Mementos Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCCDE FFGGHIJJ BKBK LMLM CNCN ONON PQPQ RSTS UVUW LXLD OYOZ A2B2A2B2 C2D2E2F2E2F2 NWNWG2H2G2H2I2J2I2J2 K2QK2QL2M2L2M2 N2J2O2J2SFSSFP2NP2Q2 P2N J2J2NNR2R2S2S2T2T2QQ U2U2V2V2W2W2W2W2FFW2 LLDW2W2X2TTQW2W2NW2W 2N FFY2FFY2TDQZ2Z2SA3A3 W2FFW2W2W2W2W2W2W2I2 I2DDFFY2Y2W2FW2W2FNB 3NB3W2C3W2C3D3R2R2R2 OQOQ R2E3R2E3 W2W2W2W2 FSFS LR2LR2 W2W2F3ARRANGING long locked drawers and shelves | A |
Of cabinets shut up for years | B |
What a strange task we've set ourselves | A |
How still the lonely room appears | B |
How strange this mass of ancient treasures | C |
Mementos of past pains and pleasures | C |
These volumes clasped with costly stone | D |
With print all faded gilding gone | E |
- | |
These fans of leaves from Indian trees | F |
These crimson shells from Indian seas | F |
These tiny portraits set in rings | G |
Once doubtless deemed such precious things | G |
Keepsakes bestowed by Love on Faith | H |
And worn till the receiver's death | I |
Now stored with cameos china shells | J |
In this old closet's dusty cells | J |
- | |
I scarcely think for ten long years | B |
A hand has touched these relics old | K |
And coating each slow formed appears | B |
The growth of green and antique mould | K |
- | |
All in this house is mossing over | L |
All is unused and dim and damp | M |
Nor light nor warmth the rooms discover | L |
Bereft for years of fire and lamp | M |
- | |
The sun sometimes in summer enters | C |
The casements with reviving ray | N |
But the long rains of many winters | C |
Moulder the very walls away | N |
- | |
And outside all is ivy clinging | O |
To chimney lattice gable grey | N |
Scarcely one little red rose springing | O |
Through the green moss can force its way | N |
- | |
Unscared the daw and starling nestle | P |
Where the tall turret rises high | Q |
And winds alone come near to rustle | P |
The thick leaves where their cradles lie | Q |
- | |
I sometimes think when late at even | R |
I climb the stair reluctantly | S |
Some shape that should be well in heaven | T |
Or ill elsewhere will pass by me | S |
- | |
I fear to see the very faces | U |
Familiar thirty years ago | V |
Even in the old accustomed places | U |
Which look so cold and gloomy now | W |
- | |
I've come to close the window hither | L |
At twilight when the sun was down | X |
And Fear my very soul would wither | L |
Lest something should be dimly shown | D |
- | |
Too much the buried form resembling | O |
Of her who once was mistress here | Y |
Lest doubtful shade or moonbeam trembling | O |
Might take her aspect once so dear | Z |
- | |
Hers was this chamber in her time | A2 |
It seemed to me a pleasant room | B2 |
For then no cloud of grief or crime | A2 |
Had cursed it with a settled gloom | B2 |
- | |
I had not seen death's image laid | C2 |
In shroud and sheet on yonder bed | D2 |
Before she married she was blest | E2 |
Blest in her youth blest in her worth | F2 |
Her mind was calm its sunny rest | E2 |
Shone in her eyes more clear than mirth | F2 |
- | |
And when attired in rich array | N |
Light lustrous hair about her brow | W |
She yonder sat a kind of day | N |
Lit up what seems so gloomy now | W |
These grim oak walls even then were grim | G2 |
That old carved chair was then antique | H2 |
But what around looked dusk and dim | G2 |
Served as a foil to her fresh cheek | H2 |
Her neck and arms of hue so fair | I2 |
Eyes of unclouded smiling light | J2 |
Her soft and curled and floating hair | I2 |
Gems and attire as rainbow bright | J2 |
- | |
Reclined in yonder deep recess | K2 |
Ofttimes she would at evening lie | Q |
Watching the sun she seemed to bless | K2 |
With happy glance the glorious sky | Q |
She loved such scenes and as she gazed | L2 |
Her face evinced her spirit's mood | M2 |
Beauty or grandeur ever raised | L2 |
In her a deep felt gratitude | M2 |
- | |
But of all lovely things she loved | N2 |
A cloudless moon on summer night | J2 |
Full oft have I impatience proved | O2 |
To see how long her still delight | J2 |
Would find a theme in reverie | S |
Out on the lawn or where the trees | F |
Let in the lustre fitfully | S |
As their boughs parted momently | S |
To the soft languid summer breeze | F |
Alas that she should e'er have flung | P2 |
Those pure though lonely joys away | N |
Deceived by false and guileful tongue | P2 |
She gave her hand then suffered wrong | Q2 |
Oppressed ill used she faded young | P2 |
And died of grief by slow decay | N |
- | |
Open that casket look how bright | J2 |
