
But beyond in the curl of the bay	H2
From the depth of his dome deep vaulted	U
Our father is lord of the day	H2
Our father and lord that we follow	G
For deathless and ageless is he	B
And his robe is the whole sky's hollow	G
His sandal the sea	B
	-
Where the horn of the headland is sharper	B
And her green floor glitters with fire	B
The sea has the sun for a harper	B
The sun has the sea for a lyre	B
The waves are a pavement of amber	B
By the feet of the sea winds trod	U
To receive in a god's presence chamber	B
Our father the God	U
	-
Time haggard and changeful and hoary	B
Is master and God of the land	U
But the air is fulfilled of the glory	B
That is shed from our lord's right hand	U
O father of all of us ever	B
All glory be only to thee	B
From heaven that is void of thee never	B
And earth and the sea	B
	-
O Sun whereof all is beholden	H
Behold now the shadow of this death	F
This place of the sepulchres olden	H
And emptied and vain as a breath	F
The bloom of the bountiful heather	B
Laughs broadly beyond in thy light	U
As dawn with her glories to gather	B
At darkness and night	U
	-
Though the Gods of the night lie rotten	H
And their honour be taken away	H2
And the noise of their names forgotten	H
Thou Lord art God of the day	H2
Thou art father and saviour and spirit	U
O Sun of the soul that is free	B
And hath grace of thy grace to inherit	U
Thine earth and thy sea	B
	-
The hills and the sands and the beaches	G
The waters adrift and afar	B
The banks and the creeks and the reaches	G
How glad of thee all these are	B
The flowers overflowing overcrowded	U
Are drunk with the mad wind's mirth	F
The delight of thy coming unclouded	U
Makes music of earth	F
	-
I last least voice of her voices	G
Give thanks that were mute in me long	-
To the soul in my soul that rejoices	G
For the song that is over my song	-
Time gives what he gains for the giving	-
Or takes for his tribute of me	B
My dreams to the wind everliving	-
My song to the sea	B

Algernon Charles Swinburne

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