A Night In Italy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABACCA DEFGHIIH JKJLGMMG NBNBODDO PQPQRNNS TNUNVPPV MWMWNXXN FNDNBNNB UYUYTTTT NWNWNZZN NUNTMA2A2M NBNBOB2B2O C2DC2DZNNZ D2VD2VE2NNE2 F2G2F2H2BI2I2B J2I2J2I2K2I2I2U NTNTL2M2M2L2 A2UA2K2TN2N2T TO2TO2P2Q2Q2R2 BNBNS2T2G2U2 V2W2V2W2I2OOI2Sweet are the rosy memories of the lips | A |
That first kiss'd ours albeit they kiss no more | B |
Sweet is the sight of sunset sailing ships | A |
Altho' they leave us on a lonely shore | B |
Sweet are familiar songs tho' Music dips | A |
Her hollow shell in Thought's forlornest wells | C |
And sweet tho' sad the sound of midnight bells | C |
When the oped casement with the night rain drips | A |
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There is a pleasure which is born of pain | D |
The grave of all things hath its violet | E |
Else why thro' days which never come again | F |
Roams Hope with that strange longing like Regret | G |
Why put the posy in the cold dead hand | H |
Why plant the rose above the lonely grave | I |
Why bring the corpse across the salt sea wave | I |
Why deem the dead more near in native land | H |
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Thy name hath been a silence in my life | J |
So long it falters upon language now | K |
O more to me than sister or than wife | J |
Once and now nothing It is hard to know | L |
That such things have been and are not and yet | G |
Life loiters keeps a pulse at even measure | M |
And goes upon its business and its pleasure | M |
And knows not all the depths of its regret | G |
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Ah could the memory cast her spots as do | N |
The snake's brood theirs in spring and be once more | B |
Wholly renew'd to dwell i' the time that 's new | N |
With no reiterance of those pangs of yore | B |
Peace peace My wild song will go wandering | O |
Too wantonly down paths a private pain | D |
Hath trodden bare What was it jarr'd the strain | D |
Some crush'd illusion left with crumpled wing | O |
- | |
Tangled in Music's web of twin egrave d strings | P |
That started that false note and crack'd the tune | Q |
In its beginning Ah forgotten things | P |
Stumble back strangely and the ghost of June | Q |
Stands by December's fire cold cold and puts | R |
The last spark out How could I sing aright | N |
With those old airs haunting me all the night | N |
And those old steps that sound when daylight shuts | S |
- | |
For back she comes and moves reproachfully | T |
The mistress of my moods and looks bereft | N |
Cruel to the last as tho' 'twere I not she | U |
That did the wrong and broke the spell and left | N |
Memory comfortless Away away | V |
Phantoms about whose brows the bindweed clings | P |
Hopeless regret In thinking of these things | P |
Some men have lost their minds and others may | V |
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Yet O for one deep draught in this dull hour | M |
One deep deep draught of the departed time | W |
O for one brief strong pulse of ancient power | M |
To beat and breathe thro' all the valves of rhyme | W |
Thou Memory with thy downward eyes that art | N |
The cup bearer of gods pour deep and long | X |
Brim all the vacant chalices of song | X |
With health Droop down thine urn I hold my heart | N |
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One draught of what I shall not taste again | F |
Save when my brain with thy dark wine is brimm'd | N |
One draught and then straight onward spite of pain | D |
And spite of all things changed with gaze undimm'd | N |
Love's footsteps thro' the waning Past to explore | B |
Undaunted and to carve in the wan light | N |
Of Hope's last outposts on Song's utmost height | N |
The sad resemblance of an hour or more | B |
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Midnight and love and youth and Italy | U |
Love in the land where love most lovely seems | Y |
Land of my love tho' I be far from thee | U |
Lend for love's sake the light of thy moonbeams | Y |
The spirit of thy cypress groves and all | T |
Thy dark eyed beauty for a little while | T |
To my desire Yet once more let her smile | T |
Fall o'er me o'er me let her long hair fall | T |
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Under the bless egrave d darkness unreproved | N |
We were alone in that best hour of time | W |
Which first reveal'd to us how much we loved | N |
'Neath the thick starlight The young night sublime | W |
Hung trembling o'er us At her feet I knelt | N |
And gazed up from her feet into her eyes | Z |
Her face was bow'd we breathed each other's sighs | Z |
We did not speak not move we look'd we felt | N |
- | |
