The White Cliffs Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Alice Duer Miller

The White Cliffs Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I	A
I have loved England dearly and deeply	B
Since that first morning shining and pure	C
The white cliffs of Dover I saw rising steeply	B
Out of the sea that once made her secure	C
I had no thought then of husband or lover	D
I was a traveller the guest of a week	E
Yet when they pointed 'the white cliffs of Dover'	D
Startled I found there were tears on my cheek	E
I have loved England and still as a stranger	D
Here is my home and I still am alone	F
Now in her hour of trial and danger	D
Only the English are really her own	F
	-
II	A
It happened the first evening I was there	D
Some one was giving a ball in Belgrave Square	D
At Belgrave Square that most Victorian spot	G
Lives there a novel reader who has not	G
At some time wept for those delightful girls	H
Daughters of dukes prime ministers and earls	H
In bonnets berthas bustles buttoned basques	I
Hiding behind their pure Victorian masks	I
Hearts just as hot hotter perhaps than those	J
Whose owners now abandon hats and hose	J
Who has not wept for Lady Joan or Jill	K
Loving against her noble parent's will	K
A handsome guardsman who to her alarm	L
Feels her hand kissed behind a potted palm	M
At Lady Ivry's ball the dreadful night	N
Before his regiment goes off to fight	N
And see him the next morning in the park	O
Complete in busbee marching to embark	O
I had read freely even as a child	P
Not only Meredith and Oscar Wilde	P
But many novels of an earlier day	Q
Ravenshoe Can You Forgive Her Vivien Grey	Q
Ouida The Duchess Broughton's Red As a Rose	J
Guy Livingstone Whyte Melville Heaven knows	J
What others Now I thought I was to see	B
Their habitat though like the Miller of Dee	B
I cared for none and no one cared for me	B
	-
	-
III	A
A light blue carpet on the stair	D
And tall young footmen everywhere	D
Tall young men with English faces	R
Standing rigidly in their places	R
Rows and rows of them stiff and staid	S
In powder and breeches and bright gold braid	S
And high above them on the wall	T
Hung other English faces all	T
Part of the pattern of English life	U
General Sir Charles and his pretty wife	U
Admirals Lords Lieutenant of Shires	V
Men who were served by these footmen's sires	V
At their great parties none of them knowing	W
How soon or late they would all be going	W
In plainer dress to a sterner strife	U
Another pattern of English life	U
	-
I went up the stairs between them all	T
Strange and frightened and shy and small	T
And as I entered the ballroom door	D
Saw something I had never seen before	D
Except in portraits a stout old guest	X
With a broad blue ribbon across his breast	X
That blue as deep as the southern sea	B
Bluer than skies can ever be	B
The Countess of Salisbury Edward the Third	Y
No damn merit the Duke I heard	Y
My own voice saying 'Upon my word	Y
The garter ' and clapped my hands like a child	P
	-
Some one beside me turned and smiled	P
And looking down at me said 'I fancy	B
You're Bertie's Australian cousin Nancy	B
He toId me to tell you that he'd be late	Z
At the Foreign Office and not to wait	Z
Supper for him but to go with me	B
And try to behave as if I were he '	-
I should have told him on the spot	G
That I had no cousin that I was not	G
Australian Nancy that my name	A2
Was Susan Dunne and that I came	A2
From a small white town on a deep cut bay	Q
In the smallest state in the U S A	B2
I meant to tell him but changed my mind	C2
I needed a friend and he seemed kind	C2
So I put my gloved hand into his glove	D2
And we danced together and fell in love	D2
	-
IV	D2
Young and in love how magical the phrase	E2
How magical the fact Who has not yearned	F2
Over young lovers when to their amaze	E2
They fall in love and find their love returned	F2
And the lights brighten and their eyes are clear	D
To see God's image in their common clay	Q
Is it the music of the spheres they hear	D
Is it the prelude to that noble play	Q
The drama of Joined Lives Ah they forget	G2
