Epilogue Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBABACC DDEFDFDGG HHIIHIHJJ KKLLKLKMM IINNINIJJ JJOOJOJII IIPQIQIRR SSTUSUSQS JJVVJVJII WWSSWSWXX IIIIIIISS YVZZYZYRR IIJJIJIJJ XXA2A2XA2XSS IIJJIJIII B2B2C2C2B2C2B2GG IIJJIJIII VVIIVIVJJ JJD2D2JD2JSS E2E2F2F2E2F2E2II G2G2IIG2IG2II SSIISISJJ JJNNJNJII JJIIJJBetween the wave ridge and the strand | A |
I let you forth in sight of land | A |
Songs that with storm crossed wings and eyes | B |
Strain eastward till the darkness dies | B |
Let signs and beacons fall or stand | A |
And stars and balefires set and rise | B |
Ye till some lordlier lyric hand | A |
Weave the beloved brows their crown | C |
At the beloved feet lie down | C |
- | |
O whatsoever of life or light | D |
Love hath to give you what of might | D |
Or heart or hope is yours to live | E |
I charge you take in trust to give | F |
For very love's sake in whose sight | D |
Through poise of hours alternative | F |
And seasons plumed with light or night | D |
Ye live and move and have your breath | G |
To sing with on the ridge of death | G |
- | |
I charge you faint not all night through | H |
For love's sake that was breathed on you | H |
To be to you as wings and feet | I |
For travel and as blood to heat | I |
And sense of spirit to renew | H |
And bloom of fragrance to keep sweet | I |
And fire of purpose to keep true | H |
The life if life in such things be | J |
That I would give you forth of me | J |
- | |
Out where the breath of war may bear | K |
Out in the rank moist reddened air | K |
That sounds and smells of death and hath | L |
No light but death's upon its path | L |
Seen through the black wind's tangled hair | K |
I send you past the wild time's wrath | L |
To find his face who bade you bear | K |
Fruit of his seed to faith and love | M |
That he may take the heart thereof | M |
- | |
By day or night by sea or street | I |
Fly till ye find and clasp his feet | I |
And kiss as worshippers who bring | N |
Too much love on their lips to sing | N |
But with hushed heads accept and greet | I |
The presence of some heavenlier thing | N |
In the near air so may ye meet | I |
His eyes and droop not utterly | J |
For shame's sake at the light you see | J |
- | |
Not utterly struck spiritless | J |
For shame's sake and unworthiness | J |
Of these poor forceless hands that come | O |
Empty these lips that should be dumb | O |
This love whose seal can but impress | J |
These weak word offerings wearisome | O |
Whose blessings have not strength to bless | J |
Nor lightnings fire to burn up aught | I |
Nor smite with thunders of their thought | I |
- | |
One thought they have even love one light | I |
Truth that keeps clear the sun by night | I |
One chord of faith as of a lyre | P |
One heat of hope as of a fire | Q |
One heart one music and one might | I |
One flame one altar and one choir | Q |
And one man's living head in sight | I |
Who said when all time's sea was foam | R |
Let there be Rome and there was Rome | R |
- | |
As a star set in space for token | S |
Like a live word of God's mouth spoken | S |
Visible sound light audible | T |
In the great darkness thick as hell | U |
A stanchless flame of love unsloken | S |
A sign to conquer and compel | U |
A law to stand in heaven unbroken | S |
Whereby the sun shines and wherethrough | Q |
Time's eldest empires are made new | S |
- | |
So rose up on our generations | J |
That light of the most ancient nations | J |
Law life and light on the world's way | V |
The very God of very day | V |
The sun god from their star like stations | J |
Far down the night in disarray | V |
Fled crowned with fires of tribulations | J |
The suns of sunless years whose light | I |
And life and law were of the night | I |
- | |
The naked kingdoms quenched and stark | W |
Drave with their dead things down the dark | W |
Helmless their whole world throne by throne | S |
Fell and its whole heart turned to stone | S |
Hopeless their hands that touched our ark | W |
Withered and lo aloft alone | S |
On time's white waters man's one bark | W |
Where the red sundawn's open eye | X |
Lit the soft gulf of low green sky | X |
- | |
So for a season piloted | I |
It sailed the sunlight and struck red | I |
With fire of dawn reverberate | I |
The wan face of incumbent fate | I |
That paused half pitying overhead | I |
And almost had foregone the freight | I |
Of those dark hours the next day bred | I |
For shame and almost had forsworn | S |
Service of night for love of morn | S |
- | |
Then broke the whole night in one blow | Y |
Thundering then all hell with one throe | V |
Heaved and brought forth beneath the stroke | Z |
Death and all dead things moved and woke | Z |
