An Athenian Reverie Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNODPQRS TUVWXYDZA2ZB2SC2DD2E 2A2F2A2G2H2H2H2H2I2A 2H2J2H2H2A2IA2A2K2H2 A2H2AIL2M2 H2A2H2H2H2SA2N2O2CH2 H2A2H2A2H2IH2A2H2H2P 2Q2H2H2H2IA2A2K2H2A2 H2H2R2H2S2T2H2H2U2H2 H2A2V2H2H2K2IB2W2H2H 2H2X2I SH2H2A2H2U2H2A2A2IH2 H2Y2Z2H2SQA2T2K2K2B2 AA2T2Z2H2H2A3H2Z2B3A 2A2C3H2D3Z2Z2H2H2H2H 2E3A2Z2SF3W2G3 H2A2H2IT2Z2H3I3J3A2H 2SZ2A2A2SA2Z2SK3K2W2 Z2M2H2IIA2G3H2IH2H2Z 2A2Z2A2H2H2A2M2A2Z2A 2 SL3M3N3A2A2A2Z2O3A2Z 2H2N3H2H2H2A2IO3A2A2 A2K2H2H2L3K2Z2A2H2IH 2A2A2M2SA2N3B2IG3P3I H2A2A2A2P2Z2A2Q3R3A2 N3H2A2A2J3A2S3A2SZ2A 2A2H2H2T3A2H2SA2A2F2 A2A2SH2A2H2M2H2Z2OA2 Z2S3H2M2Z2H2Z2F2A2A2 M2F2G3S A2A2F2F2A2U3KF2N3H2H 2H2Z2H2H2H2Z2H2A2F2H 2F2F2V3A2Z2F2W3H2A2Z 2SH2A2A2IH2X3A2A2H2S A2C3A2A2Y3H2IA2H2A2S T3H2A2F2H2F2H2A2Z2F2 SA2H2A2SH2H2H2IH2KA2 SH2H2A2SSH2A2H2H2H2H 2SH2Z3H2S3 H2H2N3H2G3SH2IH2H2A2 H2Z2A2F2M2A2G3A4A2L2 A2D3A2SP3IA2H2

How the returning days one after one	A
Came ever in their rhythmic round unchanged	B
Yet from each looped robe for every man	C
Some new thing falls Happy is he	D
Who fronts them without fear and like the gods	E
Looks out unanxiously on each day's gift	F
With calmly curious eye How many things	G
Even in a little space both good and ill	H
Have fallen on me and yet in all of them	I
The keen experience or the smooth remembrance	J
Hath found some sweet It scarcely seems a month	K
Since we saw Crete so swiftly sped the days	L
Borne onward with how many changing scenes	M
Filled with how many crowding memories	N
Not soon shall I forget them the stout ship	O
All the tense labour with the windy sea	D
The cloud wrapped heights of Crete beheld far off	P
And white Cytaeon with its stormy pier	Q
The fruitful valleys the wild mountain road	R
And those long days of ever vigilant toil	S
Scarcely with sleepless craft and unmoved front	T
Escaping robbers that quiet restful eve	U
At rich Gortyna where we lay and watched	V
The dripping foliage and the darkening fields	W
And over all huge browed above the night	X
Ida's great summit with its fiery crown	Y
And then once more the stormy treacherous sea	D
The noisy ship the seamen's vehement cries	Z
That battled with the whistling wind the feet	A2
Reeling upon the swaying deck and eyes	Z
Strained anxiously toward land ah with what joy	B2
At last the busy pier at Nauplia	S
Rest and firm shelter for our racking brains	C2
Most sweet of all most dear to memory	D
That journey with Euktemon through the hills	D2
By fair Cleonae and the lofty pass	E2
Then Corinth with its riotous jollity	A2
Remembered like a reeling dream and here	F2
Good Theron's wedding and this festal day	A2
And I chief helper in its various rites	G2
Not least commissioned through these wakeful hours	H2
To dream before the quiet thalamos	H2
Unsleeping like some full grown bearded Eros	H2
The guardian of love's sweetest mysteries	H2
To morrow I shall hear again the din	I2
Of the loosed cables and the rowers' chaunt	A2
The rattled cordage and the plunging oars	H2
Once more the bending sail shall bear us on	J2
Across the level of the laughing sea	H2
Ere mid day we shall see far off behind us	H2
Faint as the summit of a sultry cloud	A2
The white Acropolis Past Sunium	I
With rushing keel the long Euboean strand	A2
Hymettus and the pine dark hills shall fade	A2
Into the dusk at Andros we shall water	K2
And ere another starlight hush the shores	H2
From seaward valleys catch upon the wind	A2
The fragrance of old Chian vintages	H2
At Chios many things shall fall but none	A
Can trace the future rather let me dream	I
Of what is now and what hath been for both	L2
Are fraught with life	M2
	-
Here the unbroken silence	H2
Awakens thought and makes remembrance sweet	A2
How solidly the brilliant moonlight shines	H2
Into the courts beneath the colonnades	H2
How dense the shadows I can scarcely see	H2
Yon painted Dian on the darkened wall	S
Yet how the gloom hath made her real What sound	A2
Piercing the leafy covert of her couch	N2
Hath startled her Perchance some prowling wolf	O2
Or luckless footsteps of the stealthy Pan	C
