On The Downs Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCBB DDEDEF GGHGHH IIJIJJ KKLKLL MMMMMM NNMNMM MMOMOO MMMMMM MMPMQP JJRJRR MMMM M SSTSTT MMUMUU M MMMM VVSVSS WWUWUU XXRXR MMYMYY XXMXMM RRXRXX MMZMZZ A2A2NA2NN UUMUMM NNMNMM B2SSSSSA faint sea without wind or sun | A |
A sky like flameless vapour dun | A |
A valley like an unsealed grave | B |
That no man cares to weep upon | C |
Bare without boon to crave | B |
Or flower to save | B |
- | |
And on the lip's edge of the down | D |
Here where the bent grass burns to brown | D |
In the dry sea wind and the heath | E |
Crawls to the cliff side and looks down | D |
I watch and hear beneath | E |
The low tide breathe | F |
- | |
Along the long lines of the cliff | G |
Down the flat sea line without skiff | G |
Or sail or back blown fume for mark | H |
Through wind worn heads of heath and stiff | G |
Stems blossomless and stark | H |
With dry sprays dark | H |
- | |
I send mine eyes out as for news | I |
Of comfort that all these refuse | I |
Tidings of light or living air | J |
From windward where the low clouds muse | I |
And the sea blind and bare | J |
Seems full of care | J |
- | |
So is it now as it was then | K |
And as men have been such are men | K |
There as I stood I seem to stand | L |
Here sitting chambered and again | K |
Feel spread on either hand | L |
Sky sea and land | L |
- | |
As a queen taken and stripped and bound | M |
Sat earth discoloured and discrowned | M |
As a king's palace empty and dead | M |
The sky was without light or sound | M |
And on the summer's head | M |
Were ashes shed | M |
- | |
Scarce wind enough was on the sea | N |
Scarce hope enough there moved in me | N |
To sow with live blown flowers of white | M |
The green plain's sad serenity | N |
Or with stray thoughts of light | M |
Touch my soul's sight | M |
- | |
By footless ways and sterile went | M |
My thought unsatisfied and bent | M |
With blank unspeculative eyes | O |
On the untracked sands of discontent | M |
Where watched of helpless skies | O |
Life hopeless lies | O |
- | |
East and west went my soul to find | M |
Light and the world was bare and blind | M |
And the soil herbless where she trod | M |
And saw men laughing scourge mankind | M |
Unsmitten by the rod | M |
Of any God | M |
- | |
Out of time's blind old eyes were shed | M |
Tears that were mortal and left dead | M |
The heart and spirit of the years | P |
And on mans fallen and helmless head | M |
Time's disanointing tears | Q |
Fell cold as fears | P |
- | |
Hope flowering had but strength to bear | J |
The fruitless fruitage of despair | J |
Grief trod the grapes of joy for wine | R |
Whereof love drinking unaware | J |
Died as one undivine | R |
And made no sign | R |
- | |
And soul and body dwelt apart | M |
And weary wisdom without heart | M |
Stared on the dead round heaven and sighed | M |
'Is death too hollow as thou art | M |
Or as man's living pride ' | - |
And saying so died | M |
- | |
And my soul heard the songs and groans | S |
That are about and under thrones | S |
And felt through all time's murmur thrill | T |
Fate's old imperious semitones | S |
That made of good and ill | T |
One same tune still | T |
- | |
Then 'Where is God and where is aid | M |
Or what good end of these ' she said | M |
'Is there no God or end at all | U |
Nor reason with unreason weighed | M |
Nor force to disenthral | U |
Weak feet that fall | U |
- | |
'No light to lighten and no rod | M |
To chasten men Is there no God ' | - |
So girt with anguish iron zoned | M |
Went my soul weeping as she trod | M |
Between the men enthroned | M |
And men that groaned | M |
- | |
O fool that for brute cries of wrong | V |
Heard not the grey glad mother's song | V |
Ring response from the hills and waves | S |
But heard harsh noises all day long | V |
Of spirits that were slaves | S |
And dwelt in graves | S |
- | |
The wise word of the secret earth | W |
Who knows what life and death are worth | W |
And how no help and no control | U |
Can speed or stay things come to birth | W |
Nor all worlds' wheels that roll | U |
Crush one born soul | U |
- | |
With all her tongues of life and death | X |
With all her bloom and blood and breath | X |
From all years dead and all things done | R |
In the ear of man the mother saith | X |
'There is no God O son | R |
If thou be none ' | - |
- | |
So my soul sick with watching heard | M |
That day the wonder of that word | M |
And as one springs out of a dream | Y |
Sprang and the stagnant wells were stirred | M |
Whence flows through gloom and gleam | Y |
Thought's soundless stream | Y |
- | |
Out of pale cliff and sunburnt health | X |
Out of the low sea curled beneath | X |
In the land's bending arm embayed | M |
Out of all lives that thought hears breathe | X |
Life within life inlaid | M |
Was answer made | M |
- | |
A multitudinous monotone | R |
Of dust and flower and seed and stone | R |
In the deep sea rock's mid sea sloth | X |
In the live water's trembling zone | R |
In all men love and loathe | X |
One God at growth | X |
- | |
One forceful nature uncreate | M |
That feeds itself with death and fate | M |
Evil and good and change and time | Z |
That within all men lies at wait | M |
Till the hour shall bid them climb | Z |
And live sublime | Z |
- | |
For all things come by fate to flower | A2 |
At their unconquerable hour | A2 |
And time brings truth and truth makes free | N |
And freedom fills time's veins with power | A2 |
As brooding on that sea | N |
My thought filled me | N |
- | |
And the sun smote the clouds and slew | U |
And from the sun the sea's breath blew | U |
And white waves laughed and turned and fled | M |
The long green heaving sea field through | U |
And on them overhead | M |
The sky burnt red | M |
- | |
Like a furled flag that wind sets free | N |
On the swift summer coloured sea | N |
Shook out the red lines of the light | M |
The live sun's standard blown to lee | N |
Across the live sea's white | M |
And green delight | M |
- | |
And with divine triumphant awe | B2 |
My spirit moved within me saw | S |
With burning passion of stretched eyes | S |
Clear as the light's own firstborn law | S |
In windless wastes of skies | S |
Time's deep dawn rise | S |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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