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 CV2V2CCW2V2CCMCCCMA | |
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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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