Creeping at night among noiseless steeps	H2
And hollows of the Erymanthian woods	H2
Roused her from sleep With listening head	A2
Snatched bow and quiver lightly slung she stands	H2
And peers across that dim and motionless glade	A2
Beckoning about her heels the wakeful dogs	H2
Yet Dian thus alert is but a dream	I
Making more real this brooding quietness	H2
How strong and wonderful is night Mankind	A2
Has yielded all to one sweet helplessness	H2
Thought labour strife and all activities	H2
Have ebbed like fever The smooth tide of sleep	P2
Rolling across the fields of Attica	Q2
Hath covered all the labouring villages	H2
Even great Athens with her busy hands	H2
And busier tongues lies quiet beneath its waves	H2
Only a steady murmur seems to come	I
Up from her silentness as if the land	A2
Were breathing heavily in dreams Abroad	A2
No creature stirs not even the reveller	K2
Staggering unlanterned from the cool Piraeus	H2
With drunken shout The remnants of the feast	A2
The crumpled cushions and the broken wreathes	H2
Lie scattered in yon shadowy court whose stones	H2
Through the warm hours drink up the staining wine	R2
The bridal oxen in their well filled stalls	H2
Sleep mindless of the happy weight they drew	S2
The torch is charred the garlands at the door	T2
So gay at morning with their bright festoons	H2
Hang limp and withered and the joyous flutes	H2
Are empty of all sound Only my brain	U2
Holds now in its remote unsleeping depths	H2
The echo of the tender hymenaeos	H2
And memory of the modest lips that sang it	A2
Within the silent thalamos the queen	V2
The sea sprung radiant Cytherean reigns	H2
And with her smiling lips and fathomless eyes	H2
Regards the lovers knowing that this hour	K2
Is theirs once only Earth and thought and time	I
Lie far beyond them a great gulf of joy	B2
Absorbing fear regret and every grief	W2
A warm eternity or now perchance	H2
Night and the very weight of happiness	H2
Unsought have turned upon their tremulous eyes	H2
The mindless stream of sleep nor do they care	X2
If dawn should never come	I
	-
How joyously	S
These hours have gone with all their pictured scenes	H2
A string of golden beads for memory	H2
To finger over in her moods or stay	A2
The hunger of some wakeful hour like this	H2
The flowers the myrtles the gay bridal train	U2
The flutes and pensive voices the white robes	H2
The shower of sweet meats and the jovial feast	A2
The bride cakes and the teeming merriment	A2
Most beautiful of all most sweet to name	I
The good Lysippe with her down cast eyes	H2
Touched with soft fear half scared at all the noise	H2
Whose tears were ready as her laughter fresh	Y2
And modest as some pink anemone	Z2
How young she looked and how her smiling lips	H2
Betrayed her happiness Ah who can tell	S
How often when no watchful eye was near	Q
Her eager fingers trembling and ashamed	A2
Essayed the apple pips or strewed the floor	T2
With broken poppy petals Next to her	K2
Theron himself the gladest goodliest figure	K2
His honest face ruddy with health and joy	B2
And smiling like the AEgean when the sun	A
Hangs high in heaven and the freshening wind	A2
Comes in from Melos rippling all its floor	T2
And there was Manto too the good old crone	Z2
So dear to children with her store of tales	H2
Warmed with new life how to her old grey face	H2
And withered limbs the very dance of youth	A3
Seemed to return and in her aged eyes	H2
The waning fire rekindled little Maeon	Z2
That mischievous satyr with his tipsy wreath	B3
Who kept us laughing at his pranks and made	A2
Old Phyrrho angry Him too sleep hath bound	A2
Upon his rough hewn couch with subtle thong	C3
Crowding his brain with odd fantastic shapes	H2
Even in sleep his little limbs I think	D3
Twitch restlessly and still his tongue gibes on	Z2
With inarticulate murmur Ah quaint Maeon	Z2
And Manto poor old Manto what dim dreams	H2
Of darkly moving chaos and slow shapes	H2
Of things that creep encumbered with huge burdens	H2
Gloom and infest her through these dragging hours	H2
Haunting the wavering soul so near the grave	E3
But all things journey to the same quiet end	A2
