Amelia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCDEEEFFDGHHGIIGJJJ KKLKMNOOD CPPCQQ CRRCCCCPPCCSSTTUUVRV SWWRWVCWC XXYXZYZCCCCCA2B2B2A2 C2B2D2E2NDD WF2F2AACG2G2WCCCWCH2 AH2MG2G2LI2I2LL CLJ2LJ2CCLG2G2LLLKKL LLL G2LG2WLG2LLG2LLLWL WLG2LLL WG2CG2G2LLCCKK2K2KLL KLL2L2LLDDWhene'er mine eyes do my Amelia greet | A |
It is with such emotion | B |
As when in childhood turning a dim street | A |
I first beheld the ocean | B |
- | |
There where the little bright surf breathing town | C |
That shew'd me first her beauty and the sea | D |
Gathers its skirts against the gorse lit down | C |
And scatters gardens o'er the southern lea | D |
Abides this Maid | E |
Within a kind yet sombre Mother's shade | E |
Who of her daughter's graces seems almost afraid | E |
Viewing them ofttimes with a scared forecast | F |
Caught haply from obscure love peril past | F |
Howe'er that be | D |
She scants me of my right | G |
Is cunning careful evermore to balk | H |
Sweet separate talk | H |
And fevers my delight | G |
By frets if on Amelia's cheek of peach | I |
I touch the notes which music cannot reach | I |
Bidding Good night | G |
Wherefore it came that till to day's dear date | J |
I curs'd the weary months which yet I have to wait | J |
Ere I find heaven one nested with my mate | J |
- | |
To day the Mother gave | K |
To urgent pleas and promise to behave | K |
As she were there her long besought consent | L |
To trust Amelia with me to the grave | K |
Where lay my once betrothed Millicent | M |
For said she hiding ill a moistening eye | N |
Though Sir the word sounds hard | O |
God makes as if He least knew how to guard | O |
The treasure He loves best simplicity | D |
- | |
And there Amelia stood for fairness shewn | C |
Like a young apple tree in flush'd array | P |
Of white and ruddy flow'r auroral gay | P |
With chilly blue the maiden branch between | C |
And yet to look on her moved less the mind | Q |
To say How beauteous than How good and kind | Q |
- | |
And so we went alone | C |
By walls o'er which the lilac's numerous plume | R |
Shook down perfume | R |
Trim plots close blown | C |
With daisies in conspicuous myriads seen | C |
Engross'd each one | C |
With single ardour for her spouse the sun | C |
Garths in their glad array | P |
Of white and ruddy branch auroral gay | P |
With azure chill the maiden flow'r between | C |
Meadows of fervid green | C |
With sometime sudden prospect of untold | S |
Cowslips like chance found gold | S |
And broadcast buttercups at joyful gaze | T |
Rending the air with praise | T |
Like the six hundred thousand voiced shout | U |
Of Jacob camp'd in Midian put to rout | U |
Then through the Park | V |
Where Spring to livelier gloom | R |
Quicken'd the cedars dark | V |
And 'gainst the clear sky cold | S |
Which shone afar | W |
Crowded with sunny alps oracular | W |
Great chestnuts raised themselves abroad like cliffs of bloom | R |
And everywhere | W |
Amid the ceaseless rapture of the lark | V |
With wonder new | C |
We caught the solemn voice of single air | W |
Cuckoo | C |
- | |
And when Amelia 'bolden'd saw and heard | X |
How bravely sang the bird | X |
And all things in God's bounty did rejoice | Y |
She who her Mother by spake seldom word | X |
Did her charm'd silence doff | Z |
And to my happy marvel her dear voice | Y |
Went as a clock does when the pendulum's off | Z |
Ill Monarch of man's heart the Maiden who | C |
Does not aspire to be High Pontiff too | C |
So she repeated soft her Poet's line | C |
By grace divine | C |
Not otherwise O Nature are we thine | C |
And I up the bright steep she led me trod | A2 |
And the like thought pursued | B2 |
With What is gladness without gratitude | B2 |
And where is gratitude without a God | A2 |
And of delight the guerdon of His laws | C2 |
She spake in learned mood | B2 |
And I of Him loved reverently as Cause | D2 |
