The Moat House Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A A BBCCB DDCCD EEFGE HHIIH JJJHJ KKLMN OOPPO QQHHQ HHRRH SSTTS U HHU VVHH JJJJJ WWUU X YYYPPP HHHDDD RRRZZZ DDDA2A2A2 HHHB2C2B2 A HJHJDUDU JHJHD2HD2H E2 E2F2E2G2E2G2 H2HH2H2H2HH2H B2XB2XI2H2I2 J2H2J2H2K2H2K2H2 H2H2H2H2L2H2L2H2 M2C2N2C2I2O2I2O2 P2H2P2H2JAH2A HH2HH2Q2HQ2H H2H2H2H2H2H2H2 H2H2H2H2L2J2L2J2 JH2JH2H2R2H2R2 UHUHH2S2H2T2 J2AUPART I | A |
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I | A |
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UNDER the shade of convent towers | B |
Where fast and vigil mark the hours | B |
From childhood into youth there grew | C |
A maid as fresh as April dew | C |
And sweet as May's ideal flowers | B |
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Brighter than dawn in wind swept skies | D |
Like children's dreams most pure unwise | D |
Yet with a slumbering soul fire too | C |
That sometimes shone a moment through | C |
Her wondrous unawakened eyes | D |
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The nuns who loved her coldly meant | E |
The twig should grow as it was bent | E |
That she like them should watch youth's bier | F |
Should watch her day dreams disappear | G |
And go the loveless way they went | E |
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The convent walls were high and grey | H |
How could Love hope to find a way | H |
Into that citadel forlorn | I |
Where his dear name was put to scorn | I |
Or called a sinful thing to say | H |
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Yet Love did come what need to tell | J |
Of flowers downcast that sometimes fell | J |
Across her feet when dreamily | J |
She paced with unused breviary | H |
Down paths made still with August's spell | J |
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Of looks cast through the chapel grate | K |
Of letters helped by Love and Fate | K |
That to cold fingers did not come | L |
But lay within a warmer home | M |
Upon her heart inviolate | N |
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Somehow he loved her she loved him | O |
Then filled her soul's cup to the brim | O |
And all her daily life grew bright | P |
With such a flood of rosy light | P |
As turned the altar candles dim | O |
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But love that lights is love that leads | Q |
And lives upon the heart it feeds | Q |
Soon grew she pale though not less fair | H |
And sighed his name instead of prayer | H |
And told her heart throbs not her beads | Q |
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How could she find the sunlight fair | H |
A sunlight that he did not share | H |
How could a rose smell sweet within | R |
The cruel bars that shut her in | R |
And shut him out while she was there | H |
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He vowed her fealty firm and fast | S |
Then to the winds her fears she cast | S |
They found a way to cheat the bars | T |
And in free air beneath free stars | T |
Free and with him she stood at last | S |
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'Now to some priest ' he said 'that he | U |
May give thee blessing us to me ' | - |
'No priest ' she cried in doubt and fear | H |
'He would divide not join us dear | H |
I am mine I give myself to thee | U |
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'Since thou and I are mine and thine | V |
What need to swear it at a shrine | V |
Would love last longer if we swore | H |
That we would love for evermore | H |
God gives me thee and thou art mine ' | - |
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'God weds us now ' he said 'yet still | J |
Some day shall we all forms fulfil | J |
Eternal truth affords to smile | J |
At laws wherewith man marks his guile | J |
Yet law shall join us when you will | J |
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'So look your last my love on these | W |
Forbidding walls and wooing trees | W |
Farewell to grief and gloom ' said he | U |
'Farewell to childhood's joy ' said she | U |
But neither said 'Farewell to peace ' | - |
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Song | X |
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My sweet my sweet | Y |
She is complete | Y |
From dainty head to darling feet | Y |
So warm and white | P |
So brown and bright | P |
So made for love and love's delight | P |
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God could but spare | H |
One flower so fair | H |
There is none like her anywhere | H |
Beneath wide skies | D |
The whole earth lies | D |
But not two other such brown eyes | D |
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The world we're in | R |
If one might win | R |
Not worth that dimple in her chin | R |
A heaven to know | Z |
I'll let that go | Z |
But once to see her lids droop low | Z |
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Over her eyes | D |
By love made wise | D |
To see her bosom fall and rise | D |
Is more than worth | A2 |
The angels' mirth | A2 |
And all the heaven joys of earth | A2 |
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This is the hour | H |
Which gives me power | H |
To win and wear earth's whitest flower | H |
Oh Love give grace | B2 |
Through all life's ways | C2 |
Keep pure this heart her dwelling place | B2 |
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II | A |
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The fields were reaped and the pastures bare | H |
And the nights grown windy and chill | J |
When the lovers passed through the beech woods fair | H |
And climbed the brow of the hill | J |