At last life joy and every form of motion	Z2
Nothing stands still Not least inevitable	S
The sad recession of this passionate love	F3
Whose panting fires so soon and with such grief	W2
Burn down to ash	G3
	-
Ai Ai 'tis a strange madness	H2
To give up thought ambition liberty	A2
And all the rooted custom of our days	H2
Even life itself for one all pampering dream	I
That withers like those garlands at the door	T2
And yet I have seen many excellent men	Z2
Besotted thus and some that bore till death	H3
In the crook'd vision and embittered tongue	I3
The effect of this strange poison like a scar	J3
An ineradicable hurt but Fate	A2
Who deals more wondrously in this disease	H2
Even than in others yet doth sometimes will	S
To make the same thing unto different men	Z2
Evil or good Was not Demetrios happy	A2
Who wore his fetters with such grace and spent	A2
On Chione the Naxian that shrewd girl	S
His fortune and his youth yet while she lived	A2
Enjoyed the rich reward He seemed like one	Z2
That trod on wind and I remember well	S
How when she died in that remorseless plague	K3
And I alone stood with him at the pyre	K2
He shook me with his helpless passionate grief	W2
And honest Agathon the married man	Z2
Whose boyish fondness for his pretty wife	M2
We smiled at and yet envied at the close	H2
Of each day's labour how he posted home	I
And thence no bait however plumed could draw him	I
We laughed but envied him How sweet she looked	A2
That morning at the Dyonisia	G3
With her rare eyes and modest girlish grace	H2
Leading her two small children by the palm	I
I too might marry if the faithful gods	H2
Would promise me such joy as Agathon's	H2
Perhaps some day but no I am not one	Z2
To clip my wings and wind about my feet	A2
A net whose self made meshes are as stern	Z2
As they are soft To me is ever present	A2
The outer world with its untravelled paths	H2
The wanderer's dream the itch to see new things	H2
A single tie could never bind me fast	A2
For life this joyous busy ever changing life	M2
Is only dear to me with liberty	A2
With space of earth for feet to travel in	Z2
And space of mind for thought	A2
	-
Not so for all	S
To most men life is but a common thing	L3
The hours a sort of coin to barter with	M3
Whose worth is reckoned by the sum they buy	N3
In gold or power or pleasure each short day	A2
That brings not these deemed fruitless as dry sand	A2
Their lives are but a blind activity	A2
And death to them is but the end of motion	Z2
Grey children who have madly eat and drunk	O3
Won the high seats or filled their chests with gold	A2
And yet for all their years have never seen	Z2
The picture of their lives or how life looks	H2
To him who hath the deep uneager eye	N3
How sweet and large and beautiful it was	H2
How strange the part they played Like him who sits	H2
Beneath some mighty tree with half closed eyes	H2
At ease rejoicing in its murmurous shade	A2
Yet never once awakes from his dull dream	I
To mark with curious joy the kingly trunk	O3
The sweeping boughs and tower of leaves that gave it	A2
Even so the most of men they take the gift	A2
And care not for the giver Strange indeed	A2
Are they and pitiable beyond measure	K2
Who thus unmindful of their wretchedness	H2
Crowd at life's bountiful gates like fattening beggars	H2
Greedy and blind For see how rich a thing	L3
Life is to him who sees to whom each hour	K2
Brings some fresh wonder to be brooded on	Z2
Adds some new group or studied history	A2
To that wrought sculpture that our watchful dreams	H2
Cast up upon the broad expanse of time	I
As in a never finished frieze not less	H2
The little things that most men pass unmarked	A2
Than those that shake mankind Happy is he	A2
Who as a watcher stands apart from life	M2
From all life and his own and thus from all	S
Each thought each deed and each hour's brief event	A2
Draws the full beauty sucks its meaning dry	N3
For him this life shall be a tranquil joy	B2
He shall be quiet and free To him shall come	I
No gnawing hunger for the coarser touch	G3
No mad ambition with its fateful grasp	P3
