The Moondial Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJKJ LMLM NNNN LOLO NNNN PNPN LNLN NQNQ LRLR NNNN NSNS NLNL

Iron and granite and rustA
In a crumbling garden oldB
Where the roses are paler than dustA
And the lilies are green with goldB
-
Under the racing moonC
Inconscious of war or crimeD
In a strange and ghostly noonC
It marks the oblivion of timeD
-
The shadow steals through its arcE
Still as a frosted breathF
Fitful gleaming and darkE
As the cold frustration of deathF
-
But where the shadow may fallG
Whether to hurry or stayH
It matters little at allG
To those who come that wayH
-
For this is the dial of themI
That have forgotten the worldJ
No more through the mad day dreamK
Of striving and reason hurledJ
-
Their heart as a little childL
Only remembers the worthM
Of beauty and love and the wildL
Dark peace of the elder earthM
-
It registers the morrowsN
Of lovers and winds and streamsN
And the face of a thousand sorrowsN
At the postern gate of dreamsN
-
When the first low laughter smoteL
Through Lilith the mother of joyO
And died and revived from the throatL
Of Helen the harpstring of TroyO
-
And wandering on through the yearsN
From the sobbing rain and the seaN
Caught sound of the world's gray tearsN
Or sense of the sun's gold gleeN
-
Whenever the wild controlP
Burned out to a mortal kissN
And the shuddering storm swept soulP
Climbed to its acme of blissN
-
The green gold light of the deadL
Stood still in purple spaceN
And a record blind and dreadL
Was graved on the dial's faceN
-
And once in a thousand yearsN
Some youth who loved so wellQ
The gods had loosed him from fearsN
In a vision of blameless hellQ
-
Has gone to the dial to readL
Those signs in the outland tongueR
Written beyond the needL
Of the simple and the youngR
-
For immortal life they sayN
Were his who loving soN
Could explain the writing awayN
As a legend written in snowN
-
But always his innocent eyesN
Were frozen into the stoneS
From that awful first surpriseN
His soul must return aloneS
-
In the morning there he layN
Dead in the sun's warm goldL
And no man knows to this dayN
What the dim moondial toldL

Bliss Carman



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