The Months: A Pageant Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A ABCDEFF GA H A IJHF B KL F KKLKMMMM NMHM NOHO NMPM NQFRHPN B F B PPHPH AHHNSAF B QTPQQQT HNN HUHFUNNF NK DDH NAA B HDD V N AAWHHWXXNNNN PN HHNYYDZZDAAA2NNA2B2B 2A2 HAC2H C N BBHHHBB AANNNAA DDNNNDD C Y OH V C C HHOHAAAHHA AHFD2 C AHAHDNDN AN C O D OA2A2A2HFF PA2 D HFAUHHAU ADNNAD E2F2G2G2E2F2 BA D E E EEEAAYY A E BHBH B BH2BH2 OH O A NNKK ANAA E B O NNB N ABAAAAA F O I2NI2H FNFH FI2FNNI2NN FNFN F2J2 O BBAA BBA A N ANANNNN FNFNFFF K2 N OOOOO NN F PPPPPP HHA F OOHOOH ZZHZL2H AAA NG2NG2M2M2N2O2 NHAP2 F FFPPPA F AA NFNNAN F FQ2FQ2Q2 AAAAA H F BBAF F Y HHAAAUAAU NHA F NH2NH2 WOWO HA F H NF QH F YNYYAN F AAN OQOQ A NKNK NG2NG2 NNNN ANQA

PERSONIFICATIONS	A
	-
Boys Girls	A
January February	B
March April	C
July May	D
August June	E
October September	F
December November	F
	-
Robin Redbreasts Lambs and Sheep Nightingale and	G
Nestlings	A
	-
Various Flowers Fruits etc	H
	-
Scene A Cottage with its Grounds	A
	-
	-
A room in a large comfortable cottage a fire burning on	I
the hearth a table on which the breakfast things have	J
been left standing January discovered seated by the	H
fire	F
	-
	-
January	B
	-
Cold the day and cold the drifted snow	K
Dim the day until the cold dark night	L
	-
Stirs the fire	F
	-
Crackle sparkle fagot embers glow	K
Some one may be plodding through the snow	K
Longing for a light	L
For the light that you and I can show	K
If no one else should come	M
Here Robin Redbreast's welcome to a crumb	M
And never troublesome	M
Robin why don't you come and fetch your crumb	M
	-
	-
Here's butter for my hunch of bread	N
And sugar for your crumb	M
Here's room upon the hearthrug	H
If you'll only come	M
	-
In your scarlet waistcoat	N
With your keen bright eye	O
Where are you loitering	H
Wings were made to fly	O
	-
Make haste to breakfast	N
Come and fetch your crumb	M
For I'm as glad to see you	P
As you are glad to come	M
	-
	-
Two Robin Redbreasts are seen tapping with their beaks at	N
the lattice which January opens The birds flutter in	Q
hop about the floor and peck up the crumbs and sugar	F
thrown to them They have scarcely finished their meal	R
when a knock is heard at the door January hangs a	H
guard in front of the fire and opens to February who	P
appears with a bunch of snowdrops in her hand	N
	-
January	B
	-
Good morrow sister	F
	-
February	B
	-
Brother joy to you	P
I've brought some snowdrops only just a few	P
But quite enough to prove the world awake	H
Cheerful and hopeful in the frosty dew	P
And for the pale sun's sake	H
	-
She hands a few of her snowdrops to January who retires	A
into the background While February stands arranging	H
the remaining snowdrops in a glass of water on the	H
window sill a soft butting and bleating are heard outside	N
She opens the door and sees one foremost lamb with	S
other sheep and lambs bleating and crowding towards	A
her	F
	-
February	B
	-
O you you little wonder come come in	Q
You wonderful you woolly soft white lamb	T
You panting mother ewe come too	P
And lead that tottering twin	Q
Safe in	Q
Bring all your bleating kith and kin	Q
Except the horny ram	T
	-
February opens a second door in the background and the	H
little flock files through into a warm and sheltered compartment	N
out of sight	N
	-
The lambkin tottering in its walk	H
With just a fleece to wear	U
The snowdrop drooping on its stalk	H
So slender	F
Snowdrop and lamb a pretty pair	U
Braving the cold for our delight	N
Both white	N
Both tender	F
	-
A rattling of doors and windows branches seen without	N
tossing violently to and fro	K
	-
How the doors rattle and the branches sway	D
Here's brother March comes whirling on his way	D
With winds that eddy and sing	H
	-
She turns the handle of the door which bursts open and	N
discloses March hastening up both hands full of violets	A
and anemones	A
	-
February	B
	-
Come show me what you bring	H
For I have said my say fulfilled my day	D
And must away	D
	-
March	V
	-
Stopping short on the threshold	N
	-
I blow an arouse	A
Through the world's wide house	A
To quicken the torpid earth	W