That the dawn's arrows had brought low | Y |
At the great sound of night that broke | Z |
Thundering and all the old world wide woe | Y |
And under night's loud sounding dome | R |
Men sought her and she was not Rome | R |
- | |
Still with blind hands and robes blood wet | I |
Night hangs on heaven reluctant yet | I |
With black blood dripping from her eyes | J |
On the soiled lintels of the skies | J |
With brows and lips that thirst and threat | I |
Heart sick with fear lest the sun rise | J |
And aching with her fires that set | I |
And shuddering ere dawn bursts her bars | J |
Burns out with all her beaten stars | J |
- | |
In this black wind of war they fly | X |
Now ere that hour be in the sky | X |
That brings back hope and memory back | A2 |
And light and law to lands that lack | A2 |
That spiritual sweet hour whereby | X |
The bloody handed night and black | A2 |
Shall be cast out of heaven to die | X |
Kingdom by kingdom crown by crown | S |
The fires of darkness are blown down | S |
- | |
Yet heavy grievous yet the weight | I |
Sits on us of imperfect fate | I |
From wounds of other days and deeds | J |
Still this day's breathing body bleeds | J |
Still kings for fear and slaves for hate | I |
Sow lives of men on earth like seeds | J |
In the red soil they saturate | I |
And we with faces eastward set | I |
Stand sightless of the morning yet | I |
- | |
And many for pure sorrow's sake | B2 |
Look back and stretch back hands to take | B2 |
Gifts of night's giving ease and sleep | C2 |
Flowers of night's grafting strong to steep | C2 |
The soul in dreams it will not break | B2 |
Songs of soft hours that sigh and sweep | C2 |
Its lifted eyelids nigh to wake | B2 |
With subtle plumes and lulling breath | G |
That soothe its weariness to death | G |
- | |
And many called of hope and pride | I |
Fall ere the sunrise from our side | I |
Fresh lights and rumours of fresh fames | J |
That shift and veer by night like flames | J |
Shouts and blown trumpets ghosts that glide | I |
Calling and hail them by dead names | J |
Fears angers memories dreams divide | I |
Spirit from spirit and wear out | I |
Strong hearts of men with hope and doubt | I |
- | |
Till time beget and sorrow bear | V |
The soul sick eyeless child despair | V |
That comes among us mad and blind | I |
With counsels of a broken mind | I |
Tales of times dead and woes that were | V |
And prophesying against mankind | I |
Shakes out the horror of her hair | V |
To take the sunlight with its coils | J |
And hold the living soul in toils | J |
- | |
By many ways of death and moods | J |
Souls pass into their servitudes | J |
Their young wings weaken plume by plume | D2 |
Drops and their eyelids gather gloom | D2 |
And close against man's frauds and feuds | J |
And their tongues call they know not whom | D2 |
To help in their vicissitudes | J |
For many slaveries are but one | S |
Liberty single as the sun | S |
- | |
One light one law that burns up strife | E2 |
And one sufficiency of life | E2 |
Self stablished the sufficing soul | F2 |
Hears the loud wheels of changes roll | F2 |
Sees against man man bare the knife | E2 |
Sees the world severed and is whole | F2 |
Sees force take dowerless fraud to wife | E2 |
And fear from fraud's incestuous bed | I |
Crawl forth and smite his father dead | I |
- | |
Sees death made drunk with war sees time | G2 |
Weave many coloured crime with crime | G2 |
State overthrown on ruining state | I |
And dares not be disconsolate | I |
Only the soul hath feet to climb | G2 |
Only the soul hath room to wait | I |
Hath brows and eyes to hold sublime | G2 |
Above all evil and all good | I |
All strength and all decrepitude | I |
- | |
She only she since earth began | S |
The many minded soul of man | S |
From one incognizable root | I |
That bears such divers coloured fruit | I |
Hath ruled for blessing or for ban | S |
The flight of seasons and pursuit | I |
She regent she republican | S |
With wide and equal eyes and wings | J |
Broods on things born and dying things | J |
- | |
Even now for love or doubt of us | J |
The hour intense and hazardous | J |
Hangs high with pinions vibrating | N |
Whereto the light and darkness cling | N |
Dividing the dim season thus | J |
And shakes from one ambiguous wing | N |
Shadow and one is luminous | J |
And day falls from it so the past | I |
Torments the future to the last | I |
- | |
And we that cannot hear or see | J |
The sounds and lights of liberty | J |
The witness of the naked God | I |
That treads on burning hours unshod | I |
With instant feet unwounded we | J |
That can trace | J |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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