Night Hymns On Lake Nipigon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBC DEFG BHIC JKJL MJKJ JNOI JKKJ BKBJ BIBK PBJJHere in the midnight where the dark mainland and island | A |
Shadows mingle in shadow deeper profounder | B |
Sing we the hymns of the churches while the dead water | B |
Whispers before us | C |
- | |
Thunder is travelling slow on the path of the lightning | D |
One after one the stars and the beaming planets | E |
Look serene in the lake from the edge of the storm cloud | F |
Then have they vanished | G |
- | |
While our canoe that floats dumb in the bursting thunder | B |
Gathers her voice in the quiet and thrills and whispers | H |
Presses her prow in the star gleam and all her ripple | I |
Lapses in blackness | C |
- | |
Sing we the sacred ancient hymns of the churches | J |
Chanted first in old world nooks of the desert | K |
While in the wild pellucid Nipigon reaches | J |
Hunted the savage | L |
- | |
Now have the ages met in the Northern midnight | M |
And on the lonely loon haunted Nipigon reaches | J |
Rises the hymn of triumph and courage and comfort | K |
Adeste Fideles | J |
- | |
Tones that were fashioned when the faith brooded in darkness | J |
Joined with sonorous vowels in the noble Latin | N |
Now are married with the long drawn Ojibwa | O |
Uncouth and mournful | I |
- | |
Soft with the silver drip of the regular paddles | J |
Falling in rhythm timed with the liquid plangent | K |
Sounds from the blades where the whirlpools break and are carried | K |
Down into darkness | J |
- | |
Each long cadence flying like a dove from her shelter | B |
Deep in the shadow wheels for a throbbing moment | K |
Poises in utterance returning in circles of silver | B |
To nest in the silence | J |
- | |
All wild nature stirs with the infinite tender | B |
Plaint of a bygone age whose soul is eternal | I |
Bound in the lonely phrases that thrill and falter | B |
Back into quiet | K |
- | |
Back they falter as the deep storm overtakes them | P |
Whelms them in splendid hollows of booming thunder | B |
Wraps them in rain that sweeping breaks and onrushes | J |
Ringing like cymbals | J |
Duncan Campbell Scott
(1)
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