Z---------'s Dream Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDDEFGGDDHHICIBJJ KLKLMMNOONPPQQRSRTRR UVUVMMWRDD DD DDUUAALDLDXMXM RMRMXXYZGGUU A2MA2MMDMDABAB B2C2B2C2MMMMRLRRL MMMMMM MDMDMMCD2MD2E2CE2CF2 MF2MD2MG2DDDEQQQEHD2 QD2H2I2J2I2MMMI2 EI dreamt last night and in that dream | A |
My boyhood's heart was mine again | B |
These latter years did nothing seem | A |
With all their mingled joy and pain | C |
Their thousand deeds of good and ill | D |
Their hopes which time did not fulfil | D |
Their glorious moments of success | E |
Their love that closed in bitterness | F |
Their hate that grew with growing strength | G |
Their darling projects dropped at length | G |
And higher aims that still prevail | D |
For I must perish ere they fail | D |
That crowning object of my life | H |
The end of all my toil and strife | H |
Source of my virtues and my crimes | I |
For which I've toiled and striven in vain | C |
But if I fail a thousand times | I |
Still I will toil and strive again | B |
Yet even this was then forgot | J |
My present heart and soul were not | J |
All the rough lessons life has taught | K |
That are become a part of me | L |
A moment's sleep to nothing brought | K |
And made me what I used to be | L |
And I was roaming light and gay | M |
Upon a breezy sunny day | M |
A bold and careless youth | N |
No guilty stain was on my mind | O |
And if not over soft or kind | O |
My heart was full of truth | N |
It was a well known mountain scene | P |
Wild steeps with rugged glens between | P |
I should have thirsted to explore | Q |
Had I not trod them oft before | Q |
A younger boy was with me there | R |
His hand upon my shoulder leant | S |
His heart like mine was free from care | R |
His breath with sportive toil was spent | T |
For my rough pastimes he would share | R |
And equal dangers loved to dare | R |
Though seldom I would care to vie | U |
In learning's keen pursuit with him | V |
I loved free air and open sky | U |
Better than books and tutors grim | V |
And we had wandered far that day | M |
O'er that forbidden ground away | M |
Ground to our rebel feet how dear | W |
Danger and freedom both were there | R |
Had climbed the steep and coursed the dale | D |
Until his strength began to fail | D |
- | |
He bade me pause and breathe a while | D |
But spoke it with a happy smile | D |
- | |
His lips were parted to inhale | D |
The breeze that swept the ferny dale | D |
And chased the clouds across the sky | U |
And waved his locks in passing by | U |
And fanned my cheek so real did seem | A |
This strange untrue but truthlike dream | A |
And as we stood I laughed to see | L |
His fair young cheek so brightly glow | D |
He turned his sparkling eyes to me | L |
With looks no painter's art could show | D |
Nor words portray but earnest mirth | X |
And truthful love I there descried | M |
And while I thought upon his worth | X |
My bosom glowed with joy and pride | M |
- | |
I could have kissed his forehead fair | R |
I could nave clasped him to my heart | M |
But tenderness with me was rare | R |
And I must take a rougher part | M |
I seized him in my boisterous mirth | X |
I bore him struggling to the earth | X |
And grappling strength for strength we strove | Y |
He half in wrath I all for love | Z |
But I gave o'er the strife at length | G |
Ashamed of my superior strength | G |
The rather that I marked his eye | U |
Kindle as if a change were nigh | U |
- | |
We paused to breathe a little space | A2 |
Reclining on the heather brae | M |
But still I gazed upon his face | A2 |
To watch the shadow pass away | M |
I grasped his hand and it was fled | M |
A smile a laugh and all was well | D |
Upon my breast he leant his head | M |
And into graver talk we fell | D |
More serious yet so blest did seem | A |
That calm communion then | B |
That when I found it but a dream | A |
I longed to sleep again | B |
- | |
At first remembrance slowly woke | B2 |
Surprise regret successive rose | C2 |
That love's strong cords should thus be broke | B2 |
And dearest friends turn deadliest foes | C2 |
Then like a cold o'erwhelming flood | M |
Upon my soul it burst | M |
This heart had thirsted for his blood | M |
This hand allayed that thirst | M |
These eyes had watched without a tear | R |
His dying agony | L |
These ears unmoved had heard his prayer | R |
This tongue had cursed him suffering there | R |
And mocked him bitterly | L |
- | |
Unwonted weakness o'er me crept | M |
I sighed nay weaker still I wept | M |
Wept like a woman o'er the deed | M |
I had been proud to do | M |
As I had made his bosom bleed | M |
My own was bleeding too | M |
- | |
Back foolish tears the man I slew | M |
Was not the boy I cherished so | D |
And that young arm that clasped the friend | M |
Was not the same that stabbed the foe | D |
By time and adverse thoughts estranged | M |
And wrongs and vengeance both were changed | M |
Repentance now were worse that vain | C |
Time's current cannot backward run | D2 |
And be the action wrong or right | M |
It is for ever done | D2 |
Then reap the fruits I've said his death | E2 |
Should be my country's gain | C |
If not then I have spent my breath | E2 |
And spilt his blood in vain | C |
And I have laboured hard and long | F2 |
But little good obtained | M |
My foes are many yet and strong | F2 |
Not half the battle's gained | M |
For still the greater deeds I've done | D2 |
The more I have to do | M |
The faster I can journey on | G2 |
The farther I must go | D |
If Fortune favoured for a while | D |
I could not rest beneath her smile | D |
Nor triumph in success | E |
When I have gained one river's shore | Q |
A wilder torrent stretched before | Q |
Defies me with its deafening roar | Q |
And onward I must press | E |
And much I doubt this work of strife | H |
In blood and death begun | D2 |
Will call for many a victim more | Q |
Before the cause is won | D2 |
Well my own life I'd freely give | H2 |
Ere I would fail in my design | I2 |
The cause must prosper if I live | J2 |
And I will die if it decline | I2 |
Advanced this far I'll not recede | M |
Whether to vanquish or to bleed | M |
Onward unchecked I must proceed | M |
Be Death or Victory mine | I2 |
- | |
EZ | E |
Anne Bronta<<
(1)
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