The Forest Sanctuary - Part I. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCDDCEF AGHGHIIHJJ AKLKLMMLNN LGOGPGGPQQ LDRDRSSRTT LHMHMGGMUU LVWVWXXWJJ LLYLYZZYKK YA2QA2QYYB2HH YC2RC2RD2D2RGG YE2GF2GGGGYY YYRYRPORYY YJUJG2H2H2UGG LE2QE2QYYQRR LI2UI2UJ2J2UCC LKK2KK2GGK2L2L2 LRLRYM2N2LO2O2 LGZGZLLZBB YD2K2D2K2P2I | A |
The voices of my home I hear them still | B |
They have been with me through the dreamy night | C |
The blessed household voices wont to fill | B |
My heart's clear depths with unalloy'd delight | C |
I hear them still unchang'd though some from earth | D |
Are music parted and the tones of mirth | D |
Wild silvery tones that rang through days more bright | C |
Have died in others yet to me they come | E |
Singing of boyhood back the voices of my home | F |
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II | A |
They call me through this hush of woods reposing | G |
In the grey stillness of the summer morn | H |
They wander by when heavy flowers are closing | G |
And thoughts grow deep and winds and stars are born | H |
Ev'n as a fount's remember'd gushings burst | I |
On the parch'd traveller in his hour of thirst | I |
E'en thus they haunt me with sweet sounds till worn | H |
By quenchless longings to my soul I say | J |
Oh for the dove's swift wings that I might flee away | J |
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III | A |
And find mine ark yet whither I must bear | K |
A yearning heart within me to the grave | L |
I am of those o'er whom a breath of air | K |
Just darkening in its course the lake's bright wave | L |
And sighing through the feathery canes hath power | M |
To call up shadows in the silent hour | M |
From the dim past as from a wizard's cave | L |
So must it be These skies above me spread | N |
Are they my own soft skies Ye rest not here my dead | N |
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IV | L |
Ye far amidst the southern flowers lie sleeping | G |
Your graves all smiling in the sunshine clear | O |
Save one a blue lone distant main is sweeping | G |
High o'er one gentle head ye rest not here | P |
'Tis not the olive with a whisper swaying | G |
Not thy low ripplings glassy water playing | G |
Through my own chesnut groves which fill mine ear | P |
But the faint echoes in my breast that dwell | Q |
And for their birth place moan as moans the ocean shell | Q |
- | |
V | L |
Peace I will dash these fond regrets to earth | D |
Ev'n as an eagle shakes the cumbering rain | R |
From his strong pinion Thou that gav'st me birth | D |
And lineage and once home my native Spain | R |
My own bright land my father's land my child's | S |
What hath thy son brought from thee to the wilds | S |
He hath brought marks of torture and the chain | R |
Traces of things which pass not as a breeze | T |
A blighted name dark thoughts wrath woe thy gifts are these | T |
- | |
VI | L |
A blighted name I hear the winds of morn | H |
Their sounds are not of this I hear the shiver | M |
Of the green reeds and all the rustlings borne | H |
From the high forest when the light leaves quiver | M |
Their sounds are not of this the cedars waving | G |
Lend it no tone His wide savannahs laving | G |
It is not murmur'd by the joyous river | M |
What part hath mortal name where God alone | U |
Speaks to the mighty waste and through its heart is known | U |
- | |
VII | L |
Is it not much that I may worship Him | V |
With nought my spirit's breathings to control | W |
And feel His presence in the vast and dim | V |
And whispery woods where dying thunders roll | W |
From the far cataracts Shall I not rejoice | X |
That I have learn'd at last to know His voice | X |
From man's I will rejoice my soaring soul | W |
Now hath redeem'd her birth right of the day | J |
And won through clouds to Him her own unfetter'd way | J |
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VIII | L |
And thou my boy that silent at my knee | L |
Dost lift to mine thy soft dark earnest eyes | Y |
Fill'd with the love of childhood which I see | L |
Pure through its depths a thing without disguise | Y |
Thou that hast breath'd in slumber on my breast | Z |
When I have check'd its throbs to give thee rest | Z |
Mine own whose young thoughts fresh before me rise | Y |
Is it not much that I may guide thy prayer | K |
And circle thy glad soul with free and healthful air | K |
- | |
IX | Y |
Why should I weep on thy bright head my boy | A2 |
Within thy fathers' halls thou wilt not dwell | Q |
Nor lift their banner with a warrior's joy | A2 |
Amidst the sons of mountain chiefs who fell | Q |
For Spain of old Yet what if rolling waves | Y |
Have borne us far from our ancestral graves | Y |
Thou shalt not feel thy bursting heart rebel | B2 |
As mine hath done nor bear what I have borne | H |