In the hill's spread arm the Moat House lies | D |
With elm and willow tree | U |
'And is that your home at last ' she sighs | D |
'Our home at last ' laughs he | U |
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Across the bridge and into the hall | J |
Where the waiting housefolk were | H |
'This is my lady ' he said to them all | J |
And she looked so sweet and fair | H |
That every maid and serving boy | D2 |
God blessed them then and there | H |
And wished them luck and gave them joy | D2 |
For a happy handsome pair | H |
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And only the old nurse shook her head | E2 |
'Too young ' she said 'too young ' | - |
She noted that no prayers were read | E2 |
No marriage bells were rung | F2 |
No guests were called no feast was spread | E2 |
As was meet for a marriage tide | G2 |
The young lord in the banquet hall broke bread | E2 |
Alone with his little bride | G2 |
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Yet her old heart warmed to the two and blessed | H2 |
They were both so glad and gay | H |
By to morrow and yesterday unoppressed | H2 |
Fulfilled of the joy of to day | H2 |
Like two young birds in that dull old nest | H2 |
So careless of coming care | H |
So rapt in the other that each possessed | H2 |
The two young lovers were | H |
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He was heir to a stern hard natured race | B2 |
That had held the Moat House long | X |
But the gloom of his formal dwelling place | B2 |
Dissolved at her voice and song | X |
So bright so sweet to the house she came | I2 |
So winning of way and word | H2 |
The household knew her by one pet name | I2 |
'My Lady Ladybird ' | - |
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First love so rarely gets leave to bring | J2 |
In our world where money is might | H2 |
Its tender buds to blossoming | J2 |
With the sun of its own delight | H2 |
We love at rose or at vintage prime | K2 |
In the glare and heat of the day | H2 |
Forgetting the dawn and the violet time | K2 |
And the wild sweet scent of the may | H2 |
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These loved like children like children played | H2 |
The old house laughed with delight | H2 |
At her song of a voice at the radiance made | H2 |
By her dress's flashing flight | H2 |
Up the dark oak stair through the gallery's gloom | L2 |
She ran like a fairy fleet | H2 |
And ever her lover from room to room | L2 |
Fast followed her flying feet | H2 |
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They gathered the buds of the late lived rose | M2 |
In the ordered garden ways | C2 |
They walked through the sombre yew walled close | N2 |
And threaded the pine woods maze | C2 |
They rode through woods where their horses came | I2 |
Knee deep through the rustling leaves | O2 |
Through fields forlorn of the poppies' flame | I2 |
And bereft of their golden sheaves | O2 |
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In the mellow hush of October noon | P2 |
They rowed in the flat broad boat | H2 |
Through the lily leaves so thickly strewn | P2 |
On the sunny side of the moat | H2 |
They were glad of the fire of the beech crowned hill | J |
And glad of the pale deep sky | A |
And the shifting shade that the willows made | H2 |
On the boat as she glided by | A |
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They roamed each room of the Moat House through | H |
And questioned the wraiths of the past | H2 |
What legends rare the old dresses knew | H |
And the swords what had wet them last | H2 |
What faces had looked through the lozenge panes | Q2 |
What shadows darkened the door | H |
What feet had walked in the jewelled stains | Q2 |
That the rich glass cast on the floor | H |
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She dressed her beauty in old brocade | H2 |
That breathed of loss and regret | H2 |
In laces that broken hearts had swayed | H2 |
In the days when the swords were wet | H2 |
And the rubies and pearls laughed out and said | H2 |
'Though the lovers for whom we were set | H2 |
And the women who loved us have long been dead | H2 |
Yet beauty and we live yet ' | - |
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When the wild white winter's spectral hand | H2 |
Effaced the green and the red | H2 |
And crushed the fingers brown of the land | H2 |
Till they grew death white instead | H2 |
The two found cheer in their dark oak room | L2 |
And their dreams of a coming spring | J2 |
For a brighter sun shone through winter's gloom | L2 |
Than ever a summer could bring | J2 |
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They sat where the great fires blazed in the hall | J |
Where the wolf skins lay outspread | H2 |
The pictured faces looked down from the wall | J |
To hear his praise of the dead | H2 |
He told her ghostly tales of the past | H2 |
And legends rare of his house | R2 |
Till she held her breath at the shade fire cast | H2 |
And the scamper rush of the mouse | R2 |
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Till she dared not turn her head to see | U |
What shape might stand by her chair | H |
Till she cried his name and fled to his knee | U |
And safely nestled there | H |
Then they talked of their journey the city's crowd | H2 |
Of the convent's faint joy and pain | S2 |
Till the ghosts of the past were laid in the shroud | H2 |
Of commonplace things again | T2 |
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So the winter died and the baby spring | J2 |
With hardly voice for a cry | A |
And hands too weak the signs to b | U |
Edith Nesbit
(1)
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