After Sixty Years Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABACDEC FBFBFGHIJ KLKLKMNOM PQPQPRSSR TUTVTJWWJ XYXYXXBBX XBXHXJZA2J B2XB2XB2B2C2C2B2 B2B2B2B2B2D2B2B2D2 E2LE2LE2F2B2B2G2 B2B2B2B2B2B2XXB2 XXXXXD2BBD2 XLXLXH2I2I2H2 XJ2XJ2XB2B2B2B2 B2B2B2B2B2XXXX XB2XB2XXXXX K2L2K2M2K2B2MMB2 N2C2N2C2N2O2B2B2M XP2XP2XL2O2O2M2 B2B2B2B2B2B2B2B2RING bells flags fly and let the great crowd roar | A |
Its ecstasy Let the hid heart in prayer | B |
Lift up your name God bless you evermore | A |
Lady who have the noblest crown to wear | B |
That ever woman wore | A |
A jewel in the front of time shall blaze | C |
This day of all your days commemorate | D |
With Time's white bays your brows are laureate | E |
And England's love shall garland all your days | C |
- | |
- | |
When England's crown to Love's acclaim was laid | F |
On the soft brightness of a maiden's hair | B |
Amid delight Love trembled half afraid | F |
To give that little head such weight to bear | B |
Bind on so slight a maid | F |
A kingdom's purple bid her hands hold high | G |
The sceptre and the heavy orb of power | H |
To give to youth and beauty for a dower | I |
Care and a crown sorrow and sovereignty | J |
- | |
- | |
But from our hearts sprang an intenser flame | K |
When loyal Love met tender Love half way | L |
And in love's script wrote on the scroll of fame | K |
Entwined with all the splendour of that day | L |
The letters of her name | K |
Then as fair roses grow 'mid leaves of green | M |
Love amid loyalty grew strong and close | N |
To hedge a pleasaunce round our Royal rose | O |
Our sovereign maiden flower our child our Queen | M |
- | |
- | |
The trumpets spake in sonorous triumph shout | P |
Their speech found echo in the hundred guns | Q |
From countless towers the answering bells rang out | P |
And England's heart spoke clamorous through her sons | Q |
The exulting land throughout | P |
Down streets ablaze with light the flags unfurled | R |
Along dark lonely hills the joy fires crept | S |
And eager swords within their scabbards leapt | S |
To guard our Lady and Queen against the world | R |
- | |
- | |
Those swords are rusted now Good men and true | T |
Dust in the dust are laid who held her dear | U |
But from their grave the bright flower springs anew | T |
Which for her festival we bring her here | V |
The long years' meed and due | T |
The bud of homage grafted on chivalry | J |
God took the souls that shrined the jewel of love | W |
But made their sons inheritors thereof | W |
In endless gold entail of loyalty | J |
- | |
- | |
Time compensating life the fruit bestowed | X |
When in spent perfume passed the flower of youth | Y |
Her feet were set upon the upward road | X |
Her face was turned towards the star of truth | Y |
That in her soul abode | X |
With youth the maid's bright brow was garlanded | X |
But richer crowns adorn the dear white hair | B |
The gathered love of all the years lies there | B |
In coronal benediction on her head | X |
- | |
- | |
She is of our blood for hath not she too met | X |
The angels of delight and of despair | B |
Does not she too remember and forget | X |
How bitter or how bright the lost days were | H |
Her eyes have tears made wet | X |
She has seen joy unveil d even as we | J |
Has laid upon cold clay the heart warm kiss | Z |
She has known Sorrow for the king he is | A2 |
She has held little children on her knee | J |
- | |
- | |
Mother dear Mother these your children rise | B2 |
And call you bless d and shall we not too | X |
Who are your children in the greater wise | B2 |
And love you for our land and her for you | X |
The blessing sanctifies | B2 |
Your children as they breathe it at your knees | B2 |
And bringing little gifts from very far | C2 |
Where the great nurseries of your Empire are | C2 |
Your children's blessings throng from over seas | B2 |
- | |
- | |
On Love's spread wings and over leagues of space | B2 |
Homage is borne from far off sun steeped lands | B2 |
From many a domed mysterious Eastern place | B2 |
Where Secresy holds Time between her hands | B2 |
The children of your race | B2 |
Reach English hands towards your English throne | D2 |
And from the far South turn blue English eyes | B2 |
That never saw the blue of English skies | B2 |
Yet call you Mother and your land their own | D2 |
- | |
- | |
Where 'mid great trees the mighty waters flow | E2 |
In arrogant submission to your sway | L |
In fur of price your northern hunters go | E2 |
And shafts of ardent greeting fly your way | L |
Across the splendid snow | E2 |
And isles that with their coral safe and small | F2 |
Rock in the cradle of the tropic seas | B2 |
In soft strange speech join in the litanies | B2 |
