Sapphics Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EDFE DDGD BDBE BGHD IBED EJKL DDHI DMBN BDHD ODAB HDDH EPEE GGLQ IEGP DRND DHEB EDDD SDHT HEDL| All the night sleep came not upon my eyelids | A |
| Shed not dew nor shook nor unclosed a feather | B |
| Yet with lips shut close and with eyes of iron | C |
| Stood and beheld me | D |
| - | |
| Then to me so lying awake a vision | E |
| Came without sleep over the seas and touched me | D |
| Softly touched mine eyelids and lips and I too | F |
| Full of the vision | E |
| - | |
| Saw the white implacable Aphrodite | D |
| Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled | D |
| Shine as fire of sunset on western waters | G |
| Saw the reluctant | D |
| - | |
| Feet the straining plumes of the doves that drew her | B |
| Looking always looking with necks reverted | D |
| Back to Lesbos back to the hills whereunder | B |
| Shone Mitylene | E |
| - | |
| Heard the flying feet of the Loves behind her | B |
| Make a sudden thunder upon the waters | G |
| As the thunder flung from the strong unclosing | H |
| Wings of a great wind | D |
| - | |
| So the goddess fled from her place with awful | I |
| Sound of feet and thunder of wings around her | B |
| While behind a clamour of singing women | E |
| Severed the twilight | D |
| - | |
| Ah the singing ah the delight the passion | E |
| All the Loves wept listening sick with anguish | J |
| Stood the crowned nine Muses about Apollo | K |
| Fear was upon them | L |
| - | |
| While the tenth sang wonderful things they knew not | D |
| Ah the tenth the Lesbian the nine were silent | D |
| None endured the sound of her song for weeping | H |
| Laurel by laurel | I |
| - | |
| Faded all their crowns but about her forehead | D |
| Round her woven tresses and ashen temples | M |
| White as dead snow paler than grass in summer | B |
| Ravaged with kisses | N |
| - | |
| Shone a light of fire as a crown for ever | B |
| Yea almost the implacable Aphrodite | D |
| Paused and almost wept such a song was that song | H |
| Yea by her name too | D |
| - | |
| Called her saying Turn to me O my Sappho | O |
| Yet she turned her face from the Loves she saw not | D |
| Tears for laughter darken immortal eyelids | A |
| Heard not about her | B |
| - | |
| Fearful fitful wings of the doves departing | H |
| Saw not how the bosom of Aphrodite | D |
| Shook with weeping saw not her shaken raiment | D |
| Saw not her hands wrung | H |
| - | |
| Saw the Lesbians kissing across their smitten | E |
| Lutes with lips more sweet than the sound of lute strings | P |
| Mouth to mouth and hand upon hand her chosen | E |
| Fairer than all men | E |
| - | |
| Only saw the beautiful lips and fingers | G |
| Full of songs and kisses and little whispers | G |
| Full of music only beheld among them | L |
| Soar as a bird soars | Q |
| - | |
| Newly fledged her visible song a marvel | I |
| Made of perfect sound and exceeding passion | E |
| Sweetly shapen terrible full of thunders | G |
| Clothed with the wind's wings | P |
| - | |
| Then rejoiced she laughing with love and scattered | D |
| Roses awful roses of holy blossom | R |
| Then the Loves thronged sadly with hidden faces | N |
| Round Aphrodite | D |
| - | |
| Then the Muses stricken at heart were silent | D |
| Yea the gods waxed pale such a song was that song | H |
| All reluctant all with a fresh repulsion | E |
| Fled from before her | B |
| - | |
| All withdrew long since and the land was barren | E |
| Full of fruitless women and music only | D |
| Now perchance when winds are assuaged at sunset | D |
| Lulled at the dewfall | D |
| - | |
| By the grey sea side unassuaged unheard of | S |
| Unbeloved unseen in the ebb of twilight | D |
| Ghosts of outcast women return lamenting | H |
| Purged not in Lethe | T |
| - | |
| Clothed about with flame and with tears and singing | H |
| Songs that move the heart of the shaken heaven | E |
| Songs that break the heart of the earth with pity | D |
| Hearing to hear them | L |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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