The Two Dreams Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEFGGHHGGG GIIJKGGGGLMGGNOP QGGRFSSTTUUGG GGGGGGIIVVWWXXYYII VZA2FIIXXXX IIYKB2B2IIC2C2XXIIII D2E2IIF2IIIXXI IIIIIIIG2G2IIF2F2G2G 2XXXXH2H2IIV VXXAAA2A2IIH2H2VVXXB 2B2 I2I2IIIIHHJ2J2XXIIXX XXH2H2 XXIIIIVVIIA2A2XXA2I WILL that if I say a heavy thing | A |
Your tongues forgive me seeing ye know that spring | A |
Has flecks and fits of pain to keep her sweet | B |
And walks somewhile with winter bitten feet | B |
Moreover it sounds often well to let | C |
One string when ye play music keep at fret | C |
The whole song through one petal that is dead | D |
Confirms the roses be they white or red | D |
Dead sorrow is not sorrowful to hear | E |
As the thick noise that breaks mid weeping were | F |
The sick sound aching in a lifted throat | G |
Turns to sharp silver of a perfect note | G |
And though the rain falls often and with rain | H |
Late autumn falls on the old red leaves like pain | H |
I deem that God is not disquieted | G |
Also while men are fed with wine and bread | G |
They shall be fed with sorrow at his hand | G |
- | |
There grew a rose garden in Florence land | G |
More fair than many all red summers through | I |
The leaves smelt sweet and sharp of rain and blew | I |
Sideways with tender wind and therein fell | J |
Sweet sound wherewith the green waxed audible | K |
As a bird s will to sing disturbed his throat | G |
And set the sharp wings forward like a boat | G |
Pushed through soft water moving his brown side | G |
Smooth shapen as a maid s and shook with pride | G |
His deep warm bosom till the heavy sun s | L |
Set face of heat stopped all the songs at once | M |
The ways were clean to walk and delicate | G |
And when the windy white of March grew late | G |
Before the trees took heart to face the sun | N |
With ravelled raiment of lean winter on | O |
The roots were thick and hot with hollow grass | P |
- | |
Some roods away a lordly house there was | Q |
Cool with broad courts and latticed passage wet | G |
From rush flowers and lilies ripe to set | G |
Sown close among the strewings of the floor | R |
And either wall of the slow corridor | F |
Was dim with deep device of gracious things | S |
Some angel s steady mouth and weight of wings | S |
Shut to the side or Peter with straight stole | T |
And beard cut black against the aureole | T |
That spanned his head from nape to crown thereby | U |
Mary s gold hair thick to the girdle tie | U |
Wherein was bound a child with tender feet | G |
Or the broad cross with blood nigh brown on it | G |
- | |
Within this house a righteous lord abode | G |
Ser Averardo patient of his mood | G |
And just of judgment and to child he had | G |
A maid so sweet that her mere sight made glad | G |
Men sorrowing and unbound the brows of hate | G |
And where she came the lips that pain made strait | G |
Waxed warm and wide and from untender grew | I |
Tender as those that sleep brings patience to | I |
Such long locks had she that with knee to chin | V |
She might have wrapped and warmed her feet therein | V |
Right seldom fell her face on weeping wise | W |
Gold hair she had and golden coloured eyes | W |
Filled with clear light and fire and large repose | X |
Like a fair hound s no man there is but knows | X |
Her face was white and thereto she was tall | Y |
In no wise lacked there any praise at all | Y |
To her most perfect and pure maidenhood | I |
No sin I think there was in all her blood | I |
- | |
She where a gold grate shut the roses in | V |
Dwelt daily through deep summer weeks through green | Z |
Hushed hours of rain upon the leaves and there | A2 |
Love made him room and space to worship her | F |
With tender worship of bowed knees and wrought | I |
Such pleasure as the pained sense palates not | I |
For weariness but at one taste undoes | X |
The heart of its strong sweet is ravenous | X |
Of all the hidden honey words and sense | X |
Fail through the tune s imperious prevalence | X |
- | |
In a poor house this lover kept apart | I |
Long communing with patience next his heart | I |
If love of his might move that face at all | Y |
Tuned evenwise with colours musical | K |
Then after length of days he said thus Love | B2 |
For love s own sake and for the love thereof | B2 |
Let no harsh words untune your gracious mood | I |
For good it were if anything be good | I |
To comfort me in this pain s plague of mine | C2 |
Seeing thus how neither sleep nor bread nor wine | C2 |
Seems pleasant to me yea no thing that is | X |
Seems pleasant to me only I know this | X |
Love s ways are sharp for palms of piteous feet | I |