That pride and prayer breathe at your festival | G2 |
- | |
- | |
All round the world on every far off sea | B2 |
In wind ploughed oceans and in sun kissed bays | B2 |
By every busy wharf and chattering quay | B2 |
Some cantle of your Empire sails or stays | B2 |
Flaunts your supremacy | B2 |
Against the winds of all the world and flies | B2 |
Your flag triumphant between blue and blue | X |
Blazons to sun and star the name of you | X |
And spreads your glory between seas and skies | B2 |
- | |
- | |
There is no cottage garden sunny sweet | X |
There is no pasture where our shepherds tend | X |
Their quiet flocks no red roofed village street | X |
But holds for you the love wish of a friend | X |
Blent with high homage meet | X |
No little farm among the cornfields lone | D2 |
No little cot upon the uplands bare | B |
But hears to day in blessing and in prayer | B |
One name Victoria and that name your own | D2 |
- | |
- | |
From the vast cities where the giant's might | X |
Pauseless resistless moves by night and day | L |
From hidden mines where day is one with night | X |
From weary lives whose days and nights are grey | L |
And empty of delight | X |
From lives that rhyme to sunshine and the spring | H2 |
From happiness at flood and hope at ebb | I2 |
Rose the magnificent and mingled web | I2 |
That floats your banner at your thanksgiving | H2 |
- | |
- | |
Throned on the surety of a splendid past | X |
With present glory clothed as with the sun | J2 |
Crowned with the future's hopes you know at last | X |
What treasure from the years your life has won | J2 |
Behold your hands hold fast | X |
The moon of Empire and its sway controls | B2 |
The tides of war and peace while in those hands | B2 |
Lies tender homage out of all the lands | B2 |
Against whose feet your furthest ocean rolls | B2 |
- | |
- | |
How seems your life looked back at through the years | B2 |
Much love much sorrow dead desires lost dreams | B2 |
A great life lived out greatly hidden tears | B2 |
And smiles for daily wear strong plans and schemes | B2 |
And mighty hopes and fears | B2 |
War in the South and murder in the East | X |
And England's heart throbs echoed by your heart | X |
When loss and labour and sorrow were her part | X |
Or when Fate bade her to some flower crowned feast | X |
- | |
- | |
Red battle fields whereon your soldiers died | X |
Green pastoral fields saved by the blood of these | B2 |
Duty that bade mere sorrow stand aside | X |
And love transforming anguish into ease | B2 |
Long longing satisfied | X |
Great secrets wrenched from Nature's grudging breast | X |
The fruit of knowledge plucked for all to eat | X |
These have you known Life's circle is complete | X |
And knowing these you know what is Life's best | X |
- | |
- | |
The dear small secrets of our common life | K2 |
The English woods and hills the English home | L2 |
The common joys and griefs of Mother and wife | K2 |
Joy coming going griefs that go and come | M2 |
Soul's peace amid world's strife | K2 |
Hours when the Queen's cares leave the woman free | B2 |
Dear friendships where the friend forgets the Queen | M |
And stoops to wear a dearer homelier mien | M |
And be more loved than mere Queens rise to be | B2 |
- | |
- | |
And in your hour of triumph when you shine | N2 |
The centre of our triumph's blazing star | C2 |
And gazing down your long life's lustrous line | N2 |
Behold how great your life long glories are | C2 |
Yet in your heart's veiled shrine | N2 |
No splendour of all splendours that have been | O2 |
Will brim your eyes with tremulous thanksgivings | B2 |
But little memories of little things | B2 |
The treasures of the woman not the Queen | M |
- | |
- | |
Yet Queen because the love of you hath wound | X |
A golden girdle all about the earth | P2 |
Because your name is as a trumpet sound | X |
To call toward you men of English birth | P2 |
From the world's outmost bound | X |
Because old kinsmen long estranged from home | L2 |
Come with old foes to greet you friend and kin | O2 |
With kindly eyes behold your guests come in | O2 |
See from afar the long procession come | M2 |
- | |
- | |
No Emperor in Rome's Imperial days | B2 |
Knew ever such a triumph day as this | B2 |
Though captive kings bore chains along his ways | B2 |
Though tribute from the furthest isles was his | B2 |
With pageant and with praise | B2 |
For you free kings and free republics grace | B2 |
Your triumph and across the conquered waves | B2 |
Come gifts from friends not tributes wrung from slaves | B2 |
And praise kneels clothed in love before y | - |
Edith Nesbit
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about After Sixty Years poem by Edith Nesbit
Best Poems of Edith Nesbit