Grappling I fling	H
Each feeble thing	H
But bring strong life to the birth	W
I wrestle and frown	X
And topple down	X
I wrench I rend I uproot	N
Yet the violet	N
Is born where I set	N
The sole of my flying foot	N
	-
Hands violets and anemones to February who retires into	P
the background	N
	-
And in my wake	H
Frail wind flowers quake	H
And the catkins promise fruit	N
I drive ocean ashore	Y
With rush and roar	Y
And he cannot say me nay	D
My harpstrings all	Z
Are the forests tall	Z
Making music when I play	D
And as others perforce	A
So I on my course	A
Run and needs must run	A2
With sap on the mount	N
And buds past count	N
And rivers and clouds and sun	A2
With seasons and breath	B2
And time and death	B2
And all that has yet begun	A2
	-
Before March has done speaking a voice is heard approaching	H
accompanied by a twittering of birds April comes	A
along singing and stands outside and out of sight to finish	C2
her song	H
	-
April	C
	-
Outside	N
	-
Pretty little three	B
Sparrows in a tree	B
Light upon the wing	H
Though you cannot sing	H
You can chirp of Spring	H
Chirp of Spring to me	B
Sparrows from your tree	B
	-
Never mind the showers	A
Chirp about the flowers	A
While you build a nest	N
Straws from east and west	N
Feathers from your breast	N
Make the snuggest bowers	A
In a world of flowers	A
	-
You must dart away	D
From the chosen spray	D
You intrusive third	N
Extra little bird	N
Join the unwedded herd	N
These have done with play	D
And must work to day	D
	-
April	C
	-
Appearing at the open door	Y
	-
Good morrow and good bye if others fly	O
Of all the flying months you're the most flying	H
	-
March	V
	-
You're hope and sweetness April	C
	-
April	C
	-
Birth means dying	H
As wings and wind mean flying	H
So you and I and all things fly or die	O
And sometimes I sit sighing to think of dying	H
But meanwhile I've a rainbow in my showers	A
And a lapful of flowers	A
And these dear nestlings aged three hours	A
And here's their mother sitting	H
Their father's merely flitting	H
To find their breakfast somewhere in my bowers	A
	-
As she speaks April shows March her apron full of flowers	A
and nest full of birds March wanders away into the	H
grounds April without entering the cottage hangs over	F
the hungry nestlings watching them	D2
	-
April	C
	-
What beaks you have you funny things	A
What voices shrill and weak	H
Who'd think that anything that sings	A
Could sing through such a beak	H
Yet you'll be nightingales one day	D
And charm the country side	N
When I'm away and far away	D
And May is queen and bride	N
	-
May arrives unperceived by April and gives her a kiss	A
April starts and looks round	N
	-
April	C
	-
Ah May good morrow May and so good bye	O
	-
May	D
	-
That's just your way sweet April smile and sigh	O
Your sorrow's half in fun	A2
Begun and done	A2
And turned to joy while twenty seconds run	A2
I've gathered flowers all as I came along	H
At every step a flower	F
Fed by your last bright shower	F
	-
She divides an armful of all sorts of flowers with April who	P
strolls away through the garden	A2
	-
May	D
	-
And gathering flowers I listened to the song	H
Of every bird in bower	F
The world and I are far too full of bliss	A
To think or plan or toil or care	U
The sun is waxing strong	H
The days are waxing long	H
And all that is	A
Is fair	U
	-
Here are my buds of lily and of rose	A
And here's my namesake blossom may	D
And from a watery spot	N
See here forget me not	N
With all that blows	A
To day	D
	-
Hark to my linnets from the hedges green	E2
Blackbird and lark and thrush and dove	F2
And every nightingale	G2
And cuckoo tells its tale	G2
And all they mean	E2
Is love	F2
	-
June appears at the further end of the garden coming slowly	B
towards May who seeing her exclaims	A
	-
May	D
	-
Surely you're come too early sister June	E
	-
June	E
	-
Indeed I feel as if I came too soon	E
To round your young May moon	E
And set the world a gasping at my noon	E
Yet come I must So here are strawberries	A
Sun flushed and sweet as many as you please	A
And here are full blown roses by the score	Y
More roses and yet more	Y
	-
