The Landscape Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGGHHIJDIKK LL FFMMNNLLL OOLLLLLPQQRS TTUUVVWWVVQQLLLLLLXX YYZZVVLL OOA2A2B2B2JJC2C2VVOO LLJJ D2D2HHMMNNVVQQE2E2LL VVVQQF2F2G2G2H2H2VVL VLLI2I2LLJ2J2K2K2 L2L2M2M2N2N2A2A2O2P2 VVL2L2Q2Q2VVR2R2S2S2 S2S2HT2 S2S2LLS2S2LLVVS2S2LL U2U2YV2 S2S2W2W2S2S2LLX2W2Y2 Y2LLD2Z2VVS2S2

You and your landscape There it liesA
Stripped resuming its disguiseA
Clothed in dreams made bare againB
Symbol infinite of painC
Rapture magic mysteryD
Of vanished days and days to beD
There's its sea of tidal grassE
Over which the south winds passE
And the sun set's Tuscan goldF
Which the distant windows holdF
For an instant like a sphereG
Bursting ere it disappearG
There's the dark green woods which throveH
In the spell of Leese's GroveH
And the winding of the roadI
And the hill o'er which the skyJ
Stretched its pallied vacancyD
Ere the dawn or evening glowedI
And the wonder of the townK
Somewhere from the hill top downK
Nestling under hills and woodsL
And the meadow's solitudesL
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And your paper knight of oldF
Secrets of the landscape toldF
And the hedge rows where the pondM
Took the blue of heavens beyondM
The hastening clouds of gusty MarchN
There you saw their wrinkled archN
Where the East wind cracks his whipsL
Round the little pond and clipsL
Main sails from your toppled shipsL
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Landscape that in youth you knewO
Past and present earth and youO
All the legends and the talesL
Of the uplands of the valesL
Sounds of cattle and the criesL
Of ploughmen and of travelersL
Were its soul's interpretersL
And here the lame were always lameP
Always gray the gray of headQ
And the dead were always deadQ
Ere the landscape had becomeR
Your cradle as it was their tombS
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And when the thunder storms would wakenT
Of the dream your soul was not forsakenT
In the room where the dormer windows lookU
There were your knight and the tattered bookU
With colors of the forest greenV
Gabled roofs and the demesneV
Of faery kingdoms and faery timeW
Storied in pre natal rhymeW
Past the orchards in the plainV
The cattle fed on in the rainV
And the storm beaten horseman spedQ
Rain blinded and with bended headQ
And John the ploughman comes and goesL
In labor wet with steaming clothesL
This is your landscape but you seeL
Not terror and not destinyL
Behind its loved maternal faceL
Its power to change or fade replaceL
Its wonder with a deeper dreamX
Unfolding to a vaster themeX
From time eternal was this earthY
No less this landscape with your birthY
Arose nor leaves you nor decayZ
Finds till the twilight of your dayZ
It bore you moulds you to its planV
It ends with you as it beganV
But bears the seed of future yearsL
Of higher raptures dumber tearsL
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For soon you lose the landscape throughO
Absence sorrow eyes grown trueO
To the naked limbs which showA2
Buds that never more may blowA2
Now you know the lame were straightB2
Ere you knew them and the fateB2
Of the old is yet to dieJ
Now you know the dead who lieJ
In the graves you saw where firstC2
The landscape on your vision burstC2
Were not always dead and nowV
Shadows rest upon the browV
Of the souls as young as youO
Some are gone though years are fewO
Since you roamed with them the hillsL
So the landscape changes willsL
All the changes did it tryJ
Its promises to justifyJ
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For you return and find it bareD2
There is no heaven of golden airD2
Your eyes around the horizon roveH
A clump of trees is Leese's GroveH
And what's the hedgerow what's the pondM
A wallow where the vagabondM
Beast will not drink and where the archN
Of heaven in the days of MarchN
Refrains to look A blinding rainV
Beats the once gilded window paneV
John the poor wretch is gone but breadQ
Tempts other feet that path to treadQ
Between the barn and house and braveE2
The March rain and the winds that raveE2
O landscape I am one who standsL
Returned with pale and broken handsL
Glad for the day that I have knownV
And finds the deserted doorway strownV
With shoulder blade and spinal boneV
And you who nourished me and bredQ
I find the spirit from you fledQ
You gave me dreams 'twas at your breastF2
My soul's beginning rose and pressedF2
My steps afar at last and shapedG2
A world elusive which escapedG2
Whatever love or thought could findH2
Beyond the tireless wings of mindH2
Yet grown by you and feeding onV
Your strength as mother you are goneV
When I return from living traceL
My steps to see how I beganV
And deeply search your mother faceL
To know your inner self the placeL
For which you bore me sent me forthI2
To wander south or east or northI2
Now the familiar landscape liesL
With breathless breast and hollow eyesL
It knows me not as I know notJ2
Its secret spirit all forgotJ2
Its kindred look is as I standK2
A stranger in an unknown landK2
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Are we not earth born formed of dustL2
Which seeks again its love and trustL2
In an old landscape after changeM2
In hearts grown weary wrecked and strangeM2
What though we struggled to emergeN2
Dividual footed for the urgeN2
Of further self discoveries thoughA2
In the mid years we cease to knowA2
Through disenchanted eyes the spellO2
That clothed it like a miracleP2
Yet at the last our steps returnV
Its deeper mysteries to learnV
It has been always us it mustL2
Clasp to itself our kindred dustL2
We cannot free ourselves from itQ2
Near or afar we must submitQ2
To what is in us what was grownV
Out of the landscape's soil the knownV
And unknown powers of soil and soulR2
As bodies yield to the controlR2
Of the earth's center and so bendS2
In age so hearts toward the endS2
Bend down with lips so long athirstS2
To waters which were known at firstS2
The little spring at Leese's GroveH
Was your first love is your last loveT2
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When those we knew in youth have creptS2
Under the landscape which has keptS2
Nothing we saw with youthful eyesL
Ere God is formed in the empty skiesL
I wonder not our steps are pressedS2
Toward the mystery of their restS2
That is the hope at bud which kneelsL
Where ancestors the tomb concealsL
Age no less than youth would leanV
Upon some love For what is seenV
No more of father mother friendS2
For hands of flesh lost eyes grown blindS2
In death a something which assuresL
Comforts allays our fears enduresL
Just as the landscape and our homeU2
In childhood made of heaven's domeU2
And all the farthest ways of earthY
A place as sheltered as the hearthV2
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Is it not written at the last dayS2
Heaven and earth shall roll awayS2
Yes as my landscape passed through deathW2
Lay like a corpse and with new breathW2
Became instinct with fire and lightS2
So shall it roll up in my sightS2
Pass from the realm of finite senseL
Become a thing of spirit whenceL
I shall pass too its child in faithX2
Of dreams it gave me which nor deathW2
Nor change can wreck but still revealY2
In change a Something vast more realY2
Than sunsets meadows green wood treesL
Or even faery presencesL
A Something which the earth and airD2
Transmutes but keeps them what they wereZ2
Clear films of beauty grown more thinV
As we approach and enter inV
Until we reach the scene that madeS2
Our landscape just a thing of shadeS2

Edgar Lee Masters



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