Footfalls Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDC EFE GHG IJIJ KLKL MNMN OAOA PQPQ CRCR SSTS| The embers were blinking and clinking away | A |
| The casement half open was thrown | B |
| There was nothing but cloud on the skirts of the Day | A |
| And I sat on the threshold alone | B |
| - | |
| And said to the river which flowed by my door | C |
| With its beautiful face to the hill | D |
| 'I have waited and waited all wearied and sore | C |
| But my love is a wanderer still ' | - |
| - | |
| And said to the wind as it paused in its flight | E |
| To look through the shivering pane | F |
| 'There are memories moaning and homeless to night | E |
| That can never be tranquil again ' | - |
| - | |
| And said to the woods as their burdens were borne | G |
| With a flutter and sigh to the eaves | H |
| 'They are wrinkled and wasted and tattered and torn | G |
| And we too have our withering leaves ' | - |
| - | |
| Did I hear a low echo of footfalls about | I |
| Whilst watching those forest trees stark | J |
| Or was it a dream that I hurried without | I |
| To clutch at and grapple the dark | J |
| - | |
| In the shadow I stood for a moment and spake | K |
| 'Bright thing that was loved in the past | L |
| Oh am I asleep or abroad and awake | K |
| And are you so near me at last | L |
| - | |
| 'Oh roamer from lands where the vanished years go | M |
| Oh waif from those mystical zones | N |
| Come here where I long for you broken and low | M |
| On the mosses and watery stones | N |
| - | |
| 'Come out of your silence and tell me if Life | O |
| Is so fair in that world as they say | A |
| Was it worth all this yearning and weeping and strife | O |
| When you left it behind you to day | A |
| - | |
| 'Will it end all this watching and doubting and dread | P |
| Do these sorrows die out with our breath | Q |
| Will they pass from our souls like a nightmare ' I said | P |
| 'While we glide through the mazes of Death | Q |
| - | |
| 'Come out of that darkness and teach me the lore | C |
| You have learned since I looked on your face | R |
| By the summers that blossomed and faded of yore | C |
| By the lights which have fled to that place | R |
| - | |
| 'You answer me not when I know that you could | S |
| When I know that you could and you should | S |
| Though the storms be abroad on the wave | T |
| Though the rain droppeth down with a wail to the wood | S |
| And my heart is as cold as your grave ' | - |
Henry Kendall
(1)
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