Those jewels flash upon the sight | J2 |
The brilliants have not lost a ray | N |
Of lustre since her wedding day | N |
But see upon that pearly chain | R2 |
How dim lies time's discolouring stain | R2 |
I've seen that by her daughter worn | S2 |
For e'er she died a child was born | S2 |
A child that ne'er its mother knew | T2 |
That lone and almost friendless grew | T2 |
For ever when its step drew nigh | Q |
Averted was the father's eye | Q |
And then a life impure and wild | U2 |
Made him a stranger to his child | U2 |
Absorbed in vice he little cared | V2 |
On what she did or how she fared | V2 |
The love withheld she never sought | W2 |
She grew uncherished learnt untaught | W2 |
To her the inward life of thought | W2 |
Full soon was open laid | W2 |
I know not if her friendlessness | F |
Did sometimes on her spirit press | F |
But plaint she never made | W2 |
- | |
The book shelves were her darling treasure | L |
She rarely seemed the time to measure | L |
While she could read alone | D |
And she too loved the twilight wood | W2 |
And often in her mother's mood | W2 |
Away to yonder hill would hie | X2 |
Like her to watch the setting sun | T |
Or see the stars born one by one | T |
Out of the darkening sky | Q |
Nor would she leave that hill till night | W2 |
Trembled from pole to pole with light | W2 |
Even then upon her homeward way | N |
Long long her wandering steps delayed | W2 |
To quit the sombre forest shade | W2 |
Through which her eerie pathway lay | N |
- | |
You ask if she had beauty's grace | F |
I know not but a nobler face | F |
My eyes have seldom seen | Y2 |
A keen and fine intelligence | F |
And better still the truest sense | F |
Were in her speaking mien | Y2 |
But bloom or lustre was there none | T |
Only at moments fitful shone | D |
An ardour in her eye | Q |
That kindled on her cheek a flush | Z2 |
Warm as a red sky's passing blush | Z2 |
And quick with energy | S |
Her speech too was not common speech | A3 |
No wish to shine or aim to teach | A3 |
Was in her words displayed | W2 |
She still began with quiet sense | F |
But oft the force of eloquence | F |
Came to her lips in aid | W2 |
Language and voice unconscious changed | W2 |
And thoughts in other words arranged | W2 |
Her fervid soul transfused | W2 |
Into the hearts of those who heard | W2 |
And transient strength and ardour stirred | W2 |
In minds to strength unused | W2 |
Yet in gay crowd or festal glare | I2 |
Grave and retiring was her air | I2 |
'Twas seldom save with me alone | D |
That fire of feeling freely shone | D |
She loved not awe's nor wonder's gaze | F |
Nor even exaggerated praise | F |
Nor even notice if too keen | Y2 |
The curious gazer searched her mien | Y2 |
Nature's own green expanse revealed | W2 |
The world the pleasures she could prize | F |
On free hill side in sunny field | W2 |
In quiet spots by woods concealed | W2 |
Grew wild and fresh her chosen joys | F |
Yet Nature's feelings deeply lay | N |
In that endowed and youthful frame | B3 |
Shrined in her heart and hid from day | N |
They burned unseen with silent flame | B3 |
In youth's first search for mental light | W2 |
She lived but to reflect and learn | C3 |
But soon her mind's maturer might | W2 |
For stronger task did pant and yearn | C3 |
And stronger task did fate assign | D3 |
Task that a giant's strength might strain | R2 |
To suffer long and ne'er repine | R2 |
Be calm in frenzy smile at pain | R2 |
- | |
Pale with the secret war of feeling | O |
Sustained with courage mute yet high | Q |
The wounds at which she bled revealing | O |
Only by altered cheek and eye | Q |
- | |
She bore in silence but when passion | R2 |
Surged in her soul with ceaseless foam | E3 |
The storm at last brought desolation | R2 |
And drove her exiled from her home | E3 |
- | |
And silent still she straight assembled | W2 |
The wrecks of strength her soul retained | W2 |
For though the wasted body trembled | W2 |
The unconquered mind to quail disdained | W2 |
- | |
She crossed the sea now lone she wanders | F |
By Seine's or Rhine's or Arno's flow | S |
Fain would I know if distance renders | F |
Relief or comfort to her woe | S |
- | |
Fain would I know if henceforth ever | L |
These eyes shall read in hers again | R2 |
That light of love which faded never | L |
Though dimmed so long with secret pain | R2 |
- | |
She will return but cold and altered | W2 |
Like all whose hopes too soon depart | W2 |
Like | F3 |
Charlotte Bronta<<
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