The Lark Ascending Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGHDDIIJJ KKLLMMNOLLPPHGQQLLRS TTUVDDWWXXDDDDYYLLDD DDZZ DDA2A2DDYYYYDDDDB2B2 LLC2C2DDD2D2ZZZZLLDD DD GHZZZZYYE2E2ZZZZYYDD DDF2F2DDHe rises and begins to round | A |
He drops the silver chain of sound | A |
Of many links without a break | B |
In chirrup whistle slur and shake | B |
All intervolv d and spreading wide | C |
Like water dimples down a tide | C |
Where ripple ripple overcurls | D |
And eddy into eddy whirls | D |
A press of hurried notes that run | E |
So fleet they scarce are more than one | E |
Yet changingly the trills repeat | F |
And linger ringing while they fleet | F |
Sweet to the quick o the ear and dear | G |
To her beyond the handmaid ear | H |
Who sits beside our inner springs | D |
Too often dry for this he brings | D |
Which seems the very jet of earth | I |
At sight of sun her musci s mirth | I |
As up he wings the spiral stair | J |
A song of light and pierces air | J |
With fountain ardor fountain play | K |
To reach the shining tops of day | K |
And drink in everything discern d | L |
An ecstasy to music turn d | L |
Impell d by what his happy bill | M |
Disperses drinking showering still | M |
Unthinking save that he may give | N |
His voice the outlet there to live | O |
Renew d in endless notes of glee | L |
So thirsty of his voice is he | L |
For all to hear and all to know | P |
That he is joy awake aglow | P |
The tumult of the heart to hear | H |
Through pureness filter d crystal clear | G |
And know the pleasure sprinkled bright | Q |
By simple singing of delight | Q |
Shrill irreflective unrestrain d | L |
Rapt ringing on the jet sustain d | L |
Without a break without a fall | R |
Sweet silvery sheer lyrical | S |
Perennial quavering up the chord | T |
Like myriad dews of sunny sward | T |
That trembling into fulness shine | U |
And sparkle dropping argentine | V |
Such wooing as the ear receives | D |
From zephyr caught in choric leaves | D |
Of aspens when their chattering net | W |
Is flush d to white with shivers wet | W |
And such the water spirit s chime | X |
On mountain heights in morning s prime | X |
Too freshly sweet to seem excess | D |
Too animate to need a stress | D |
But wider over many heads | D |
The starry voice ascending spreads | D |
Awakening as it waxes thin | Y |
The best in us to him akin | Y |
And every face to watch him rais d | L |
Puts on the light of children prais d | L |
So rich our human pleasure ripes | D |
When sweetness on sincereness pipes | D |
Though nought be promis d from the seas | D |
But only a soft ruffling breeze | D |
Sweep glittering on a still content | Z |
Serenity in ravishment | Z |
- | |
For singing till his heaven fills | D |
T is love of earth that he instils | D |
And ever winging up and up | A2 |
Our valley is his golden cup | A2 |
And he the wine which overflows | D |
To lift us with him as he goes | D |
The woods and brooks the sheep and kine | Y |
He is the hills the human line | Y |
The meadows green the fallows brown | Y |
The dreams of labor in the town | Y |
He sings the sap the quicken d veins | D |
The wedding song of sun and rains | D |
He is the dance of children thanks | D |
Of sowers shout of primrose banks | D |
And eye of violets while they breathe | B2 |
All these the circling song will wreathe | B2 |
And you shall hear the herb and tree | L |
The better heart of men shall see | L |
Shall feel celestially as long | C2 |
As you crave nothing save the song | C2 |
Was never voice of ours could say | D |
Our inmost in the sweetest way | D |
Like yonder voice aloft and link | D2 |
All hearers in the song they drink | D2 |
Our wisdom speaks from failing blood | Z |
Our passion is too full in flood | Z |
We want the key of his wild note | Z |
Of truthful in a tuneful throat | Z |
The song seraphically free | L |
Of taint of personality | L |
So pure that it salutes the suns | D |
The voice of one for millions | D |
In whom the millions rejoice | D |
For giving their one spirit voice | D |
- | |
Yet men have we whom we revere | G |
Now names and men still housing here | H |
Whose lives by many a battle dint | Z |
Defaced and grinding wheels on flint | Z |
Yield substance though they sing not sweet | Z |
For song our highest heaven to greet | Z |
Whom heavenly singing gives us new | Y |
Enspheres them brilliant in our blue | Y |
From firmest base to farthest leap | E2 |
Because their love of Earth is deep | E2 |
And they are warriors in accord | Z |
With life to serve and pass reward | Z |
So touching purest and so heard | Z |
In the brain s reflex of yon bird | Z |
Wherefore their soul in me or mine | Y |
Through self forgetfulness divine | Y |
In them that song aloft maintains | D |
To fill the sky and thrill the plains | D |
With showerings drawn from human stores | D |
As he to silence nearer soars | D |
Extends the world at wings and dome | F2 |
More spacious making more our home | F2 |
Till lost on his a rial rings | D |
In light and then the fancy sings | D |
George Meredith
(1)
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