Evening On The Broads Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGCGCCHCH IJKJKLKLLLLLCLCLKMKH NKNKOLOLLFLFOPOPOQOQ LJLJKLKLOROROSOSNQNQ OHOHNCNCNLNLCTCTQLQL CKCKKUKUONONQCQCKVKV KWKWNLNLLLLLCCCCCDCD

Over two shadowless waters adrift as a pinnace in perilA
Hangs as in heavy suspense charged with irresolute lightB
Softly the soul of the sunset upholden awhile on the sterileA
Waves and wastes of the land half repossessed by the nightB
Inland glimmer the shallows asleep and afar in the breathlessC
Twilight yonder the depths darken afar and asleepD
Slowly the semblance of death out of heaven descends on the deathlessC
Waters hardly the light lives on the face of the deepD
Hardly but here for awhile All over the grey soft shallowE
Hover the colours and clouds of the twilight void of a starF
As a bird unfledged is the broad winged night whose winglets are callowE
Yet but soon with their plumes will she cover her brood from afarF
Cover the brood of her worlds that cumber the skies with their blossomG
Thick as the darkness of leaf shadowed spring is encumbered with flowersC
World upon world is enwound in the bountiful girth of her bosomG
Warm and lustrous with life lovely to look on as oursC
Still is the sunset adrift as a spirit in doubt that dissemblesC
Still with itself being sick of division and dimmed by dismayH
Nay not so but with love and delight beyond passion it tremblesC
Fearful and fain of the night lovely with love of the dayH
Fain and fearful of rest that is like unto death and begottenI
Out of the womb of the tomb born of the seed of the graveJ
Lovely with shadows of loves that are only not wholly forgottenK
Only not wholly suppressed by the dark as a wreck by the waveJ
Still there linger the loves of the morning and noon in a visionK
Blindly beheld but in vain ghosts that are tired and would restL
But the glories beloved of the night rise all too dense for divisionK
Deep in the depth of her breast sheltered as doves in a nestL
Fainter the beams of the loves of the daylight season enkindledL
Wane and the memories of hours that were fair with the love of them fadeL
Loftier aloft of the lights of the sunset stricken and dwindledL
Gather the signs of the love at the heart of the night new madeL
New made night new born of the sunset immeasurable endlessC
Opens the secret of love hid from of old in her heartL
In the deep sweet heart full charged with faultless love of the friendlessC
Spirits of men that are eased when the wheels of the sun departL
Still is the sunset afloat as a ship on the waters upholdenK
Full sailed wide winged poised softly for ever aswayM
Nay not so but at least for a little awhile at the goldenK
Limit of arching air fain for an hour to delayH
Here on the bar of the sand bank steep yet aslope to the gleamingN
Waste of the water without waste of the water withinK
Lights overhead and lights underneath seem doubtfully dreamingN
Whether the day be done whether the night may beginK
Far and afar and farther again they falter and hoverO
Warm on the water and deep in the sky and pale on the cloudL
Colder again and slowly remoter afraid to recoverO
Breath yet fain to revive as it seems from the skirt of the shroudL
Faintly the heartbeats shorten and pause of the light in the westwardL
Heaven as eastward quicken the paces of star upon starF
Hurried and eager of life as a child that strains to the breast wardL
Eagerly yearning forth of the deeps where the ways of them areF
Glad of the glory of the gift of their life and the wealth of its wonderO
Fain of the night and the sea and the sweet wan face of the earthP
Over them air grows deeper intense with delight in them underO
Things are thrilled in their sleep as with sense of a sure new birthP
But here by the sand bank watching with eyes on the sea line strangerO
Grows to me also the weight of the sea ridge gazed on of meQ
Heavily heaped up changefully changeless void though of dangerO
Void not of menace but full of the might of the dense dull seaQ
Like as the wave is before me behind is the bank deep driftedL
Yellow and thick as the bank is behind me in front is the waveJ
As the wall of a prison imprisoning the mere is the girth of it liftedL
But the rampire of water in front is erect as the wall of a graveJ
And the crests of it crumble and topple and change but the wall is not brokenK
Standing still dry shod I see it as higher than my headL
Moving inland alway again reared up as in tokenK
Still of impending wrath still in the foam of it shedL
And even in the pauses between them dividing the rollers in sunderO
High overhead seems ever the sea line fixed as a markR
And the shore where I stand as a valley beholden of hills whence thunderO
