The Return Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFEGG HIJJKKBBLLEEL BBEEMMNNBBGG BBOOPPEEQQ RRSSGG TTHIUUU HIKKBBBB SSAA| The grass was gray with the moonlit dew | A |
| The stones were white as I came through | A |
| I came down the path by the thirteen yews | B |
| Through the blocks of shade that the moonlight hews | B |
| And when I came to the high lych gate | C |
| I waited awhile where the corpses wait | C |
| Then I came down the road where the moonlight lay | D |
| Like the fallen ghost of the light of day | D |
| - | |
| The bats shrieked high in their zigzag flight | E |
| The owls' spread wings were quiet and white | E |
| The wind and the poplar gave sigh for sigh | F |
| And all about were the rustling shy | F |
| Little live creatures that love the night | E |
| Little wild creatures timid and free | G |
| I passed and they were not afraid of me | G |
| - | |
| It was over the meadow and down the lane | H |
| The way to come to my house again | I |
| Through the wood where the lovers talk | J |
| And the ghosts they say get leave to walk | J |
| I wore the clothes that we all must wear | K |
| And no one saw me walking there | K |
| No one saw my pale feet pass | B |
| By my garden path to my garden grass | B |
| My garden was hung with the veil of spring | L |
| Plum tree and pear tree blossoming | L |
| It lay in the moon's cold sheet of light | E |
| In garlands and silence wondrous and white | E |
| As a dead bride decked for her burying | L |
| - | |
| Then I saw the face of my house | B |
| Held close in the arms of the blossomed boughs | B |
| I leaned my face to the window bright | E |
| To feel if the heart of my house beat right | E |
| The firelight hung it with fitful gold | M |
| It was warm as the house of the dead is cold | M |
| I saw the settles the candles tall | N |
| The black faced presses against the wall | N |
| Polished beechwood and shining brass | B |
| The gleam of china the glitter of glass | B |
| All the little things that were home to me | G |
| Everything as it used to be | G |
| - | |
| Then I said The fire of life still burns | B |
| And I have returned whence none returns | B |
| I will warm my hands where the fire is lit | O |
| I will warm my heart in the heart of it | O |
| So I called aloud to the one within | P |
| Open open and let me in | P |
| Let me in to the fire and the light | E |
| It is very cold out here in the night | E |
| There was never a stir or an answering breath | Q |
| Only a silence as deep as death | Q |
| - | |
| Then I beat on the window and called and cried | R |
| No one heard me and none replied | R |
| The golden silence lay warm and deep | S |
| And I wept as the dead forgotten weep | S |
| And there was no one to hear or see | G |
| To comfort me to have pity on me | G |
| - | |
| But deep in the silence something stirred | T |
| Something that had not seen or heard | T |
| And two drew near to the window pane | H |
| Kissed in the moonlight and kissed again | I |
| And looked through my face to the moon shroud spread | U |
| Over the garlanded garden bed | U |
| And How ghostly the moonlight is she said | U |
| - | |
| Back through the garden the wood the lane | H |
| I came to mine own place again | I |
| I wore the garments we all must wear | K |
| And no one saw me walking there | K |
| No one heard my thin feet pass | B |
| Through the white of the stones and the gray of the grass | B |
| Along the path where the moonlight hews | B |
| Slabs of shadow for thirteen yews | B |
| - | |
| In the hollow where drifted dreams lie deep | S |
| It is good to sleep it was good to sleep | S |
| But my bed has grown cold with the drip of the dew | A |
| And I cannot sleep as I used to do | A |
E. (edith) Nesbit
(1)
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