May eating strawberries withdraws among the flower beds	A
	-
June	E
	-
The sun does all my long day's work for me	B
Raises and ripens everything	H
I need but sit beneath a leafy tree	B
And watch and sing	H
	-
Seats herself in the shadow of a laburnum	B
	-
Or if I'm lulled by note of bird and bee	B
Or lulled by noontide's silence deep	H2
I need but nestle down beneath my tree	B
And drop asleep	H2
	-
June falls asleep and is not awakened by the voice of July	O
who behind the scenes is heard half singing half calling	H
	-
July	O
	-
Behind the scenes	A
	-
Blue flags yellow flags flags all freckled	N
Which will you take yellow blue speckled	N
Take which you will speckled blue yellow	K
Each in its way has not a fellow	K
	-
Enter July a basket of many colored irises slung upon his	A
shoulders a bunch of ripe grass in one hand and a plate	N
piled full of peaches balanced upon the other He steals	A
up to June and tickles her with the grass She wakes	A
	-
June	E
	-
What here already	B
	-
July	O
	-
Nay my tryst is kept	N
The longest day slipped by you while you slept	N
I've brought you one curved pyramid of bloom	B
	-
Hands her the plate	N
	-
Not flowers but peaches gathered where the bees	A
As downy bask and boom	B
In sunshine and in gloom of trees	A
But get you in a storm is at my heels	A
The whirlwind whistles and wheels	A
Lightning flashes and thunder peals	A
Flying and following hard upon my heels	A
	-
June takes shelter in a thickly woven arbor	F
	-
July	O
	-
The roar of a storm sweeps up	I2
From the east to the lurid west	N
The darkening sky like a cup	I2
Is filled with rain to the brink	H
	-
The sky is purple and fire	F
Blackness and noise and unrest	N
The earth parched with desire	F
Opens her mouth to drink	H
	-
Send forth thy thunder and fire	F
Turn over thy brimming cup	I2
O sky appease the desire	F
Of earth in her parched unrest	N
Pour out drink to her thirst	N
Her famishing life lift up	I2
Make thyself fair as at first	N
With a rainbow for thy crest	N
	-
Have done with thunder and fire	F
O sky with the rainbow crest	N
O earth have done with desire	F
Drink and drink deep and rest	N
	-
Enter August carrying a sheaf made up of different kinds of	F2
grain	J2
	-
July	O
	-
Hail brother August flushed and warm	B
And scatheless from my storm	B
Your hands are full of corn I see	A
As full as hands can be	A
	-
And earth and air both smell as sweet as balm	B
In their recovered calm	B
And that they owe to me	A
	-
July retires into a shrubbery	A
	-
August	N
	-
Wheat sways heavy oats are airy	A
Barley bows a graceful head	N
Short and small shoots up canary	A
Each of these is some one's bread	N
Bread for man or bread for beast	N
Or at very least	N
A bird's savory feast	N
	-
Men are brethren of each other	F
One in flesh and one in food	N
And a sort of foster brother	F
Is the litter or the brood	N
Of that folk in fur or feather	F
Who with men together	F
Breast the wind and weather	F
	-
August descries September toiling across the lawn	K2
	-
August	N
	-
My harvest home is ended and I spy	O
September drawing nigh	O
With the first thought of Autumn in her eye	O
And the first sigh	O
Of Autumn wind among her locks that fly	O
	-
September arrives carrying upon her head a basket heaped	N
high with fruit	N
	-
	-
September	F
	-
Unload me brother I have brought a few	P
Plums and these pears for you	P
A dozen kinds of apples one or two	P
Melons some figs all bursting through	P
Their skins and pearled with dew	P
These damsons violet blue	P
	-
While September is speaking August lifts the basket to the	H
ground selects various fruits and withdraws slowly along	H
the gravel walk eating a pear as he goes	A
	-
September	F
	-
My song is half a sigh	O
Because my green leaves die	O
Sweet are my fruits but all my leaves are dying	H
And well may Autumn sigh	O
And well may I	O
Who watch the sere leaves flying	H
	-
My leaves that fade and fall	Z
I note you one and all	Z
I call you and the Autumn wind is calling	H
Lamenting for your fall	Z
And for the pall	L2
You spread on earth in falling	H
	-
And here's a song of flowers to suit such hours	A