Sorrow itself shall sway him like a dream	I
	-
How full life is how many memories	H2
Flash and shine out when thought is sharply stirred	A2
How the mind works when once the wheels are loosed	A2
How nimbly with what swift activity	A2
I think 'tis strange that men should ever sleep	P2
There are so many things to think upon	Z2
So many deeds so many thoughts to weigh	A2
To pierce and plumb them to the silent depth	Q3
Yet in that thought I do rebuke myself	R3
Too little given to probe the inner heart	A2
But rather wont with the luxurious eye	N3
To catch from life its outer loveliness	H2
Such things as do but store the joyous memory	A2
With food for solace rather than for thought	A2
Like light lined figures on a painted jar	J3
I wonder where Euktemon is to night	A2
Euktemon with his rough and fitful talk	S3
His moody gesture and defiant stride	A2
How strange how bleak and unapproachable	S
And yet I liked him from the first How soon	Z2
We know our friends through all disguise of mood	A2
Discerning by a subtle touch of spirit	A2
The honest heart within Euktemon's glance	H2
Betrayed him with its gusty friendliness	H2
Flashing at moments from the clouded brow	T3
Like brave warm sunshine and his laughter too	A2
So rare so sudden so contagious	H2
How at some merry scene some well told tale	S
Or swift invention of the winged wit	A2
It broke like thunderous water rolling out	A2
In shaken peals on the delighted ear	F2
Yet no man would have dreamed who saw us two	A2
That first grey morning on the pier at Crete	A2
That friendship could have forged thus easily	S
A bond so subtle and so sure between us	H2
He gloomy and austere I full of thought	A2
As he yet in adverse mood at ease	H2
Lifting with lighter hands the lids of life	M2
Untortured by its riddles he whose smiles	H2
Were rare and sudden as the autumn sun	Z2
I to whom smiles are ever near the lip	O
And yet I think he loved me too my mood	A2
Was not unpleasant to him though I know	Z2
At times I teased him with flickering talk	S3
How self immured he was for all our converse	H2
I gathered little little of his life	M2
A bitter trial to me who love to learn	Z2
The changes of men's outer circumstance	H2
The strokes that fate has shaped them with and so	Z2
Fitting to these their present speech and favour	F2
Discern the thought within From him I gleaned	A2
Nothing At least the word however guarded	A2
That sought to try the fastenings of his life	M2
With prying hands how mute and dark he grew	F2
And like the cautious tortoise at a touch	G3
Drew in beneath his shell	S
	-
But ah how sweet	A2
The memory of that long untroubled day	A2
To me so joyous and so free from care	F2
Spent as I love on foot our first together	F2
When fate and the reluctant sea at last	A2
Had given us safely to dry land the tramp	U3
From grey Mycenae by the pass to Corinth	K
The smooth white road the soft caressing air	F2
Full of the scent of blossoms the clear sky	N3
Strewn lightly with the little tardy clouds	H2
Old Helios' scattered flock the low branched oaks	H2
And fountained resting places the cool nooks	H2
Where eyes less darkened with life's use than mine	Z2
Perchance had caught the Naiads in their dreams	H2
Or won white glimpses of their flying heels	H2
How light our feet were with what rhythmic strides	H2
We left the long blue gulf behind us sown	Z2
Far out with snowy sails and how our hearts	H2
Rose with the growth of morning till we reached	A2
That moss hung fountain on the hillside near	F2
Cleonae where the dark anemones	H2
Cover the ground and make it red like fire	F2
Could ever grief I wonder or fixed care	F2
Or even the lingering twilight of old age	V3
Divest for me such memories of their sweet	A2
Even Euktemon's obdurate mood broke down	Z2
The odorous stillness the serene bright air	F2
The leafy shadows the warm blossoming earth	W3
Drew near with their voluptuous eloquence	H2
And melted him Ah what a talk we had	A2
How eagerly our nimble tongues ran on	Z2
With linked wit in joyous sympathy	S
Such hours I think are better than long years	H2
