All Souls Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCBBBB A DDEEFGBB A HHIIJJBB BBKKBBBB BBLLBBBB BBMMBB JJNNBBMM| I | A |
| - | |
| A thin moon faints in the sky o'erhead | B |
| And dumb in the churchyard lie the dead | B |
| Walk we not Sweet by garden ways | C |
| Where the late rose hangs and the phlox delays | C |
| But forth of the gate and down the road | B |
| Past the church and the yews to their dim abode | B |
| For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night | B |
| When the dead can hear and the dead have sight | B |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| Fear not that sound like wind in the trees | D |
| It is only their call that comes on the breeze | D |
| Fear not the shudder that seems to pass | E |
| It is only the tread of their feet on the grass | E |
| Fear not the drip of the bough as you stoop | F |
| It is only the touch of their hands that grope | G |
| For the year's on the turn and it's All Souls' night | B |
| When the dead can yearn and the dead can smite | B |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| And where should a man bring his sweet to woo | H |
| But here where such hundreds were lovers too | H |
| Where lie the dead lips that thirst to kiss | I |
| The empty hands that their fellows miss | I |
| Where the maid and her lover from sere to green | J |
| Sleep bed by bed with the worm between | J |
| For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night | B |
| When the dead can hear and the dead have sight | B |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| - | |
| And now they rise and walk in the cold | B |
| Let us warm their blood and give youth to the old | B |
| Let them see us and hear us and say Ah thus | K |
| In the prime of the year it went with us | K |
| Till their lips drawn close and so long unkist | B |
| Forget they are mist that mingles with mist | B |
| For the year's on the turn and it's All Souls' night | B |
| When the dead can burn and the dead can smite | B |
| - | |
| V | - |
| - | |
| Till they say as they hear us poor dead poor dead | B |
| Just an hour of this and our age long bed | B |
| Just a thrill of the old remembered pains | L |
| To kindle a flame in our frozen veins | L |
| A touch and a sight and a floating apart | B |
| As the chill of dawn strikes each phantom heart | B |
| For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night | B |
| When the dead can hear and the dead have sight | B |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| - | |
| And where should the living feel alive | - |
| But here in this wan white humming hive | - |
| As the moon wastes down and the dawn turns cold | B |
| And one by one they creep back to the fold | B |
| And where should a man hold his mate and say | M |
| One more one more ere we go their way | M |
| For the year's on the turn and it's All Souls' night | B |
| When the living can learn by the churchyard light | B |
| - | |
| VII | - |
| - | |
| And how should we break faith who have seen | J |
| Those dead lips plight with the mist between | J |
| And how forget who have seen how soon | N |
| They lie thus chambered and cold to the moon | N |
| How scorn how hate how strive wee too | B |
| Who must do so soon as those others do | B |
| For it's All Souls' night and break of the day | M |
| And behold with the light the dead are away | M |
Edith Wharton
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about All Souls poem by Edith Wharton
Best Poems of Edith Wharton