Hertha Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABB CDEDD FGHGG DIDII JKJKH HLHLL MNMNN ILILL DLDLL LOLOO DDDDD PMPMM LQLQQ RLRLL LLLLL DDDDD SDSDD LLLLL LLLLL LNLNN TUTUV DWDWW RDRDD XLXLL DDDDD DDDDD DDDDD TIIII DDDDD DDDDD SDSDD DYDYY DDDDD SLSLL ZDZDD DLDLL A2B2A2C2C2 A2DA2DD SBSBB D2ND2NN

I am that which beganA
Out of me the years rollB
Out of me God and manA
I am equal and wholeB
God changes and man and the form of them bodily I am the soulB
-
Before ever land wasC
Before ever the seaD
Or soft hair of the grassE
Or fair limbs of the treeD
Or the fresh coloured fruit of my branches I was and thy soul was in meD
-
First life on my sourcesF
First drifted and swamG
Out of me are the forcesH
That save it or damnG
Out of me man and woman and wild beast and bird before God was I amG
-
Beside or above meD
Nought is there to goI
Love or unlove meD
Unknow me or knowI
I am that which unloves me and loves I am stricken and I am the blowI
-
I the mark that is missedJ
And the arrows that missK
I the mouth that is kissedJ
And the breath in the kissK
The search and the sought and the seeker the soul and the body that isH
-
I am that thing which blessesH
My spirit elateL
That which caressesH
With hands uncreateL
My limbs unbegotten that measure the length of the measure of fateL
-
But what thing dost thou nowM
Looking Godward to cryN
I am I thou art thouM
I am low thou art highN
I am thou whom thou seekest to find him find thou but thyself thou art IN
-
I the grain and the furrowI
The plough cloven clodL
And the ploughshare drawn thoroughI
The germ and the sodL
The deed and the doer the seed and the sower the dust which is GodL
-
Hast thou known how I fashioned theeD
Child undergroundL
Fire that impassioned theeD
Iron that boundL
Dim changes of water what thing of all these hast thou known of or foundL
-
Canst thou say in thine heartL
Thou hast seen with thine eyesO
With what cunning of artL
Thou wast wrought in what wiseO
By what force of what stuff thou wast shapen and shown on my breast to the skiesO
-
Who hath given who hath sold it theeD
Knowledge of meD
Hath the wilderness told it theeD
Hast thou learnt of the seaD
Hast thou communed in spirit with night have the winds taken counsel with theeD
-
Have I set such a starP
To show light on thy browM
That thou sawest from afarP
What I show to thee nowM
Have ye spoken as brethren together the sun and the mountains and thouM
-
What is here dost thou know itL
What was hast thou knownQ
Prophet nor poetL
Nor tripod nor throneQ
Nor spirit nor flesh can make answer but only thy mother aloneQ
-
Mother not makerR
Born and not madeL
Though her children forsake herR
Allured or afraidL
Praying prayers to the God of their fashion she stirs not for all that have prayedL
-
A creed is a rodL
And a crown is of nightL
But this thing is GodL
To be man with thy mightL
To grow straight in the strength of thy spirit and live out thy life as the lightL
-
I am in thee to save theeD
As my soul in thee saithD
Give thou as I gave theeD
Thy life blood and breathD
Green leaves of thy labour white flowers of thy thought and red fruit of thy deathD
-
Be the ways of thy givingS
As mine were to theeD
The free life of thy livingS
Be the gift of it freeD
Not as servant to lord nor as master to slave shalt thou give thee to meD
-
O children of banishmentL
Souls overcastL
Were the lights ye see vanish meantL
Alway to lastL
Ye would know not the sun overshining the shadows and stars overpastL
-
I that saw where ye trodL
The dim paths of the nightL
Set the shadow called GodL
In your skies to give lightL
But the morning of manhood is risen and the shadowless soul is in sightL
-
The tree many rootedL
That swells to the skyN
With frondage red fruitedL
The life tree am IN
In the buds of your lives is the sap of my leaves ye shall live and not dieN
-
But the Gods of your fashionT
That take and that giveU
In their pity and passionT
That scourge and forgiveU
They are worms that are bred in the bark that falls off they shall die and not liveV
-
My own blood is what stanchesD
The wounds in my barkW
Stars caught in my branchesD
Make day of the darkW
And are worshipped as suns till the sunrise shall tread out their fires as a sparkW
-
Where dead ages hide underR
The live roots of the treeD
In my darkness the thunderR
Makes utterance of meD
In the clash of my boughs with each other ye hear the waves sound of the seaD
-
That noise is of TimeX
As his feathers are spreadL
And his feet set to climbX
Through the boughs overheadL
And my foliage rings round him and rustles and branches are bent with his treadL
-
The storm winds of agesD
Blow through me and ceaseD
The war wind that ragesD
The spring wind of peaceD
Ere the breath of them roughen my tresses ere one of my blossoms increaseD
-
All sounds of all changesD
All shadows and lightsD
On the world's mountain rangesD
And stream riven heightsD
Whose tongue is the wind's tongue and language of storm clouds on earth shaking nightsD
-
All forms of all facesD
All works of all handsD
In unsearchable placesD
Of time stricken landsD
All death and all life and all reigns and all ruins drop through me as sandsD
-
Though sore be my burdenT
And more than ye knowI
And my growth have no guerdonI
But only to growI
Yet I fail not of growing for lightnings above me or deathworms belowI
-
These too have their part in meD
As I too in theseD
Such fire is at heart in meD
Such sap is this tree'sD
Which hath in it all sounds and all secrets of infinite lands and of seasD
-
In the spring coloured hoursD
When my mind was as May'sD
There brake forth of me flowersD
By centuries of daysD
Strong blossoms with perfume of manhood shot out from my spirit as raysD
-
And the sound of them springingS
And smell of their shootsD
Were as warmth and sweet singingS
And strength to my rootsD
And the lives of my children made perfect with freedom of soul were my fruitsD
-
I bid you but beD
I have need not of prayerY
I have need of you freeD
As your mouths of mine airY
That my heart may be greater within me beholding the fruits of me fairY
-
More fair than strange fruit isD
Of faiths ye espouseD
In me only the root isD
That blooms in your boughsD
Behold now your God that ye made you to feed him with faith of your vowsD
-
In the darkening and whiteningS
Abysses adoredL
With dayspring and lightningS
For lamp and for swordL
God thunders in heaven and his angels are red with the wrath of the LordL
-
O my sons O too dutifulZ
Toward Gods not of meD
Was not I enough beautifulZ
Was it hard to be freeD
For behold I am with you am in you and of you look forth now and seeD
-
Lo winged with world's wondersD
With miracles shodL
With the fires of his thundersD
For raiment and rodL
God trembles in heaven and his angels are white with the terror of GodL
-
For his twilight is come on himA2
His anguish is hereB2
And his spirits gaze dumb on himA2
Grown grey from his fearC2
And his hour taketh hold on him stricken the last of his infinite yearC2
-
Thought made him and breaks himA2
Truth slays and forgivesD
But to you as time takes himA2
This new thing it givesD
Even love the beloved Republic that feeds upon freedom and livesD
-
For truth only is livingS
Truth only is wholeB
And the love of his givingS
Man's polestar and poleB
Man pulse of my centre and fruit of my body and seed of my soulB
-
One birth of my bosomD2
One beam of mine eyeN
One topmost blossomD2
That scales the skyN
Man equal and one with me man that is made of me man that is IN

Algernon Charles Swinburne



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