Cloud and torrent and storm darkening the depths of the darkR
Up to the sea not upon it or over it upward from underO
Seems he to gaze whose eyes yearn after it here from the shoreS
A wall of turbid water aslope to the wide sky's wonderO
Of colour and cloud it climbs or spreads as a slanted floorS
And the large lights change on the face of the mere like things that were livingN
Winged and wonderful beams like as birds are that pass and are freeQ
But the light is dense as darkness a gift withheld in the givingN
That lies as dead on the fierce dull face of the landward seaQ
Stained and stifled and soiled made earthier than earth is and dullerO
Grimly she puts back light as rejected a thing put awayH
No transparent rapture a molten music of colourO
No translucent love taken and given of the dayH
Fettered and marred and begrimed is the light's live self on her fallingN
As the light of a man's life lighted the fume of a dungeon marsC
Only she knows of the wind when her wrath gives ear to him callingN
The delight of the light she knows not nor answers the sun or the starsC
Love she hath none to return for the luminous love of their givingN
None to reflect from the bitter and shallow response of her heartL
Yearly she feeds on her dead yet herself seems dead and not livingN
Or confused as a soul heavy laden with trouble that will not departL
In the sound of her speech to the darkness the moan of her evil remorse isC
Haply for strong ships gnawed by the dog toothed sea bank's fangT
And trampled to death by the rage of the feet of her foam lipped horsesC
Whose manes are yellow as plague and as ensigns of pestilence hangT
That wave in the foul faint air of the breath of a death stricken cityQ
So menacing heaves she the manes of her rollers knotted with sandL
Discoloured opaque suspended in sign as of strength without pityQ
That shake with flameless thunder the low long length of the strandL
Here far off in the farther extreme of the shore as it lengthensC
Northward lonely for miles ere ever a village beginK
On the lapsing land that recedes as the growth of the strong sea strengthensC
Shoreward thrusting further and further its outworks inK
Here in Shakespeare's vision a flower of her kin forsakenK
Lay in her golden raiment alone on the wild wave's edgeU
Surely by no shore else but here on the bank storm shakenK
Perdita bright as a dew drop engilt of the sun on the sedgeU
Here on a shore unbeheld of his eyes in a dream he beheld herO
Outcast fair as a fairy the child of a far off kingN
And over the babe flower gently the head of a pastoral elderO
Bowed compassionate hoar as the hawthorn blossom in springN
And kind as harvest in autumn a shelter of shade on the lonelyQ
Shelterless unknown shore scourged of implacable wavesC
Here where the wind walks royal alone in his kingdom and onlyQ
Sounds to the sedges a wail as of triumph that conquers and cravesC
All these waters and wastes are his empire of old and awakenK
From barren and stagnant slumber at only the sound of his breathV
Yet the hunger is eased not that aches in his heart nor the goal overtakenK
That his wide wings yearn for and labour as hearts that yearn after deathV
All the solitude sighs and expects with a blind expectationK
Somewhat unknown of its own sad heart grown heart sick of strifeW
Till sometime its wild heart maddens and moans and the vast ululationK
Takes wing with the clouds on the waters and wails to be quit of its lifeW
For the spirit and soul of the waste is the wind and his wings with their wavingN
Darken and lighten the darkness and light of it thickened or thinnedL
But the heart that impels them is even as a conqueror's insatiably cravingN
That victory can fill not as power cannot satiate the want of the windL
All these moorlands and marshes are full of his might and oppose notL
Aught of defence nor of barrier of forest or precipice piledL
But the will of the wind works ever as his that desires what he knows notL
And the wail of his want unfulfilled is as one making moan for her childL
And the cry of his triumph is even as the crying of hunger that maddensC
The heart of a strong man aching in vain as the wind's heart achesC
And the sadness itself of the land for its infinite solitude saddensC
More for the sound than the silence athirst for the sound that slakesC
And the sunset at last and the twilight are dead and the darkness is breathlessC
With fear of the wind's breath rising that seems and seems not to sleepD
But a sense of the sound of it alway a spirit unsleeping and deathlessC
Ghost or God evermore moves on the face of the deepD

Algernon Charles Swinburne



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