Casting in falsehood's mould th' indignant brow of scorn | H |
- | |
X | Y |
This shall not be thy lot my blessed child | C2 |
I have not sorrow'd struggled liv'd in vain | R |
Hear me magnificent and ancient wild | C2 |
And mighty rivers ye that meet the main | R |
As deep meets deep and forests whose dim shade | D2 |
The flood's voice and the wind's by swells pervade | D2 |
Hear me 'tis well to die and not complain | R |
Yet there are hours when the charg'd heart must speak | G |
Ev'n in the desert's ear to pour itself or break | G |
- | |
XI | Y |
I see an oak before me it hath been | E2 |
The crown'd one of the woods and might have flung | G |
Its hundred arms to Heaven still freshly green | F2 |
But a wild vine around the stem hath clung | G |
From branch to branch close wreaths of bondage throwing | G |
Till the proud tree before no tempest bowing | G |
Hath shrunk and died those serpent folds among | G |
Alas alas what is it that I see | Y |
An image of man's mind land of my sires with thee | Y |
- | |
XII | Y |
Yet art thou lovely Song is on thy hills | Y |
Oh sweet and mournful melodies of Spain | R |
That lull'd my boyhood how your memory thrills | Y |
The exile's heart with sudden wakening pain | R |
Your sounds are on the rocks that I might hear | P |
Once more the music of the mountaineer | O |
And from the sunny vales the shepherd's strain | R |
Floats out and fills the solitary place | Y |
With the old tuneful names of Spain's heroic race | Y |
- | |
XIII | Y |
But there was silence one bright golden day | J |
Through my own pine hung mountains Clear yet lone | U |
In the rich autumn light the vineyards lay | J |
And from the fields the peasant's voice was gone | G2 |
And the red grapes untrodden strew'd the ground | H2 |
And the free flocks untended roam'd around | H2 |
Where was the pastor where the pipe's wild tone | U |
Music and mirth were hush'd the hills among | G |
While to the city's gates each hamlet pour'd its throng | G |
- | |
XIV | L |
Silence upon the mountains But within | E2 |
The city's gates a rush a press a swell | Q |
Of multitudes their torrent way to win | E2 |
And heavy boomings of a dull deep bell | Q |
A dead pause following each like that which parts | Y |
The dash of billows holding breathless hearts | Y |
Fast in the hush of fear knell after knell | Q |
And sounds of thickening steps like thunder rain | R |
That plashes on the roof of some vast echoing fane | R |
- | |
XV | L |
What pageant's hour approach'd The sullen gate | I2 |
Of a strong ancient prison house was thrown | U |
Back to the day And who in mournful state | I2 |
Came forth led slowly o'er its threshold stone | U |
They that had learn'd in cells of secret gloom | J2 |
How sunshine is forgotten They to whom | J2 |
The very features of mankind were grown | U |
Things that bewilder'd O'er their dazzled sight | C |
They lifted their wan hands and cower'd before the light | C |
- | |
XVI | L |
To this man brings his brother Some were there | K |
Who with their desolation had entwin'd | K2 |
Fierce strength and girt the sternness of despair | K |
Fast round their bosoms ev'n as warriors bind | K2 |
The breast plate on for fight but brow and cheek | G |
Seem'd theirs a torturing panoply to speak | G |
And there were some from whom the very mind | K2 |
Had been wrung out they smil'd oh startling smile | L2 |
Whence man's high soul is fled where doth it sleep the while | L2 |
- | |
XVII | L |
But onward moved the melancholy train | R |
For their false creeds in fiery pangs to die | L |
This was the solemn sacrifice of Spain | R |
Heaven's offering from the land of chivalry | Y |
Through thousands thousands of their race they mov'd | M2 |
Oh how unlike all others the belov'd | N2 |
The free the proud the beautiful whose eye | L |
Grew fix'd before them while a people's breath | O2 |
Was hush'd and its one soul bound in the thought of death | O2 |
- | |
XVIII | L |
It might be that amidst the countless throng | G |
There swell'd some heart with Pity's weight oppress'd | Z |
For the wide stream of human love is strong | G |
And woman on whose fond and faithful breast | Z |
Childhood is rear'd and at whose knee the sigh | L |
Of its first prayer is breath'd she too was nigh | L |
But life is dear and the free footstep bless'd | Z |
And home a sunny place where each may fill | B |
Some eye with glistening smiles and therefore all were still | B |
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XIX | Y |
All still youth courage strength a winter laid | D2 |
A chain of palsy cast on might and mind | K2 |
Still as at noon a southern forest's shade | D2 |
They stood those breathless masses of mankind | K2 |
Still as a | P2 |
Felicia Dorothea Hemans
(1)
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