The night said not a word The breeze was dead | N |
The leaf lay without whispering on the tree | U |
As I lay at her feet Droop'd was her head | N |
One hand in mine and one still pensively | T |
Went wandering through my hair We were together | M |
How Where What matter Somewhere in a dream | A2 |
Drifting slow drifting down a wizard stream | A2 |
Whither Together then what matter whither | M |
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It was enough for me to clasp her hand | N |
To blend with her love looks my own no more | B |
Enough with thoughts like ships that cannot land | N |
Blown by faint winds about a magic shore | B |
To realize in each mysterious feeling | O |
The droop of the warm cheek so near my own | B2 |
The cool white arm about my shoulder thrown | B2 |
Those exquisite fair feet where I was kneeling | O |
- | |
How little know they life's divinest bliss | C2 |
That know not to possess and yet refrain | D |
Let the young Psyche roam a fleeting kiss | C2 |
Grasp it a few poor grains of dust remain | D |
See how those floating flowers the butterflies | Z |
Hover the garden thro' and take no root | N |
Desire for ever hath a flying foot | N |
Free pleasure comes and goes beneath the skies | Z |
- | |
Close not thy hand upon the innocent joy | D2 |
That trusts itself within thy reach It may | V |
Or may not linger Thou canst but destroy | D2 |
The wing egrave d wanderer Let it go or stay | V |
Love thou the rose yet leave it on its stem | E2 |
Think Midas starved by turning all to gold | N |
Bless egrave d are those that spare and that withhold | N |
Because the whole world shall be trusted them | E2 |
- | |
The foolish Faun pursues the unwilling Nymph | F2 |
That culls her flowers beside the precipice | G2 |
Or dips her shining ankles in the lymph | F2 |
But just when she must perish or be his | H2 |
Heaven puts an arm out She is safe The shore | B |
Gains some new fountain or the lilied lawn | I2 |
A rarer sort of rose but ah poor Faun | I2 |
To thee she shall be changed for evermore | B |
- | |
Chase not too close the fading rapture Leave | J2 |
To Love his long auroras slowly seen | I2 |
Be ready to release as to receive | J2 |
Deem those the nearest soul to soul between | I2 |
Whose lips yet lingers reverence on a sigh | K2 |
Judge what thy sense can reach not most thine own | I2 |
If once thy soul hath seized it The unknown | I2 |
Is life to love religion poetry | U |
- | |
The moon had set There was not any light | N |
Save of the lonely legion'd watch stars pale | T |
In outer air and what by fits made bright | N |
Hot oleanders in a rosy vale | T |
Search'd by the lamping fly whose little spark | L2 |
Went in and out like passion's bashful hope | M2 |
Meanwhile the sleepy globe began to slope | M2 |
A ponderous shoulder sunward thro' the dark | L2 |
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And the night pass'd in beauty like a dream | A2 |
Aloof in those dark heavens paused Destiny | U |
With her last star descending in the gleam | A2 |
Of the cold morrow from the emptied sky | K2 |
The hour the distance from her old self all | T |
The novelty and loneness of the place | N2 |
Had left a lovely awe on that fair face | N2 |
And all the land grew strange and magical | T |
- | |
As droops some billowy cloud to the crouch'd hill | T |
Heavy with all heaven's tears for all earth's care | O2 |
She droop'd unto me without force or will | T |
And sank upon my bosom murmuring there | O2 |
A woman's inarticulate passionate words | P2 |
O moment of all moments upon earth | Q2 |
O life's supreme How worth how wildly worth | Q2 |
Whole worlds of flame to know this world affords | R2 |
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What even Eternity can not restore | B |
When all the ends of life take hands and meet | N |
Round centres of sweet fire Ah never more | B |
Ah never shall the bitter with the sweet | N |
Be mingled so in the pale after years | S2 |
One hour of life immortal spirits possess | T2 |
This drains the world and leaves but weariness | G2 |
And parching passion and perplexing tears | U2 |
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Sad is it that we cannot even keep | V2 |
That hour to sweeten life's last toil but Youth | W2 |
Grasps all and leaves us and when we would weep | V2 |
We dare not let our tears fall lest in truth | W2 |
They fall upon our work which must be done | I2 |
And so we bind up our torn hearts from breaking | O |
Our eyes from weeping and our brows from aching | O |
And follow the long pathway all alone | I2 |
Earl Of Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
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