The Black Birds Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDCBDEFGEGHFII JKJLMMNOBO PPQRPRQASTJUUSVWXWWX WXX A YZYA2ZA2IIB2SSB2SWSW SSWSWWW

IA
-
Once only once I saw it clearB
That Eden every human heart has dreamedC
A hundred times but always far awayD
Ah well do I remember how it seemedC
Through the still atmosphereB
Of that enchanted dayD
To lie wide open to my weary feetE
A little land of love and joy and restF
With meadows of soft greenG
Rosy with cyclamen and sweetE
With delicate breath of violets unseenG
And tranquil 'mid the bloomH
As if it waited for a coming guestF
A little house of peace and joy and loveI
Was nested like a snow white doveI
-
From the rough mountain where I stoodJ
Homesick for happinessK
Only a narrow valley and a darkling woodJ
To cross and then the long distressL
Of solitude would be forever pastM
I should be home at lastM
But not too soon oh let me linger hereN
And feed my eyes hungry with sorrowO
On all this loveliness so nearB
And mine to morrowO
-
Then from the wood across the silvery blueP
A dark bird flewP
Silent with sable wingsQ
Close in his wake another cameR
Fragments of midnight floating throughP
The sunset flameR
Another and another weaving ringsQ
Of blackness on the primrose skyA
Another and another look a scoreS
A hundred yes a thousand rising heavilyT
From that accursed dumb and ancient woodJ
They boiled into the lucid airU
Like smoke from some deep caldron of despairU
And more and more and ever moreS
The numberless ill omened broodV
Flapping their ragged plumesW
Possessed the landscape and the evening lightX
With menaces and gloomsW
Oh dark dark dark they hovered o'er the placeW
Where once I saw the little house so whiteX
Amid the flowers covering every traceW
Of beauty from my troubled sightX
And suddenly it was nightX
-
-
IIA
-
At break of day I crossed the wooded valeY
And while the morning madeZ
A trembling light among the tree tops paleY
I saw the sable birds on every limbA2
Clinging together closely in the shadeZ
And croaking placidly their surly hymnA2
But oh the little land of peace and loveI
That those night loving wings had poised aboveI
Where was it goneB2
Lost lost forevermoreS
Only a cottage dull and grayS
In the cold light of dawnB2
With iron bars across the doorS
Only a garden where the withering headsW
Of flowers presaging decayS
Hung over barren bedsW
Only a desolate field that layS
Untilled beneath the desolate dayS
Where Eden seemed to bloom I found but theseW
So wondering I passed along my wayS
With anger in my heart too deep for wordsW
Against that grove of evil sheltering treesW
And the black magic of the croaking birdsW

Henry Van Dyke



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