Two Portraits Poem Rhyme Scheme

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 0 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Wonderful Women
by Umaru Kanneh Boima
Freedom To Scratch In Peace
by Olute Aete
Happy New Year
by Felix Menda
Human Beings
by Dana Graslie
Lust
by Wisdom Greatness
An Isolated Tree's Song
by Sayeed Abubakar
A Strange Boy
by Sayeed Abubakar
O Soil
by Sayeed Abubakar
No War, No War-monger
by Sayeed Abubakar
Night's Town
by Sayeed Abubakar

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2414 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)

Henry Timrod

Two Portraits Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Write your comment about Two Portraits poem by Henry Timrod

Recent Interactions*

New Poems

Popular Poets

You say as one who shapes a life	A
That you will never be a wife	A
	-
And laughing lightly ask my aid	B
To paint your future as a maid	B
	-
This is the portrait and I take	C
The softest colors for your sake	C
	-
The springtime of your soul is dead	D
And forty years have bent your head	D
	-
The lines are firmer round your mouth	E
But still its smile is like the South	E
	-
Your eyes grown deeper are not sad	F
Yet never more than gravely glad	F
	-
And the old charm still lurks within	G
The cloven dimple of your chin	G
	-
Some share perhaps of youthful gloss	H
Your cheek hath shed but still across	H
	-
The delicate ear are folded down	I
Those silken locks of chestnut brown	I
	-
Though here and there a thread of gray	J
Steals through them like a lunar ray	J
	-
One might suppose your life had passed	K
Unvexed by any troubling blast	K
	-
And such for all that I foreknow	I
May be the truth The deeper woe	L
	-
A loveless heart is seldom stirred	M
And sorrow shuns the mateless bird	M
	-
But ah through cares alone we reach	N
The happiness which mocketh speech	N
	-
In the white courts beyond the stars	O
The noblest brow is seamed with scars	O
	-
And they on earth who've wept the most	P
Sit highest of the heavenly host	P
	-
Grant that your maiden life hath sped	D
In music o'er a golden bed	D
	-
With rocks and winds and storms at truce	Q
And not without a noble use	Q
	-
Yet are you happy In your air	R
I see a nameless want appear	S
	-
And a faint shadow on your cheek	T
Tells what the lips refuse to speak	T
	-
You have had all a maid could hope	U
In the most cloudless horoscope	U
	-
The strength that cometh from above	V
A Christian mother's holy love	V
	-
And always at your soul's demand	W
A brother's sister's heart and hand	W
	-
Small need your heart hath had to roam	X
Beyond the circle of your home	X
	-
And yet upon your wish attends	Y
A loving throng of genial friends	Y
	-
What in a lot so sweet as this	Z
Is wanting to complete your bliss	Z
	-
And to what secret shall I trace	A2
The clouds that sometimes cross your face	A2
	-
And that sad look which now and then	I
Comes disappears and comes again	I
	-
And dies reluctantly away	J
In those clear eyes of azure gray	J
	-
At best and after all the place	A2
You fill with such a serious grace	A2
	-
Hath much to try a woman's heart	B2
And you but play a painful part	B2
	-
The world around with little ruth	C2
Still laughs at maids who have not youth	C2
	-
And right or wrong the old maid rests	D2
The victim of its paltry jests	D2
	-
And still is doomed to meet and bear	R
Its pitying smile or furtive sneer	S
	-
These are indeed but petty things	E2
And yet they touch some hearts like stings	E2
	-
But I acquit you of the shame	F2
Of being unresisting game	F2
	-
For you are of such tempered clay	J
As turns far stronger shafts away	J
	-
And all that foes or fools could guide	G2
Would only curl that lip of pride	G2
	-
How then O weary one explain	I
The sources of that hidden pain	I
	-
Alas you have divined at length	H2
How little you have used your strength	H2
	-
Which with who knows what human good	I2
Lies buried in that maidenhood	I2
	-
Where as amid a field of flowers	J2
You have but played with April showers	J2
	-
Ah we would wish the world less fair	R
If Spring alone adorned the year	S
	-
And Autumn came not with its fruit	I2
And Autumn hymns were ever mute	I2
	-
So I remark without surprise	K2
That as the unvarying season flies	K2
	-
From day to night and night to day	I2
You sicken of your endless May	I2
	-
In this poor life we may not cross	H
One virtuous instinct without loss	H
	-
And the soul grows not to its height	I2
Till love calls forth its utmost might	I2
	-
Not blind to all you might have been	I
