Hesperia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDEFGFGFHFHAIAA FJFJKLKLMAMAAHAHANAN AOAOPJPJFQFQARARSMSM FMFMFTFTAUAUMVMVMWMW SASAFAFAMXMXOUT OF the golden remote wild west where the sea without shore is | A |
Full of the sunset and sad if at all with the fulness of joy | B |
As a wind sets in with the autumn that blows from the region of stories | C |
Blows with a perfume of songs and of memories beloved from a boy | B |
Blows from the capes of the past oversea to the bays of the present | D |
Filled as with shadow of sound with the pulse of invisible feet | E |
Far out to the shallows and straits of the future by rough ways or pleasant | D |
Is it thither the wind s wings beat is it hither to me O my sweet | E |
For thee in the stream of the deep tide wind blowing in with the water | F |
Thee I behold as a bird borne in with the wind from the west | G |
Straight from the sunset across white waves whence rose as a daughter | F |
Venus thy mother in years when the world was a water at rest | G |
Out of the distance of dreams as a dream that abides after slumber | F |
Strayed from the fugitive flock of the night when the moon overhead | H |
Wanes in the wan waste heights of the heaven and stars without number | F |
Die without sound and are spent like lamps that are burnt by the dead | H |
Comes back to me stays by me lulls me with touch of forgotten caresses | A |
One warm dream clad about with a fire as of life that endures | I |
The delight of thy face and the sound of thy feet and the wind of thy tresses | A |
And all of a man that regrets and all of a maid that allures | A |
But thy bosom is warm for my face and profound as a manifold flower | F |
Thy silence as music thy voice as an odour that fades in a flame | J |
Not a dream not a dream is the kiss of thy mouth and the bountiful hour | F |
That makes me forget what was sin and would make me forget were it shame | J |
Thine eyes that are quiet thine hands that are tender thy lips that are loving | K |
Comfort and cool me as dew in the dawn of a moon like a dream | L |
And my heart yearns baffled and blind moved vainly toward thee and moving | K |
As the refluent seaweed moves in the languid exuberant stream | L |
Fair as a rose is on earth as a rose under water in prison | M |
That stretches and swings to the slow passionate pulse of the sea | A |
Closed up from the air and the sun but alive as a ghost rearisen | M |
Pale as the love that revives as a ghost rearisen in me | A |
From the bountiful infinite west from the happy memorial places | A |
Full of the stately repose and the lordly delight of the dead | H |
Where the fortunate islands are lit with the light of ineffable faces | A |
And the sound of a sea without wind is about them and sunset is red | H |
Come back to redeem and release me from love that recalls and represses | A |
That cleaves to my flesh as a flame till the serpent has eaten his fill | N |
From the bitter delights of the dark and the feverish the furtive caresses | A |
That murder the youth in a man or ever his heart have its will | N |
Thy lips cannot laugh and thine eyes cannot weep thou art pale as a rose is | A |
Paler and sweeter than leaves that cover the blush of the bud | O |
And the heart of the flower is compassion and pity the core it encloses | A |
Pity not love that is born of the breath and decays with the blood | O |
As the cross that a wild nun clasps till the edge of it bruises her bosom | P |
So love wounds as we grasp it and blackens and burns as a flame | J |
I have loved overmuch in my life when the live bud bursts with the blossom | P |
Bitter as ashes or tears is the fruit and the wine thereof shame | J |
As a heart that its anguish divides is the green bud cloven asunder | F |
As the blood of a man self slain is the flush of the leaves that allure | Q |
And the perfume as poison and wine to the brain a delight and a wonder | F |
And the thorns are too sharp for a boy too slight for a man to endure | Q |
Too soon did I love it and lost love s rose and I cared not for glory s | A |
Only the blossoms of sleep and of pleasure were mixed in my hair | R |
Was it myrtle or poppy thy garland was woven with O my Dolores | A |
Was it pallor of slumber or blush as of blood that I found in thee fair | R |
For desire is a respite from love and the flesh not the heart is her fuel | S |
She was sweet to me once who am fled and escaped from the rage of her reign | M |
Who behold as of old time at hand as I turn with her mouth growing cruel | S |
And flushed as with wine with the blood of her lovers Our Lady of Pain | M |
Low down where the thicket is thicker with thorns than with leaves in the summer | F |
In the brake is a gleaming of eyes and a hissing of tongues that I knew | M |
And the lithe long throats of her snakes reach round her their mouths overcome her | F |
And her lips grow cool with their foam made moist as a desert with dew | M |
With the thirst and the hunger of lust though her beautiful lips be so bitter | F |
With the cold foul foam of the snakes they soften and redden and smile | T |
And her fierce mouth sweetens her eyes wax wide and her eyelashes glitter | F |
And she laughs with a savour of blood in her face and a savour of guile | T |
She laughs and her hands reach hither her hair blows hither and hisses | A |
As a low lit flame in a wind back blown till it shudder and leap | U |
Let her lips not again lay hold on my soul nor her poisonous kisses | A |
To consume it alive and divide from thy bosom Our Lady of Sleep | U |
Ah daughter of sunset and slumber if now it return into prison | M |
Who shall redeem it anew but we if thou wilt let us fly | V |
Let us take to us now that the white skies thrill with a moon unarisen | M |
Swift horses of fear or of love take flight and depart and not die | V |
They are swifter than dreams they are stronger than death there is none that hath ridden | M |
None that shall ride in the dim strange ways of his life as we ride | W |
By the meadows of memory the highlands of hope and the shore that is hidden | M |
Where life breaks loud and unseen a sonorous invisible tide | W |
By the sands where sorrow has trodden the salt pools bitter and sterile | S |
By the thundering reef and the low sea wall and the channel of years | A |
Our wild steeds press on the night strain hard through pleasure and peril | S |
Labour and listen and pant not or pause for the peril that nears | A |
And the sound of them trampling the way cleaves night as an arrow asunder | F |
And slow by the sand hill and swift by the down with its glimpses of grass | A |
Sudden and steady the music as eight hoofs trample and thunder | F |
Rings in the ear of the low blind wind of the night as we pass | A |
Shrill shrieks in our faces the blind bland air that was mute as a maiden | M |
Stung into storm by the speed of our passage and deaf where we past | X |
And our spirits too burn as we bound thine holy but mine heavy laden | M |
As we burn with the fire of our flight ah love shall we win at the last | X |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Hesperia poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Best Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne