Later Life: A Double Sonnet Of Sonnets Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCBBCDEEDDE FGGFFGGFCHHICI CFFCCFFCJKJLKL CFFCCFFCMFFMFM NMMNNMMNCOOCOC PMMPPMMPQCRQCQ CSSCCSSCCTCCCT FMMFFMMFIFMMIF JUUJKKJKUMVMUV CFFCCFFCCQRCCC CCCCCCCCOWXWWO DYYDDYYDCJJCCC DFFDDFFDZCCCA2C FB2B2FFB2B2FMRMCCQ C2D2D2C2C2D2D2C2CB2B 2CCB2 E2F2F2E2E2F2F2E2FCCF CF G2CCVCCVCCMME2CE2 H2B2B2H2H2B2B2H2I2FI 2FI2F B2DDB2B2DDB2J2FFJ2J2 F CCCCCCCCCCCCCC D2JJD2D2JJD2K2CCK2CK 2 CCCCCCCCCL2CCCL2 KM2M2KKM2M2KCN2CCN2C E2M2M2E2E2M2O2E2CCP2 P2CC CQQCCQQCQCRCQC Q2I2I2Q2Q2I2I2Q2IR2S 2CCI CT2T2CCU2T2CV2CW2L2C L2 CV2V2CCW2V2CCMCCCM

	A
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Before the mountains were brought forth before	B
Earth and the world were made then God was God	C
And God will still be God when flames shall roar	B
Round earth and heaven dissolving at His nod	C
And this God is our God even while His rod	C
Of righteous wrath falls on us smiting sore	B
And this God is our God for evermore	B
Through life through death while clod returns to clod	C
For though He slay us we will trust in Him	D
We will flock home to Him by divers ways	E
Yea though He slay us we will vaunt His praise	E
Serving and loving with the Cherubim	D
Watching and loving with the Seraphim	D
Our very selves His praise through endless days	E
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Rend hearts and rend not garments for our sins	F
Gird sackcloth not on body but on soul	G
Grovel in dust with faces toward the goal	G
Nor won nor neared he only laughs who wins	F
Not neared the goal the race too late begins	F
Or left undone we have yet to do the whole	G
The sun is hurrying west and toward the pole	G
Where darkness waits for earth with all her kins	F
Let us to day while it is called to day	C
Set out if utmost speed may yet avail	H
The shadows lengthen and the light grows pale	H
For who through darkness and the shadow of death	I
Darkness that may be felt shall find a way	C
Blind eyed deaf eared and choked with failing breath	I
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Thou Who didst make and knowest whereof we are made	C
Oh bear in mind our dust and nothingness	F
Our wordless tearless dumbness of distress	F
Bear Thou in mind the burden Thou hast laid	C
Upon us and our feebleness unstayed	C
Except Thou stay us for the long long race	F
Which stretches far and far before our face	F
Thou knowest remember Thou whereof we are made	C
If making makes us Thine then Thine we are	J
And if redemption we are twice Thine own	K
If once Thou didst come down from heaven afar	J
To seek us and to find us how not save	L
Comfort us save us leave us not alone	K
Thou Who didst die our death and fill our grave	L
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So tired am I so weary of to day	C
So unrefreshed from foregone weariness	F
So overburdened by foreseen distress	F
So lagging and so stumbling on my way	C
I scarce can rouse myself to watch or pray	C
To hope or aim or toil for more or less	F
Ah always less and less even while I press	F
Forward and toil and aim as best I may	C
Half starved of soul and heartsick utterly	M
Yet lift I up my heart and soul and eyes	F
Which fail in looking upward toward the prize	F
Me Lord Thou seest though I see not Thee	M
Me now as once the Thief in Paradise	F
Even me O Lord my Lord remember me	M
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Lord Thou Thyself art Love and only Thou	N
Yet I who am not love would fain love Thee	M
But Thou alone being Love canst furnish me	M
With that same love my heart is craving now	N
Allow my plea for if Thou disallow	N
No second fountain can I find but Thee	M
No second hope or help is left to me	M
No second anything but only Thou	N
O Love accept according my request	C
O Love exhaust fulfilling my desire	O
Uphold me with the strength that cannot tire	O
Nerve me to labor till Thou bid me rest	C
Kindle my fire from Thine unkindled fire	O
And charm the willing heart from out my breast	C
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We lack yet cannot fix upon the lack	P
Not this nor that yet somewhat certainly	M
We see the things we do not yearn to see	M
Around us and what see we glancing back	P
Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the rack	P
Hopes that were never ours yet seemed to be	M
For which we steered on life's salt stormy sea	M
Braving the sunstroke and the frozen pack	P
If thus to look behind is all in vain	Q
And all in vain to look to left or right	C
Why face we not our future once again	R
Launching with hardier hearts across the main	Q
Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible sight	C
And strong to bear ourselves in patient pain	Q
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To love and to remember that is good	C
To love and to forget that is not well	S
To lapse from love to hatred that is hell	S
And death and torment rightly understood	C
Soul dazed by love and sorrow cheer thy mood	C
More blest art thou than mortal tongue can tell	S
Ring not thy funeral but thy marriage bell	S
And salt with hope thy life's insipid food	C
Love is the goal love is the way we wend	C
Love is our parallel unending line	T
Whose only perfect Parallel is Christ	C
Beginning not begun End without end	C
For He Who hath the heart of God sufficed	C
Can satisfy all hearts yea thine and mine	T
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We feel and see with different hearts and eyes	F
Ah Christ if all our hearts could meet in Thee	M
How well it were for them and well for me	M
Our hearts Thy dear accepted sacrifice	F
Thou only Life of hearts and Light of eyes	F
Our life our light if once we turn to Thee	M
So be it O Lord to them and so to me	M
Be all alike Thine own dear sacrifice	F
Thou Who by death hast ransomed us from death	I
Thyself God's sole well pleasing Sacrifice	F
Thine only sacred Self I plead with Thee	M
Make Thou it well for them and well for me	M
That Thou hast given us souls and wills and breath	I
And hearts to love Thee and to see Thee eyes	F
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Star Sirius and the Pole Star dwell afar	J
Beyond the drawings each of other's strength	U
One blazes through the brief bright summer's length	U
Lavishing life heat from a flaming car	J
While one unchangeable upon a throne	K
Broods o'er the frozen heart of earth alone	K
Content to reign the bright particular star	J
Of some who wander or of some who groan	K
They own no drawings each of other's strength	U
Nor vibrate in a visible sympathy	M
Nor veer along their courses each toward each	V
Yet are their orbits pitched in harmony	M
Of one dear heaven across whose depth and length	U
Mayhap they talk together without speech	V
	-
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Tread softly all the earth is holy ground	C
It may be could we look with seeing eyes	F
This spot we stand on is a Paradise	F
Where dead have come to life and lost been found	C
Where Faith has triumphed Martyrdom been crowned	C
Where fools have foiled the wisdom of the wise	F
From this same spot the dust of saints may rise	F
And the King's prisoners come to light unbound	C
O earth earth earth hear thou thy Maker's Word	C
Thy dead thou shalt give up nor hide thy slain	Q
Some who went weeping forth shall come again	R
Rejoicing from the east or from the west	C
As doves fly to their windows love's own bird	C
Contented and desirous to the nest	C
	-
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Lifelong our stumbles lifelong our regret	C
Lifelong our efforts failing and renewed	C
While lifelong is our witness God is good	C
Who bore with us till now bears with us yet	C
Who still remembers and will not forget	C
Who gives us light and warmth and daily food	C
And gracious promises half understood	C
And glories half unveiled whereon to set	C
Our heart of hearts and eyes of our desire	O
Uplifting us to longing and to love	W
Luring us upward from this world of mire	X
Urging us to press on and mount above	W
Ourselves and all we have had experience of	W
Mounting to Him in love's perpetual fire	O
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A dream there is wherein we are fain to scream	D
While struggling with ourselves we cannot speak	Y
And much of all our waking life as weak	Y
And misconceived eludes us like the dream	D
For half life's seemings are not what they seem	D
And vain the laughs we laugh the shrieks we shriek	Y
Yea all is vain that mars the settled meek	Y
Contented quiet of our daily theme	D
When I was young I deemed that sweets are sweet	C
But now I deem some searching bitters are	J
Sweeter than sweets and more refreshing far	J
And to be relished more and more desired	C
And more to be pursued on eager feet	C
On feet untired and still on feet though tired	C
	-
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Shame is a shadow cast by sin yet shame	D
Itself may be a glory and a grace	F
Refashioning the sin disfashioned face	F
A nobler bruit than hollow sounded fame	D
A new lit lustre on a tarnished name	D
One virtue pent within an evil place	F
Strength for the fight and swiftness for the race	F
A stinging salve a life requickening flame	D
A salve so searching we may scarcely live	Z
A flame so fierce it seems that we must die	C
An actual cautery thrust into the heart	C
Nevertheless men die not of such smart	C
And shame gives back what nothing else can give	A2
Man to himself then sets him up on high	C
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When Adam and when Eve left Paradise	F
Did they love on and cling together still	B2
Forgiving one another all that ill	B2
The twain had wrought on such a different wise	F
She propped upon his strength and he in guise	F
Of lover though of lord girt to fulfil	B2
Their term of life and die when God should will	B2
Lie down and sleep and having slept arise	F
Boast not against us O our enemy	M
To day we fall but we shall rise again	R
We grope to day to morrow we shall see	M
What is to day that we should fear to day	C
A morrow cometh which shall sweep away	C
Thee and thy realm of change and death and pain	Q
	-
	-
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Let woman fear to teach and bear to learn	C2
Remembering the first woman's first mistake	D2
Eve had for pupil the inquiring snake	D2
Whose doubts she answered on a great concern	C2
But he the tables so contrived to turn	C2
It next was his to give and hers to take	D2
Till man deemed poison sweet for her sweet sake	D2
And fired a train by which the world must burn	C2
Did Adam love his Eve from first to last	C
I think so as we love who works us ill	B2
And wounds us to the quick yet loves us still	B2
Love pardons the unpardonable past	C
Love in a dominant embrace holds fast	C
His frailer self and saves without her will	B2
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Our teachers teach that one and one make two	E2
Later Love rules that one and one make one	F2
Abstruse the problems neither need we shun	F2
But skilfully to each should yield its due	E2
The narrower total seems to suit the few	E2
The wider total suits the common run	F2
Each obvious in its sphere like moon or sun	F2
Both provable by me and both by you	E2
Befogged and witless in a wordy maze	F
A groping stroll perhaps may do us good	C
If cloyed we are with much we have understood	C
If tired of half our dusty world and ways	F
If sick of fasting and if sick of food	C
And how about these long still lengthening days	F
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Something this foggy day a something which	G2
Is neither of this fog nor of to day	C
Has set me dreaming of the winds that play	C
Past certain cliffs along one certain beach	V
And turn the topmost edge of waves to spray	C
Ah pleasant pebbly strand so far away	C
So out of reach while quite within my reach	V
As out of reach as India or Cathay	C
I am sick of where I am and where I am not	C
I am sick of foresight and of memory	M
I am sick of all I have and all I see	M
I am sick of self and there is nothing new	E2
Oh weary impatient patience of my lot	C
Thus with myself how fares it Friends with you	E2
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So late in Autumn half the world's asleep	H2
And half the wakeful world looks pinched and pale	B2
For dampness now not freshness rides the gale	B2
And cold and colorless comes ashore the deep	H2
With tides that bluster or with tides that creep	H2
Now veiled uncouthness wears an uncouth veil	B2
Of fog not sultry haze and blight and bale	B2
Have done their worst and leaves rot on the heap	H2
So late in Autumn one forgets the Spring	I2
Forgets the Summer with its opulence	F
The callow birds that long have found a wing	I2
The swallows that more lately gat them hence	F
Will anything like Spring will anything	I2
Like Summer rouse one day the slumbering sense	F
	-
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Here now is Winter Winter after all	B2
Is not so drear as was my boding dream	D
While Autumn gleamed its latest watery gleam	D
On sapless leafage too inert to fall	B2
Still leaves and berries clothe my garden wall	B2
Where ivy thrives on scantiest sunny beam	D
Still here a bud and there a blossom seem	D
Hopeful and robin still is musical	B2
Leaves flowers and fruit and one delightful song	J2
Remain these days are short but now the nights	F
Intense and long hang out their utmost lights	F
Such starry nights are long yet not too long	J2
Frost nips the weak while strengthening still the strong	J2
Against that day when Spring sets all to rights	F
	-
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A hundred thousand birds salute the day	C
One solitary bird salutes the night	C
Its mellow grieving wiles our grief away	C
And tunes our weary watches to delight	C
It seems to sing the thoughts we cannot say	C
To know and sing them and to set them right	C
Until we feel once more that May is May	C
And hope some buds may bloom without a blight	C
This solitary bird outweighs outvies	C
The hundred thousand merry making birds	C
Whose innocent warblings yet might make us wise	C
Would we but follow when they bid us rise	C
Would we but set their notes of praise to words	C
And launch our hearts up with them to the skies	C
	-
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A host of things I take on trust I take	D2
The nightingales on trust for few and far	J
Between those actual summer moments are	J
When I have heard what melody they make	D2
So chanced it once at Como on the Lake	D2
But all things then waxed musical each star	J
Sang on its course each breeze sang on its car	J
All harmonies sang to senses wide awake	D2
All things in tune myself not out of tune	K2
Those nightingales were nightingales indeed	C
Yet truly an owl had satisfied my need	C
And wrought a rapture underneath that moon	K2
Or simple sparrow chirping from a reed	C
For June that night glowed like a doubled June	K2
	-
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The mountains in their overwhelming might	C
Moved me to sadness when I saw them first	C
And afterwards they moved me to delight	C
Struck harmonies from silent chords which burst	C
Out into song a song by memory nursed	C
Forever unrenewed by touch or sight	C
Sleeps the keen magic of each day or night	C
In pleasure and in wonder then immersed	C
All Switzerland behind us on the ascent	C
All Italy before us we plunged down	L2
St Gothard garden of forget me not	C
Yet why should such a flower choose such a spot	C
Could we forget that way which once we went	C
Though not one flower had bloomed to weave its crown	L2
	-
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Beyond the seas we know stretch seas unknown	K
Blue and bright colored for our dim and green	M2
Beyond the lands we see stretch lands unseen	M2
With many tinted tangle overgrown	K
And icebound seas there are like seas of stone	K
Serenely stormless as death lies serene	M2
And lifeless tracks of sand which intervene	M2
Betwixt the lands where living flowers are blown	K
This dead and living world befits our case	C
Who live and die we live in wearied hope	N2
We die in hope not dead we run a race	C
To day and find no present halting place	C
All things we see lie far within our scope	N2
And still we peer beyond with craving face	C
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The wise do send their hearts before them to	E2
Dear blessed Heaven despite the veil between	M2
The foolish nurse their hearts within the screen	M2
Of this familiar world where all we do	E2
Or have is old for there is nothing new	E2
Yet elder far that world we have not seen	M2
God's Presence antedates what else hath been	O2
Many the foolish seem the wise seem few	E2
Oh foolishest fond folly of a heart	C
Divided neither here nor there at rest	C
That hankers after Heaven but clings to earth	P2
That neither here nor there knows thorough mirth	P2
Half choosing wholly missing the good part	C
Oh fool among the foolish in thy quest	C
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When we consider what this life we lead	C
Is not and is how full of toil and pain	Q
How blank of rest and of substantial gain	Q
Beset by hunger earth can never feed	C
And propping half our hearts upon a reed	C
We cease to mourn lost treasures mourned in vain	Q
Lost treasures we are fain and yet not fain	Q
To fetch back for a solace of our need	C
For who that feel this burden and this strain	Q
This wide vacuity of hope and heart	C
Would bring their cherished well beloved again	R
To bleed with them and wince beneath the smart	C
To have with stinted bliss such lavish bane	Q
To hold in lieu of all so poor a part	C
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This Life is full of numbness and of balk	Q2
Of haltingness and baffled short coming	I2
Of promise unfulfilled of everything	I2
That is puffed vanity and empty talk	Q2
Its very bud hangs cankered on the stalk	Q2
Its very song bird trails a broken wing	I2
Its very Spring is not indeed like Spring	I2
But sighs like Autumn round an aimless walk	Q2
This Life we live is dead for all its breath	I
Death's self it is set off on pilgrimage	R2
Travelling with tottering steps the first short stage	S2
The second stage is one mere desert dust	C
Where Death sits veiled amid creation's rust	C
Unveil thy face O Death who art not Death	I
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I have dreamed of Death what will it be to die	C
Not in a dream but in the literal truth	T2
With all Death's adjuncts ghastly and uncouth	T2
The pang that is the last and the last sigh	C
Too dulled it may be for a last good bye	C
Too comfortless for any one to soothe	U2
A helpless charmless spectacle of ruth	T2
Through long last hours so long while yet they fly	C
So long to those who hopeless in their fear	V2
Watch the slow breath and look for what they dread	C
While I supine with ears that cease to hear	W2
With eyes that glaze with heart pulse running down	L2
Alas no saint rejoicing on her bed	C
May miss the goal at last may miss a crown	L2
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In life our absent friend is far away	C
But death may bring our friend exceeding near	V2
Show him familiar faces long so dear	V2
And lead him back in reach of words we say	C
He only cannot utter yea or nay	C
In any voice accustomed to our ear	W2
He only cannot make his face appear	V2
And turn the sun back on our shadowed day	C
The dead may be around us dear and dead	C
The unforgotten dearest dead may be	M
Watching us with unslumbering eyes and heart	C
Brimful of words which cannot yet be said	C
Brimful of knowledge they may not impart	C
Brimful of love for you and love for me	M

Christina Rossetti

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Later Life: A Double Sonnet Of Sonnets is a poem by Christina Rossetti. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.

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