The Lake Of Gaube Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDDDECECCFFFGHGH HIJJKLKLLMMMNNOOPPLL QQRRDDSSTTUUVVWLWLDX DXPYPYCZCK| The sun is lord and god sublime serene | A |
| And sovereign on the mountains earth and air | B |
| Lie prone in passion blind with bliss unseen | A |
| By force of sight and might of rapture fair | B |
| As dreams that die and know not what they were | C |
| The lawns the gorges and the peaks are one | D |
| Glad glory thrilled with sense of unison | D |
| In strong compulsive silence of the sun | D |
| Flowers dense and keen as midnight stars aflame | E |
| And living things of light like flames in flower | C |
| That glance and flash as though no hand might tame | E |
| Lightnings whose life outshone their stormlit hour | C |
| And played and laughed on earth with all their power | C |
| Gone and with all their joy of life made long | F |
| And harmless as the lightning life of song | F |
| Shine sweet like stars when darkness feels them strong | F |
| The deep mild purple flaked with moonbright gold | G |
| That makes the scales seem flowers of hardened light | H |
| The flamelike tongue the feet that noon leaves cold | G |
| The kindly trust in man when once the sight | H |
| Grew less than strange and faith bade fear take flight | H |
| Outlive the little harmless life that shone | I |
| And gladdened eyes that loved it and was gone | J |
| Ere love might fear that fear had looked thereon | J |
| Fear held the bright thing hateful even as fear | K |
| Whose name is one with hate and horror saith | L |
| That heaven the dark deep heaven of water near | K |
| Is deadly deep as hell and dark as death | L |
| The rapturous plunge that quickens blood and breath | L |
| With pause more sweet than passion ere they strive | M |
| To raise again the limbs that yet would dive | M |
| Deeper should there have slain the soul alive | M |
| As the bright salamander in fire of the noonshine exults and is glad of his day | N |
| The spirit that quickens my body rejoices to pass from the sunlight away | N |
| To pass from the glow of the mountainous flowerage the high multitudinous bloom | O |
| Far down through the fathomless night of the water the gladness of silence and gloom | O |
| Death dark and delicious as death in the dream of a lover and dreamer may be | P |
| It clasps and encompasses body and soul with delight to be living and free | P |
| Free utterly now though the freedom endure but the space of a perilous breath | L |
| And living though girdled about with the darkness and coldness and strangeness of death | L |
| Each limb and each pulse of the body rejoicing each nerve of the spirit at rest | Q |
| All sense of the soul's life rapture a passionate peace in its blindness blest | Q |
| So plunges the downward swimmer embraced of the water unfathomed of man | R |
| The darkness unplummeted icier than seas in midwinter for blessing or ban | R |
| And swiftly and sweetly when strength and breath fall short and the dive is done | D |
| Shoots up as a shaft from the dark depth shot sped straight into sight of the sun | D |
| And sheer through the snow soft water more dark than the roof of the pines above | S |
| Strikes forth and is glad as a bird whose flight is impelled and sustained of love | S |
| As a sea mew's love of the sea wind breasted and ridden for rapture's sake | T |
| Is the love of his body and soul for the darkling delight of the soundless lake | T |
| As the silent speed of a dream too living to live for a thought's space more | U |
| Is the flight of his limbs through the still strong chill of the darkness from shore to shore | U |
| Might life be as this is and death be as life that casts off time as a robe | V |
| The likeness of infinite heaven were a symbol revealed of the lake of Gaube | V |
| Whose thought has fathomed and measured | W |
| The darkness of life and of death | L |
| The secret within them treasured | W |
| The spirit that is not breath | L |
| Whose vision has yet beholden | D |
| The splendour of death and of life | X |
| Though sunset as dawn be golden | D |
| Is the word of them peace not strife | X |
| Deep silence answers the glory | P |
| We dream of may be but a dream | Y |
| And the sun of the soul wax hoary | P |
| As ashes that show not a gleam | Y |
| But well shall it be with us ever | C |
| Who drive through the darkness here | Z |
| If the soul that we live by never | C |
| For aught that a lie saith fear | K |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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