They cannot write their parts the bell has rung	H2
The curtain rises and the stage is set	G2
For tragedy they were in love and young	H2
	-
V	D2
We went to the Tower	D
We went to the Zoo	I2
We saw every flower	D
In the gardens at Kew	I2
We saw King Charles a prancing	W
On his long tailed horse	J2
And thought him more entrancing	W
Than better kings of course	J2
At a strange early hour	D
In St James's palace yard	K2
We watched in a shower	D
The changing of the guard	K2
And I said what a pity	D2
To have just a week to spend	L2
When London is a city	D2
Whose beauties never end	L2
	-
VI	D2
When the sun shines on England it atones	J2
For low hung leaden skies and rain and dim	M2
Moist fogs that paint the verdure on her stones	J2
And fill her gentle rivers to the brim	M2
When the sun shines on England shafts of light	N
Fall on far towers and hills and dark old trees	J2
And hedge bound meadows of a green as bright	N
As bright as is the blue of tropic seas	J2
When the sun shines it is as if the face	J2
Of some proud man relaxed his haughty stare	D
And smiled upon us with a sudden grace	J2
Flattering because its coming is so rare	D
	-
VII	D2
The English are frosty	D2
When you're no kith or kin	N2
Of theirs but how they alter	D
When once they take you in	N2
The kindest the truest	O2
The best friends ever known	F
It's hard to remember	D
How they froze you to a bone	F
They showed me all London	P2
Johnnie and his friends	J2
They took me to the country	D2
For long week ends	J2
I never was so happy	D2
I never had such fun	P2
I stayed many weeks in England	Q2
Instead of just one	P2
	-
VIII	D2
John had one of those English faces	J2
That always were and will always be	D2
Found in the cream of English places	J2
Till England herself sink into the sea	D2
A blond bowed face with prominent eyes	J2
A little bit bluer than English skies	J2
You see it in ruffs and suits of armour	D
You see it in wigs of many styles	J2
Soldier and sailor judge and farmer	D
That face has governed the British Isles	J2
By the power for good or ill bestowed	R2
Only on those who live by code	R2
	-
Oh that inflexible code of living	W
That seems so easy and unconstrained	S2
The Englishman's code of taking and giving	W
Rights and privileges pre ordained	S2
Based since English life began	T2
On the prime importance of being a man	T2
	-
IX	J2
And what a voice he had gentle profound	U2
Clear masculine I melted at the sound	U2
Oh English voices are there any words	J2
Those tones to tell those cadences to teach	V2
As song of thrushes is to other birds	J2
So English voices are to other speech	V2
Those pure round 'o's ' those lovely liquid 'l's'	J2
Ring in the ears like sound of Sabbath bells	J2
	-
Yet I have loathed those voices when the sense	J2
Of what they said seemed to me insolence	J2
As if the dominance of the whole nation	P2
Lay in that clear correct enunciation	P2
	-
Many years later I remember when	P2
One evening I overheard two men	P2
In Claridge's white waistcoats coats I know	P2
Were built in Bond Street or in Savile Row	P2
So calm so confident so finely bred	W2
Young gods in tails and this is what they said	W2
'Not your first visit to the States ' 'Oh no	P2
I'd been to Canada two years ago '	-
Good God I thought have they not heard that we	D2
Were those queer colonists who would be free	D2
Who took our desperate chance and fought and won	P2
Under a colonist called Washington	P2
	-
One does not lose one's birthright it appears	J2
I had been English then for many years	J2
	-
X	J2
We went down to Cambridge	X2
Cambridge in the spring	W
In a brick court at twilight	N
We heard the thrushes sing	W
And we went to evening service	J2
In the chapel of the King	W
The library of Trinity	D2
The quadrangle of Clare	D
John bought a pipe from Bacon	P2
And I acquired there	D
The Anecdotes of Painting	W
From a handcart in the square	D
	-
The Playing fields at sunset	G2
Were vivid emerald green	P2
The elms were tall and mighty	D2
And many youths were seen	P2
Carefree young gentlemen	P2
In the Spring of 'Fourteen	P2
	-
XI	D2
London just before dawn immense and	Q2