Eton: An Ode Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBBCCCDDD EEEFFFGGG HHHIIIJJJ| For the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Foundation of the College | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| I | - |
| Four hundred summers and fifty have shone on the meadows of Thames and died | B |
| Since Eton arose in an age that was darkness and shone by his radiant side | B |
| As a star that the spell of a wise man's word bade live and ascend and abide | B |
| And ever as time's flow brightened a river more dark than the storm clothed sea | C |
| And age upon age rose fairer and larger in promise of hope set free | C |
| With England Eton her child kept pace as a fostress of men to be | C |
| And ever as earth waxed wiser and softer the beating of time's wide wings | D |
| Since fate fell dark on her father most hapless and gentlest of star crossed kings | D |
| Her praise has increased as the chant of the dawn that the choir of the noon outsings | D |
| - | |
| II | - |
| Storm and cloud in the skies were loud and lightning mocked at the blind sun's light | E |
| War and woe on the land below shed heavier shadow than falls from night | E |
| Dark was earth at her dawn of birth as here her record of praise is bright | E |
| Clear and fair through her morning air the light first laugh of the sunlit stage | F |
| Rose and rang as a fount that sprang from depths yet dark with a spent storm's rage | F |
| Loud and glad as a boy's and bade the sunrise open on Shakespeare's age | F |
| Lords of state and of war whom fate found strong in battle in counsel strong | G |
| Here ere fate had approved them great abode their season and thought not long | G |
| Here too first was the lark's note nursed that filled and flooded the skies with song | G |
| - | |
| III | - |
| Shelley lyric lord of England's lordliest singers here first heard | H |
| Ring from lips of poets crowned and dead the Promethean word | H |
| Whence his soul took fire and power to outsoar the sunward soaring bird | H |
| Still the reaches of the river still the light on field and hill | I |
| Still the memories held aloft as lamps for hope's young fire to fill | I |
| Shine and while the light of England lives shall shine for England still | I |
| When four hundred more and fifty years have risen and shone and set | J |
| Bright with names that men remember loud with names that men forget | J |
| Haply here shall Eton's record be what England finds it yet | J |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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