A Winter's Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEDED DFFFF GHGHG IJIJI FFFFF IJIIK IFIFL MFIFM FFFFF FFFFF NCICN FINIO FFFFF PFFFQ RFRFS FIFFI TFFFU VHVHV WIWIW FFFFF FUFUF WFWFW XYZYX FFFFF HA2WFHer the lakes | A |
And floating fields from the farm in the cup of the vales | B |
Gliding windless through the hand folded flakes | A |
The pale breath of cattle at the stealthy sail | C |
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And the stars falling cold | D |
And the smell of hay in the snow and the far owl | E |
Warning among the folds and the frozen hold | D |
Flocked with the sheep white smoke of the farm house cowl | E |
In the river wended vales where the tale was told | D |
- | |
Once when the world turned old | D |
On a star of faith pure as the drifting bread | F |
As the food and flames of the snow a man unrolled | F |
The scrolls of fire that burned in his heart and head | F |
Torn and alone in a farm house in a fold | F |
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Of fields And burning then | G |
In his firelit island ringed by the winged snow | H |
And the dung hills white as wool and the hen | G |
Roosts sleeping chill till the flame of the cock crow | H |
Combs through the mantled yards and the morning men | G |
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Stumble out with their spades | I |
The cattle stirring the mousing cat stepping shy | J |
The puffed birds hopping and hunting the milkmaids | I |
Gentle in their clogs over the fallen sky | J |
And all the woken farm at its white trades | I |
- | |
He knelt he wept he prayed | F |
By the spit and the black pot in the log bright light | F |
And the cup and the cut bread in the dancing shade | F |
In the muffled house in the quick of night | F |
At the point of love forsaken and afraid | F |
- | |
He knelt on the cold stones | I |
He wept form the crest of grief he prayed to the veiled sky | J |
May his hunger go howling on bare white bones | I |
Past the statues of the stables and the sky roofed sties | I |
And the duck pond glass and the blinding byres alone | K |
- | |
Into the home of prayers | I |
And fires where he should prowl down the cloud | F |
Of his snow blind love and rush in the white lairs | I |
His naked need struck him howling and bowed | F |
Though no sound flowed down the hand folded air | L |
- | |
But only the wind strung | M |
Hunger of birds in the fields of the bread of water tossed | F |
In high corn and the harvest melting on their tongues | I |
And his nameless need bound him burning and lost | F |
When cold as snow he should run the wended vales among | M |
- | |
The rivers mouthed in night | F |
And drown in the drifts of his need and lie curled caught | F |
In the always desiring centre of the white | F |
Inhuman cradle and the bride bed forever sought | F |
By the believer lost and the hurled outcast of light | F |
- | |
Deliver him he cried | F |
By losing him all in love and cast his need | F |
Alone and naked in the engulfing bride | F |
Never to flourish in the fields of the white seed | F |
Or flower under the time dying flesh astride | F |
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Listen The minstrels sing | N |
In the departed villages The nightingale | C |
Dust in the buried wood flies on the grains of her wings | I |
And spells on the winds of the dead his winter's tale | C |
The voice of the dust of water from the withered spring | N |
- | |
Is telling The wizened | F |
Stream with bells and baying water bounds The dew rings | I |
On the gristed leaves and the long gone glistening | N |
Parish of snow The carved mouths in the rock are wind swept strings | I |
Time sings through the intricately dead snow drop Listen | O |
- | |
It was a hand or sound | F |
In the long ago land that glided the dark door wide | F |
And there outside on the bread of the ground | F |
A she bird rose and rayed like a burning bride | F |
A she bird dawned and her breast with snow and scarlet downed | F |
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Look And the dancers move | P |
On the departed snow bushed green wanton in moon light | F |
As a dust of pigeons Exulting the grave hooved | F |
Horses centaur dead turn and tread the drenched white | F |
Paddocks in the farms of birds The dead oak walks for love | Q |
- | |
The carved limbs in the rock | R |
Leap as to trumpets Calligraphy of the old | F |
Leaves is dancing Lines of age on the stones weave in a flock | R |
And the harp shaped voice of the water's dust plucks in a fold | F |
Of fields For love the long ago she bird rises Look | S |
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And the wild wings were raised | F |
Above her folded head and the soft feathered voice | I |
Was flying through the house as though the she bird praised | F |
And all the elements of the slow fall rejoiced | F |
That a man knelt alone in the cup of the vales | I |
- | |
In the mantle and calm | T |
By the spit and the black pot in the log bright light | F |
And the sky of birds in the plumed voice charmed | F |
Him up and he ran like a wind after the kindling flight | F |
Past the blind barns and byres of the windless farm | U |
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In the poles of the year | V |
When black birds died like priests in the cloaked hedge row | H |
And over the cloth of counties the far hills rode near | V |
Under the one leaved trees ran a scarecrow of snow | H |
And fast through the drifts of the thickets antlered like deer | V |
- | |
Rags and prayers down the knee | W |
Deep hillocks and loud on the numbed lakes | I |
All night lost and long wading in the wake of the she | W |
Bird through the times and lands and tribes of the slow flakes | I |
Listen and look where she sails the goose plucked sea | W |
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The sky the bird the bride | F |
The cloud the need the planted stars the joy beyond | F |
The fields of seed and the time dying flesh astride | F |
The heavens the heaven the grave the burning font | F |
In the far ago land the door of his death glided wide | F |
- | |
And the bird descended | F |
On a bread white hill over the cupped farm | U |
And the lakes and floating fields and the river wended | F |
Vales where he prayed to come to the last harm | U |
And the home of prayers and fires the tale ended | F |
- | |
The dancing perishes | W |
On the white no longer growing green and minstrel dead | F |
The singing breaks in the snow shoed villages of wishes | W |
That once cut the figures of birds on the deep bread | F |
And over the glazed lakes skated the shapes of fishes | W |
- | |
Flying The rite is shorn | X |
Of nightingale and centaur dead horse The springs wither | Y |
Back Lines of age sleep on the stones till trumpeting dawn | Z |
Exultation lies down Time buries the spring weather | Y |
That belled and bounded with the fossil and the dew reborn | X |
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For the bird lay bedded | F |
In a choir of wings as though she slept or died | F |
And the wings glided wide and he was hymned and wedded | F |
And through the thighs of the engulfing bride | F |
The woman breasted and the heaven headed | F |
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Bird he was brought low | H |
Burning in the bride bed of love in the whirl | A2 |
Pool at the wanting centre in the folds | W |
Of paradise in the spun bud of the world | F |
And she rose with him flowering in her melting snow | H |
Dylan Thomas
(1)
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