Lars Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD ECEC CFCF GHGH CICJ CKCK CLCL ICIC MCMC NCNC LOLO ILJL CPCP QCQC CCCC RSRS COCO CFCFTell us a story of these Isles they said | A |
The daughters of the West whose eyes had seen | B |
For the first time the circling sea instead | A |
Of the blown prairie's waves of grassy green | B |
- | |
Tell us of wreck and peril storm and cold | C |
Wild as the wildest Under summer stars | D |
With the slow moonrise at our back I told | C |
The story of the young Norwegian Lars | D |
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That youth with the black eyebrows sharply drawn | E |
In strong curves like some sea bird's wings outspread | C |
O'er his dark eyes is Lars and this fair dawn | E |
Of womanhood the maiden he will wed | C |
- | |
She loves him for the dangers he has past | C |
Her rosy beauty glowed before his stern | F |
And vigilant regard until at last | C |
Her sweetness vanquished Lars the taciturn | F |
- | |
For he is ever quiet strong and wise | G |
Wastes nothing not a gesture nor a breath | H |
Forgets not gazing in the maiden's eyes | G |
A year ago it was not love but death | H |
- | |
That clasped him and can hardly learn as yet | C |
How to be merry haunted by that pain | I |
And terror and remembering with regret | C |
The comrade he can never see again | J |
- | |
Out from the harbor on that winter day | C |
Sailed the two men to set their trawl together | K |
Down swept the sudden snow squall o'er the bay | C |
And hurled their slight boat onward like a feather | K |
- | |
They tossed they knew not whither till at last | C |
Under the lighthouse cliff they found a lee | L |
And out the road lines of the trawl they cast | C |
To moor her is so happy they might be | L |
- | |
But quick the slender road lines snapt in twain | I |
In the wild breakers and once more they tossed | C |
Adrift and watching from his misty pane | I |
The lighthouse keeper muttered They are lost | C |
- | |
Lifted the snow night fell swift cleared the sky | M |
The air grew sharp as death with polar cold | C |
Raged the insensate gale and flashing high | M |
In starlight keen the hissing billows rolled | C |
- | |
Driven before the winds incessant scourge | N |
All night they fled one dead ere morning lay | C |
Lars saw his strange drawn countenance emerge | N |
In the fierce sunrise light of that drear day | C |
- | |
And thought A little space and I shall be | L |
Even as he and gazing in despair | O |
O'er the wide weltering waste no sign could see | L |
Of hope of help or comfort anywhere | O |
- | |
Two hundred miles before the hurricane | I |
The dead and living drove across the sea | L |
The third day dawned His dim eyes saw again | J |
The vast green plain breaking eternally | L |
- | |
In ghastly waves But in the early light | C |
On the horizon glittering like a star | P |
Fast growing looming tall with canvas white | C |
Sailed his salvation southward from afar | P |
- | |
Down she bore rushing o'er the hills of brine | Q |
Straight for his feeble signal As she passed | C |
Out from the schooner's deck they flung a line | Q |
And o'er his head the open noose was cast | C |
- | |
Clutching with both his hands the bowline knot | C |
Caught at his throat swift drawn through fire he seemed | C |
Whelmed in the icy sea and he forgot | C |
Life death and all things yet he thought he dreamed | C |
- | |
A dread voice cried We've lost him and a sting | R |
Of anguish pierced his clouded senses through | S |
A moment more and like a lifeless thing | R |
He lay among the eager pitying crew | S |
- | |
Long time he swooned while o'er the ocean vast | C |
The dead man tossed alone they knew not where | O |
But youth and health triumphant were at last | C |
And here is Lars you see and here the fair | O |
- | |
Young snow and rose bloom maiden he will wed | C |
His face is kindly thought it seems so stern | F |
Death passed him by and life begins instead | C |
For Thora sweet and Lars the taciturn | F |
Celia Thaxter
(1)
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