Maiden May Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABAB CCBCB DDEDE AABAB FFGFG BBHBH IIBIB BBHBH AAJAJ KKFKF BBBBB LLMLM BBNBN OOPPP FFPFP IIFIF AABAB QQRQR BBFBF| Maiden May sat in her bower | A |
| In her blush rose bower in flower | A |
| Sweet of scent | B |
| Sat and dreamed away an hour | A |
| Half content half uncontent | B |
| - | |
| Why should rose blossoms be born | C |
| Tender blossoms on a thorn | C |
| Though so sweet | B |
| Never a thorn besets the corn | C |
| Scentless in its strength complete | B |
| - | |
| Why are roses all so frail | D |
| At the mercy of the gale | D |
| Of a breath | E |
| Yet so sweet and perfect pale | D |
| Still so sweet in life and death | E |
| - | |
| Maiden May sat in her bower | A |
| In her blush rose bower in flower | A |
| Where a linnet | B |
| Made one bristling branch the tower | A |
| For her nest and young ones in it | B |
| - | |
| Gay and clear the linnet trills | F |
| Yet the skylark only thrills | F |
| Heaven and earth | G |
| When he breasts the height and fills | F |
| Height and depth with song and mirth | G |
| - | |
| Nightingales which yield to night | B |
| Solitary strange delight | B |
| Reign alone | H |
| But the lark for all his height | B |
| Fills no solitary throne | H |
| - | |
| While he sings a hundred sing | I |
| Wing their flight below his wing | I |
| Yet in flight | B |
| Each a lovely joyful thing | I |
| To the measure of its delight | B |
| - | |
| Why then should a lark be reckoned | B |
| One alone without a second | B |
| Near his throne | H |
| He in skyward flight unslackened | B |
| In his music not alone | H |
| - | |
| Maiden May sat in her bower | A |
| Her own face was like a flower | A |
| Of the prime | J |
| Half in sunshine half in shower | A |
| In the year's most tender time | J |
| - | |
| Her own thoughts in silent song | K |
| Musically flowed along | K |
| Wise unwise | F |
| Wistful wondering weak or strong | K |
| As brook shallows sink or rise | F |
| - | |
| Other thoughts another day | B |
| Maiden May will surge and sway | B |
| Round your heart | B |
| Wake and plead and turn at bay | B |
| Wisdom part and folly part | B |
| - | |
| Time not far remote will borrow | L |
| Other joys another sorrow | L |
| All for you | M |
| Not to day and yet to morrow | L |
| Reasoning false and reasoning true | M |
| - | |
| Wherefore greatest Wherefore least | B |
| Hearts that starve and hearts that feast | B |
| You and I | N |
| Stammering Oracles have ceased | B |
| And the whole earth stands at why | N |
| - | |
| Underneath all things that be | O |
| Lies an unsolved mystery | O |
| Over all | P |
| Spreads a veil impenetrably | P |
| Spreads a dense unlifted pall | P |
| - | |
| Mystery of mysteries | F |
| This creation hears and sees | F |
| High and low | P |
| Vanity of vanities | F |
| This we test and this we know | P |
| - | |
| Maiden May the days of flowering | I |
| Nurse you now in sweet embowering | I |
| Sunny days | F |
| Bright with rainbows all the showering | I |
| Bright with blossoms all the ways | F |
| - | |
| Close the inlet of your bower | A |
| Close it close with thorn and flower | A |
| Maiden May | B |
| Lengthen out the shortening hour | A |
| Morrows are not as to day | B |
| - | |
| Stay to day which wanes too soon | Q |
| Stay the sun and stay the moon | Q |
| Stay your youth | R |
| Bask you in the actual noon | Q |
| Rest you in the present truth | R |
| - | |
| Let to day suffice to day | B |
| For itself to morrow may | B |
| Fetch its loss | F |
| Aim and stumble say its say | B |
| Watch and pray and bear its cross | F |
Christina Rossetti
(1)
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