Of brooding loneliness mind touching mind	A2
To leaping life and thought sustaining thought	A2
Till even the darkest chambers of grey time	I
His ancient seats and bolted mysteries	H2
Open their hoary doors and at a look	X3
Lay all their treasures bare How when our thought	A2
Wheeling on ever bolder wings at last	A2
Grew as it seemed too large for utterance	H2
We both fell silent striving to recall	S
And grasp such things as in our daring mood	A2
We had but glimpsed and leaped at yet how long	C3
We studied thus with absent eyes I know not	A2
Our thought died slowly out the busy road	A2
The voices of the passers by the change	Y3
Of garb and feature and the various tongues	H2
Absorbed us Ah how clearly I recall them	I
For in these silent wakeful hours the mind	A2
Is strangely swift With that sharp lines	H2
The shapes of things that even years have buried	A2
Shine out upon the rapid memory	S
Moving and warm like life I can see now	T3
The form of that tall peddler whose strange wares	H2
Outlandish dialect and impudent gait	A2
Awoke Euktemon's laughter In mine ear	F2
Is echoing still the cracking string of gibes	H2
They flung at one another I remember too	F2
The grey haired merchant with his bold black eyes	H2
And brace of slaves the old ship captain tanned	A2
With sweeping sea winds and the pitiless sun	Z2
But best of all that dainty amorous pair	F2
Whose youthful spirit neither heat nor toil	S
Could conquer What a charming group they made	A2
The creaking litter and the long brown poles	H2
The sinewy bearers with their cat like stride	A2
Dripping with sweat that merry dark eyed girl	S
Whose sudden beauty shook us from our dreams	H2
And chained our eyes How beautiful she was	H2
Half hid among the gay Miletian cushions	H2
The lovely laughing face the gracious form	I
The fragrant lightly knotted hair and eyes	H2
Full of the dancing fire of wanton Corinth	K
That happy stripling whose delighted feet	A2
Swung at her side whose tongue ran on so gaily	S
Is it for him alone she wreathes those smiles	H2
And tunes so musically that flexile voice	H2
Soft as the Lydian flute Surely his gait	A2
Proclaimed the lover and his well filled girdle	S
Not less the lover's strength How joyously	S
He strode unmindful of his ruffled curls	H2
Whose perfumes still went wide upon the wind	A2
His dust stained robe unheeded and the stones	H2
Whose ragged edges frayed his delicate shoes	H2
How radiant how full of hope he was	H2
What pleasant memories how many things	H2
Rose up again before me as I lay	S
Half stretched among the crushed anemones	H2
And watched them till a far off jutting ledge	Z3
Precluded sight still listening till mine ears	H2
Caught the last vanishing murmur of their talk	S3
	-
Only a little longer then we rose	H2
With limbs refreshed and kept a swinging pace	H2
Toward Corinth but our talk I know not why	N3
Fell for that day I wonder what there was	H2
About those dainty lovers or their speech	G3
That changed Euktemon's mood for all the way	S
From high Cleonae to the city gates	H2
Till sunset found us loitering without aim	I
Half lost among the dusky moving crowds	H2
I could get nothing from him but dark looks	H2
Short answers and the old defiant stride	A2
Some memory pricked him It may be perchance	H2
A woman's treachery some luckless passion	Z2
In former days endured hath seared his blood	A2
And dowered him with that cureless bitter humour	F2
To him solitude and the wanderer's life	M2
Alone are sweet the tumults of this world	A2
A thing unworthy of the wise man's touch	G3
Its joys and sorrows to be met alike	A4
With broad browed scorn One quality at least	A2
We have in common we are idlers both	L2
Shifters and wanderers through this sleepless world	A2
Albeit in different moods 'Tis that I think	D3
That knit us and the universal need	A2
For near companionship Howe'er it be	S
There is no hand that I would gladlier grasp	P3
Either on earth or in the nether gloom	I
When the grey keel shall grind the Stygian strand	A2
Than stern Euktemon's	H2

Archibald Lampman

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