And with some consciousness of sin	I
	-
Because with love you sometimes played	I2
And choice not fate hath kept you maid	I2
	-
You feel that you must pass from earth	L2
But half acquainted with its worth	L2
	-
And that within your heart are deeps	H
In which a nobler woman sleeps	H
	-
That not the maiden but the wife	A
Grasps the whole lesson of a life	A
	-
While such as you but sit and dream	M2
Along the surface of its stream	M2
	-
And doubtless sometimes all unsought	I2
There comes upon your hour of thought	I2
	-
Despite the struggles of your will	N2
A sense of something absent still	N2
	-
And then you cannot help but yearn	I
To love and be beloved in turn	I
	-
As they are loved and love who live	O2
As love were all that life could give	P2
	-
And in a transient clasp or kiss	H
Crowd an eternity of bliss	H
	-
They who of every mortal joy	Q2
Taste always twice nor feel them cloy	Q2
	-
Or if woes come in Sorrow's hour	R2
Are strengthened by a double power	R2
	-
	-
II	-
	-
Here ends my feeble sketch of what	I2
Might but will never be your lot	I2
	-
And I foresee how oft these rhymes	H
Shall make you smile in after times	H
	-
If I have read your nature right	I2
It only waits a spark of light	I2
	-
And when that comes as come it must	I2
It will not fall on arid dust	I2
	-
Nor yet on that which breaks to flame	F2
In the first blush of maiden shame	F2
	-
But on a heart which even at rest	I2
Is warmer than an April nest	I2
	-
Where settling soft that spark shall creep	S2
About as gently as a sleep	S2
	-
Still stealing on with pace so slow	L
Yourself will scarcely feel the glow	L
	-
Till after many and many a day	I2
Although no gleam its course betray	I2
	-
It shall attain the inmost shrine	I
And wrap it in a fire divine	I
	-
I know not when or whence indeed	I2
Shall fall and burst the burning seed	I2
	-
But oh once kindled it will blaze	H
I know forever By its rays	H
	-
You will perceive with subtler eyes	H
The meaning in the earth and skies	H
	-
Which with their animated chain	I
Of grass and flowers and sun and rain	I
	-
Of green below and blue above	V
Are but a type of married love	V
	-
You will perceive that in the breast	I2
The germs of many virtues rest	I2
	-
Which ere they feel a lover's breath	T2
Lie in a temporary death	T2
	-
And till the heart is wooed and won	I
It is an earth without a sun	I
	-
	-
III	-
	-
But now stand forth as sweet as life	A
And let me paint you as a wife	A
	-
I note some changes in your face	H
And in your mien a graver grace	H
	-
Yet the calm forehead lightly bears	H
Its weight of twice a score of years	H
	-
And that one love which on this earth	L2
Can wake the heart to all its worth	L2
	-
And to their height can lift and bind	I2
The powers of soul and sense and mind	I2
	-
Hath not allowed a charm to fade	I2
And the wife's lovelier than the maid	I2
	-
An air of still though bright repose	H
Tells that a tender hand bestows	H
	-
All that a generous manhood may	I2
To make your life one bridal day	I2
	-
While the kind eyes betray no less	H
In their blue depths of tenderness	H
	-
That you have learned the truths which lie	U2
Behind that holy mystery	V2
	-
Which with its blisses and its woes	H
Nor man nor maiden ever knows	H
	-
If now as to the eyes of one	I
Whose glance not even thought can shun	I
	-
Your soul lay open to my view	W2
I looking all its nature through	W2
	-
Could see no incompleted part	I2
For the whole woman warms your heart	I2
	-
I cannot tell how many dead	I2
You number in the cycles fled	I2
	-
And you but look the more serene	I
For all the griefs you may have seen	I
	-
As you had gathered from the dust	I2
The flowers of Peace and Hope and Trust	I2
	-
Your smile is even sweeter now	I
Than when it lit your maiden brow	I
	-
And that which wakes this gentler charm	X2
Coos at this moment on your arm	X2
	-
Your voice was always soft in youth	C2
And had the very sound of truth	C2
	-
But never were its tones so mild	I2
Until you blessed your earliest child	I2
	-
And when to soothe some little wrong	Y2
It melts into a mother's song	Y2
	-
The same strange sweetness which in years	H
Long vanished filled the eyes with tears	H
	-
And even when mirthful gave always	H
A pathos to your girlish lays	H
	-
Falls with perchance a deeper thrill	N2
Upon the breathless listener still	N2
	-
I cannot guess in what fair spot	I2
The chance of Time hath fixed your lot	I2
	-
Nor can I name what manly breast	I2
Gives to that head a welcome rest	I2
	-
I cannot tell if partial Fate	I2
Hath made you poor or r	Z2