The Afterglow Of Shakespeare Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHGGCC IIJJKLMMAANNIIFFOOPP GGQQRRHHHHSSTTIIHHUU GGHHHHGGHHHHVVWWHHFF XXYYUU| Let there be light said Time and England heard | A |
| And manhood grew to godhead at the word | A |
| No light had shone since earth arose from sleep | B |
| So far no fire of thought had cloven so deep | B |
| A day beyond all days bade life acclaim | C |
| Shakespeare and man put on his crowning name | C |
| All secrets once through darkling ages kept | D |
| Shone sang and smiled to think how long they slept | D |
| Man rose past fear of lies whereon he trod | E |
| And Dante's ghost saw hell devour his God | E |
| Bright Marlowe brave as winds that brave the sea | F |
| When sundawn bids their bliss in battle be | F |
| Lit England first along the ways whereon | G |
| Song brighter far than sunlight soared and shone | G |
| He died ere half his life had earned his right | H |
| To lighten time with song's triumphant light | H |
| Hope shrank and felt the stroke at heart but one | G |
| She knew not rose a man to match the sun | G |
| And England's hope and time's and man's became | C |
| Joy deep as music's heart and keen as flame | C |
| Not long for heaven on earth may live not long | I |
| Light sang and darkness died before the song | I |
| He passed the man above all men whose breath | J |
| Transfigured life with speech that lightens death | J |
| He passed but yet for many a lustrous year | K |
| His light of song bade England shine and hear | L |
| As plague and fire and faith in falsehood spread | M |
| So from the man of men divine and dead | M |
| Contagious godhead seen unknown and heard | A |
| Fulfilled and quickened England thought and word | A |
| When men would fain set life to music grew | N |
| More sweet than years which knew not Shakespeare knew | N |
| The simplest soul that set itself to song | I |
| Sang and may fear not time's or change's wrong | I |
| The lightest eye that glanced on life could see | F |
| Through grief and joy the God that man might be | F |
| All passion whence the living soul takes fire | O |
| Till death fulfil despair and quench desire | O |
| All love that lightens through the cloud of chance | P |
| All hate that lurks in hope and smites askance | P |
| All holiness of sorrow all divine | G |
| Pity whose tears are stars that save and shine | G |
| All sunbright strength of laughter like the sea's | Q |
| When spring and autumn loose their lustrous breeze | Q |
| All sweet all strange all sad all glorious things | R |
| Lived on his lips and hailed him king of kings | R |
| All thought all strife all anguish all delight | H |
| Spake all he bade and speak till day be night | H |
| No soul that heard no spirit that beheld | H |
| Knew not the God that lured them and compelled | H |
| On Beaumont's brow the sun arisen afar | S |
| Shed fire which lit through heaven the younger star | S |
| That sank before the sunset one dark spring | T |
| Slew first the kinglike subject then the king | T |
| The glory left above their graves made strong | I |
| The heart of Fletcher till the flower sweet song | I |
| That Shakespeare culled from Chaucer's field and died | H |
| Found ending on his lips that smiled and sighed | H |
| From Dekker's eyes the light of tear touched mirth | U |
| Shone as from Shakespeare's mingling heaven and earth | U |
| Wild witchcraft's lure and England's love made one | G |
| With Shakespeare's heart the heart of Middleton | G |
| Harsh homely true and tragic Rowley told | H |
| His heart's debt down in rough and radiant gold | H |
| The skies that Tourneur's lightning clove and rent | H |
| Flamed through the clouds where Shakespeare's thunder went | H |
| Wise Massinger bade kings be wise in vain | G |
| Ere war bade song storm stricken cower and wane | G |
| Kind Heywood simple souled and single eyed | H |
| Found voice for England's home born praise and pride | H |
| Strange grief strange love strange terror bared the sword | H |
| That smote the soul by grace and will of Ford | H |
| The stern grim strength of Chapman's thought found speech | V |
| Loud as when storm at ebb tide rends the beach | V |
| And all the honey brewed from flowers in May | W |
| Made sweet the lips and bright the dreams of Day | W |
| But even as Shakespeare caught from Marlowe's word | H |
| Fire so from his the thunder bearing third | H |
| Webster took light and might whence none but he | F |
| Hath since made song that sounded so the sea | F |
| Whose waves are lives of men whose tidestream rolls | X |
| From year to darkening year the freight of souls | X |
| Alone above it sweet supreme sublime | Y |
| Shakespeare attunes the jarring chords of time | Y |
| Alone of all whose doom is death and birth | U |
| Shakespeare is lord of souls alive on earth | U |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
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