Her sweetly as Occasion of all good | E2 |
Nor were we shy | N |
For souls in heaven that be | D |
May talk of heaven without hypocrisy | D |
- | |
And now when we drew near | W |
The low gray Church in its sequester'd dell | F2 |
A shade upon me fell | F2 |
Dead Millicent indeed had been most sweet | A |
But I how little meet | A |
To call such graces in a Maiden mine | C |
A boy's proud passion free affection blunts | G2 |
His well meant flatteries oft are blind affronts | G2 |
And many a tear | W |
Was Millicent's before I manlier knew | C |
That maidens shine | C |
As diamonds do | C |
Which though most clear | W |
Are not to be seen through | C |
And if she put her virgin self aside | H2 |
And sate her crownless at my conquering feet | A |
It should have bred in me humility not pride | H2 |
Amelia had more luck than Millicent | M |
Secure she smiled and warm from all mischance | G2 |
Or from my knowledge or my ignorance | G2 |
And glow'd content | L |
With my some might have thought too much superior age | I2 |
Which seem'd the gage | I2 |
Of steady kindness all on her intent | L |
Thus nought forbade us to be fully blent | L |
- | |
While therefore now | C |
Her pensive footstep stirr'd | L |
The darnell'd garden of unheedful death | J2 |
She ask'd what Millicent was like and heard | L |
Of eyes like her's and honeysuckle breath | J2 |
And of a wiser than a woman's brow | C |
Yet fill'd with only woman's love and how | C |
An incidental greatness character'd | L |
Her unconsider'd ways | G2 |
But all my praise | G2 |
Amelia thought too slight for Millicent | L |
And on my lovelier freighted arm she leant | L |
For more attent | L |
And the tea rose I gave | K |
To deck her breast she dropp'd upon the grave | K |
And this was her's said I decoring with a band | L |
Of mildest pearls Amelia's milder hand | L |
Nay I will wear it for her sake she said | L |
For dear to maidens are their rivals dead | L |
- | |
And so | G2 |
She seated on the black yew's tortured root | L |
I on the carpet of sere shreds below | G2 |
And nigh the little mound where lay that other | W |
I kiss'd her lips three times without dispute | L |
And with bold worship suddenly aglow | G2 |
I lifted to my lips a sandall'd foot | L |
And kiss'd it three times thrice without dispute | L |
Upon my head her fingers fell like snow | G2 |
Her lamb like hands about my neck she wreathed | L |
Her arms like slumber o'er my shoulders crept | L |
And with her bosom whence the azalea breathed | L |
She did my face full favourably smother | W |
To hide the heaving secret that she wept | L |
- | |
Now would I keep my promise to her Mother | W |
Now I arose and raised her to her feet | L |
My best Amelia fresh born from a kiss | G2 |
Moth like full blown in birthdew shuddering sweet | L |
With great kind eyes in whose brown shade | L |
Bright Venus and her Baby play'd | L |
- | |
At inmost heart well pleased with one another | W |
What time the slant sun low | G2 |
Through the plough'd field does each clod sharply shew | C |
And softly fills | G2 |
With shade the dimples of our homeward hills | G2 |
With little said | L |
We left the 'wilder'd garden of the dead | L |
And gain'd the gorse lit shoulder of the down | C |
That keeps the north wind from the nestling town | C |
And caught once more the vision of the wave | K |
Where on the horizon's dip | K2 |
A many sailed ship | K2 |
Pursued alone her distant purpose grave | K |
And by steep steps rock hewn to the dim street | L |
I led her sacred feet | L |
And so the Daughter gave | K |
Soft moth like sweet | L |
Showy as damask rose and shy as musk | L2 |
Back to her Mother anxious in the dusk | L2 |
And now Good night | L |
Me shall the phantom months no more affright | L |
For heaven's gates to open well waits he | D |
Who keeps himself the key | D |
Coventry Patmore
(2)
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