To travel but the end of such is sweet | I |
Now do with me as seemeth you the best | I |
She mused a little as one holds his guest | I |
By the hand musing with her face borne down | D2 |
Then said Yea though such bitter seed be sown | E2 |
Have no more care of all that you have said | I |
Since if there is no sleep will bind your head | I |
Lo I am fain to help you certainly | F2 |
Christ knoweth sir if I would have you die | I |
There is no pleasure when a man is dead | I |
Thereat he kissed her hands and yellow head | I |
And clipped her fair long body many times | X |
I have no wit to shape in written rhymes | X |
A scanted tithe of this great joy they had | I |
- | |
They were too near love s secret to be glad | I |
As whoso deems the core will surely melt | I |
From the warm fruit his lips caress hath felt | I |
Some bitter kernel where the teeth shut hard | I |
Or as sweet music sharpens afterward | I |
Being half disrelished both for sharp and sweet | I |
As sea water having killed over heat | I |
In a man s body chills it with faint ache | G2 |
So their sense burdened only for love s sake | G2 |
Failed for pure love yet so time served their wit | I |
They saved each day some gold reserves of it | I |
Being wiser in love s riddle than such be | F2 |
Whom fragments feed with his chance charity | F2 |
All things felt sweet were felt sweet overmuch | G2 |
The rose thorn s prickle dangerous to touch | G2 |
And flecks of fire in the thin leaf shadows | X |
Too keen the breath d honey of the rose | X |
Its red too harsh a weight on feasted eyes | X |
They were so far gone in love s histories | X |
Beyond all shape and colour and mere breath | H2 |
Where pleasure has for kinsfolk sleep and death | H2 |
And strength of soul and body waxen blind | I |
For weariness and flesh entoiled with mind | I |
When the keen edge of sense foretasteth sin | V |
- | |
Even this green place the summer caught them in | V |
Seemed half deflowered and sick with beaten leaves | X |
In their strayed eyes these gold flower fum d eves | X |
Burnt out to make the sun s love offering | A |
The midnoon s prayer the rose s thanksgiving | A |
The trees weight burdening the strengthless air | A2 |
The shape of her stilled eyes her coloured hair | A2 |
Her body s balance from the moving feet | I |
All this found fair lacked yet one grain of sweet | I |
It had some warm weeks back so perisheth | H2 |
On May s new lip the tender April breath | H2 |
So those same walks the wind sowed lilies in | V |
All April through and all their latter kin | V |
Of languid leaves whereon the autumn blows | X |
The dead red raiment of the last year s rose | X |
The last year s laurel and the last year s love | B2 |
Fade and grow things that death grows weary of | B2 |
- | |
What man will gather in red summer time | I2 |
The fruit of some obscure and hoary rhyme | I2 |
Heard last midwinter taste the heart in it | I |
Mould the smooth semitones afresh refit | I |
The fair limbs ruined flush the dead blood through | I |
With colour make all broken beauties new | I |
For love s new lesson shall not such find pain | H |
When the marred music labouring in his brain | H |
Frets him with sweet sharp fragments and lets slip | J2 |
One word that might leave satisfied his lip | J2 |
One touch that might put fire in all the chords | X |
This was her pain to miss from all sweet words | X |
Some taste of sound diverse and delicate | I |
Some speech the old love found out to compensate | I |
For seasons of shut lips and drowsiness | X |
Some grace some word the old love found out to bless | X |
Passionless months and undelighted weeks | X |
The flowers had lost their summer scented cheeks | X |
Their lips were no more sweet than daily breath | H2 |
The year was plagued with instances of death | H2 |
- | |
So fell it these were sitting in cool grass | X |
With leaves about and many a bird there was | X |
Where the green shadow thickliest impleached | I |
Soft fruit and writhen spray and blossom bleached | I |
Dry in the sun or washed with rains to white | I |
Her girdle was pure silk the bosom bright | I |
With purple as purple water and gold wrought in | V |
One branch had touched with dusk her lips and chin | V |
Made violet of the throat abashed with shade | I |
The breast s bright plaited work but nothing frayed | I |
The sun s large kiss on the luxurious hair | A2 |
Her beauty was new colour to the air | A2 |
And music to the silent many birds | X |
Love was an hungred for some perfect words | X |
To prai | A2 |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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