The Height Of Land Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABCBCDEFGHHBBICJKLH H MCINOOPQRSSTUVWXXVAA QBPPAATTJYYZKA2A2YYY B2YIC2D2CIE2F2F2YYF2 F2CF2G2H2FI2G2J2F2K2 L2L2L2M2VCL2F2H L2N2L2N2F2CCO2O2L2O2 CCCL2L2O2CF2F2F2F2O2 O2F2O2O2 O2F2O2L2L2F2L2F2O2L2 P2F2L2P2CL2F2L2L2Q2L 2L2O2L2L2O2F2O2CF2R2 VS2VYMYY

Here is the height of landA
The watershed on either handA
Goes down to Hudson BayB
Or Lake SuperiorC
The stars are up and far awayB
The wind sounds in the wood wearierC
Than the long Ojibwa cadenceD
In which Pot n the WiseE
Declares the ills of lifeF
And Chees que ne ne makes a mournful soundG
Of acquiescence The fires burn lowH
With just sufficient glowH
To light the flakes of ash that playB
At being moths and flutter awayB
To fall in the dark and die as ashesI
Here there is peace in the lofty airC
And Something comes by flashesJ
Deeper than peaceK
The spruces have retired a little spaceL
And left a field of sky in violet shadowH
With stars like marigolds in a water meadowH
-
Now the Indian guides are dead asleepM
There is no sound unless the soul can hearC
The gathering of the waters in their sourcesI
We have come up through the spreading lakesN
From level to levelO
Pitching our tents sometimes over a revelO
Of roses that nodded all nightP
Dreaming within our dreamsQ
To wake at dawn and find that they were capturedR
With no dew on their leavesS
Sometimes mid sheavesS
Of bracken and dwarf cornel and againT
On a wide blueberry plainU
Brushed with the shimmer of a bluebird's wingV
A rocky islet followedW
With one lone poplar and a single nestX
Of white throat sparrows that took no restX
But sang in dreams or woke to singV
To the last portage and the height of landA
Upon one handA
The lonely north enlaced with lakes and streamsQ
And the enormous targe of Hudson BayB
Glimmering all nightP
In the cold arctic lightP
On the other handA
The crowded southern landA
With all the welter of the lives of menT
But here is peace and againT
That Something comes by flashesJ
Deeper than peace a spellY
Golden and inappellableY
That gives the inarticulate partZ
Of our strange being one moment of releaseK
That seems more native than the touch of timeA2
And we must answer in chimeA2
Though yet no man may tellY
The secret of that spellY
Golden and inappellableY
-
Now are there sounds walking in the woodB2
And all the spruces shiver and trembleY
And the stars move a little in their coursesI
The ancient disturber of solitudeC2
Breathes a pervasive sighD2
And the soul seems to hearC
The gathering of the waters at their sourcesI
Then quiet ensues and pure starlight and darkE2
The region spirit murmurs in meditationF2
The heart replies in exaltationF2
And echoes faintly like an inland shellY
Ghost tremors of the spellY
Thought reawakens and is linked againF2
With all the welter of the lives of menF2
Here on the uplands where the air is clearC
We think of life as of a stormy sceneF2
Of tempest of revolt and desperate shockG2
And here where we can think on the brights uplandsH2
Where the air is clear we deeply brood on lifeF
Until the tempest parts and it appearsI2
As simple as to the shepherd seems his flockG2
A Something to be guided by idealsJ2
That in themselves are simple and sereneF2
Of noble deed to foster noble thoughtK2
And noble thought to image noble deedL2
Till deed and thought shall interpenetrateL2
Making life lovelier till we come to doubtL2
Whether the perfect beauty that escapesM2
Is beauty of deed or thought or some high thingV
Mingled of both a greater boon than eitherC
Thus we have seen in the retreating tempestL2
The victor sunlight merge with the ruined rainF2
And from the rain and sunlight spring the rainbowH
-
The ancient disturber of solitudeL2
Stirs his ancestral potion in the gloomN2
And the dark woodL2
Is stifled with the pungent fumeN2
Of charred earth burnt to the boneF2
That takes the place of airC
Then sudden I remember when and whereC
The last weird lakelet foul with weedy growthsO2
And slimy viscid things the spirit loathesO2
Skin of vile water over viler mudL2
Where the paddle stirred unutterable stenchesO2
And the canoes seemed heavy with fearC
Not to be urged toward the fatal shoreC
Where a bush fire smouldering with sudden roarC
Leaped on a cedar and smothered it with lightL2
And terror It had left the portage heightL2
A tangle of slanted spruces burned to the rootsO2
Covered still with patches of bright fireC
Smoking with incense of the fragment resinF2
That even then began to thin and lessenF2
Into the gloom and glimmer of ruinF2
'Tis overpast How strange the stars have grownF2
The presage of extinction glows on their crestsO2
And they are beautied with impermanenceO2
They shall be after the race of menF2
And mourn for them who snared their fiery pinionsO2
Entangled in the meshes of bright wordsO2
-
A lemming stirs the fern and in the mossesO2
Eft minded things feel the air change and dawnF2
Tolls out from the dark belfries of the sprucesO2
How often in the autumn of the worldL2
Shall the crystal shrine of dawning be rebuiltL2
With deeper meaning Shall the poet thenF2
Wrapped in his mantle on the height of landL2
Brood on the welter of the lives of menF2
And dream of his ideal hope and promiseO2
In the blush sunrise Shall he base his flightL2
Upon a more compelling law than LoveP2
As Life's atonement shall the visionF2
Of noble deed and noble thought immingledL2
Seem as uncouth to him as the pictographP2
Scratched on the cave side by the cave dwellerC
To us of the Christ time Shall he standL2
With deeper joy with more complex emotionF2
In closer commune with divinityL2
With the deep fathomed with the firmament chartedL2
With life as simple as a sheep boy's songQ2
What lies beyond a romaunt that was readL2
Once on a morn of storm and laid asideL2
Memorious with strange immortal memoriesO2
Or shall he see the sunrise as I see itL2
In shoals of misty fire the deluge lightL2
Dashes upon and whelms with purer radianceO2
And feel the lulled earth older in pulse and motionF2
Turn the rich lands and inundant oceansO2
To the flushed color and hear as now I hearC
The thrill of life beat up the planet's marginF2
And break in the clear susurrus of deep joyR2
That echoes and re choes in my beingV
O Life is intuition the measure of knowledgeS2
And do I stand with heart entranced and burningV
At the zenith of our wisdom when I feelY
The long light flow the long wind pause the deepM
Influx of spirit of which no man may tellY
The Secret golden and inappellableY

Duncan Campbell Scott



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