A song of the last lilies the last flowers	A
Amid my withering bowers	A
	-
In the sunny garden bed	N
Lilies look so pale	G2
Lilies droop the head	N
In the shady grassy vale	G2
If all alike they pine	M2
In shade and in shine	M2
If everywhere they grieve	N2
Where will lilies live	O2
	-
October enters briskly some leafy twigs bearing different	N
sorts of nuts in one hand and a long ripe hop bine trailing	H
after him from the other A dahlia is stuck in his	A
buttonhole	P2
	-
October	F
	-
Nay cheer up sister Life is not quite over	F
Even if the year has done with corn and clover	F
With flowers and leaves besides in fact it's true	P
Some leaves remain and some flowers too	P
For me and you	P
Now see my crops	A
	-
Offering his produce to September	F
	-
I've brought you nuts and hops	A
And when the leaf drops why the walnut drops	A
	-
	-
October wreaths the hop bine about September's neck and	N
gives her the nut twigs They enter the cottage together	F
but without shutting the door She steps into the background	N
he advances to the hearth removes the guard	N
stirs up the smouldering fire and arranges several chestnuts	A
ready to roast	N
	-
October	F
	-
Crack your first nut and light your first fire	F
Roast your first chestnut crisp on the bar	Q2
Make the logs sparkle stir the blaze higher	F
Logs are cheery as sun or as star	Q2
Logs we can find wherever we are	Q2
	-
Spring one soft day will open the leaves	A
Spring one bright day will lure back the flowers	A
Never fancy my whistling wind grieves	A
Never fancy I've tears in my showers	A
Dance nights and days and dance on my hours	A
	-
Sees November approaching	H
	-
October	F
	-
Here comes my youngest sister looking dim	B
And grim	B
With dismal ways	A
What cheer November	F
	-
November	F
	-
Entering and shutting the door	Y
	-
Nought have I to bring	H
Tramping a chill and shivering	H
Except these pine cones for a blaze	A
Except a fog which follows	A
And stuffs up all the hollows	A
Except a hoar frost here and there	U
Except some shooting stars	A
Which dart their luminous cars	A
Trackless and noiseless through the keen night air	U
	-
October shrugging his shoulders withdraws into the background	N
while November throws her pine cones on the	H
fire and sits down listlessly	A
	-
November	F
	-
The earth lies fast asleep grown tired	N
Of all that's high or deep	H2
There's nought desired and nought required	N
Save a sleep	H2
	-
I rock the cradle of the earth	W
I lull her with a sigh	O
And know that she will wake to mirth	W
By and by	O
	-
Through the window December is seen running and leaping	H
in the direction of the door He knocks	A
	-
November	F
	-
Calls out without rising	H
	-
Ah here's my youngest brother come at last	N
Come in December	F
	-
He opens the door and enters loaded with evergreens in	Q
berry etc	H
	-
November	F
	-
Come and shut the door	Y
For now it's snowing fast	N
It snows and will snow more and more	Y
Don't let it drift in on the floor	Y
But you you're all aglow how can you be	A
Rosy and warm and smiling in the cold	N
	-
December	F
	-
Nay no closed doors for me	A
But open doors and open hearts and glee	A
To welcome young and old	N
	-
Dimmest and brightest month am I	O
My short days end my lengthening days begin	Q
What matters more or less sun in the sky	O
When all is sun within	Q
	-
He begins making a wreath as he sings	A
	-
Ivy and privet dark as night	N
I weave with hips and haws a cheerful show	K
And holly for a beauty and delight	N
And milky mistletoe	K
	-
While high above them all I set	N
Yew twigs and Christmas roses pure and pale	G2
Then Spring her snowdrop and her violet	N
May keep so sweet and frail	G2
	-
May keep each merry singing bird	N
Of all her happy birds that singing build	N
For I've a carol which some shepherds heard	N
Once in a wintry field	N
	-
While December concludes his song all the other Months	A
troop in from the garden or advance out of the background	N
The Twelve join hands in a circle and begin	Q
dancing round to a stately measure as the Curtain falls	A

Christina Rossetti

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