In The Harbour: The Poet's Calendar Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC CDCD A EFEFFDFG H IJIJJKJK L MNMNNFNF O PQPQQOQO R EQEQQSQT U VWVWWXWX Y YPYPPZPA2 B2 QQQQQC2QC2 B2 QFQFFQFQ B2 UQUQQFQF B2 XEXEEGEJANUARY | A |
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Janus am I oldest of potentates | B |
Forward I look and backward and below | C |
I count as god of avenues and gates | B |
The years that through my portals come and go | C |
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I block the roads and drift the fields with snow | C |
I chase the wild fowl from the frozen fen | D |
My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow | C |
My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men | D |
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FEBRUARY | A |
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I am lustration and the sea is mine | E |
I wash the sands and headlands with my tide | F |
My brow is crowned with branches of the pine | E |
Before my chariot wheels the fishes glide | F |
By me all things unclean are purified | F |
By me the souls of men washed white again | D |
E'en the unlovely tombs of those who died | F |
Without a dirge I cleanse from every stain | G |
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MARCH | H |
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I Martius am Once first and now the third | I |
To lead the Year was my appointed place | J |
A mortal dispossessed me by a word | I |
And set there Janus with the double face | J |
Hence I make war on all the human race | J |
I shake the cities with my hurricanes | K |
I flood the rivers and their banks efface | J |
And drown the farms and hamlets with my rains | K |
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APRIL | L |
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I open wide the portals of the Spring | M |
To welcome the procession of the flowers | N |
With their gay banners and the birds that sing | M |
Their song of songs from their aerial towers | N |
I soften with my sunshine and my showers | N |
The heart of earth with thoughts of love I glide | F |
Into the hearts of men and with the Hours | N |
Upon the Bull with wreathed horns I ride | F |
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MAY | O |
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Hark The sea faring wild fowl loud proclaim | P |
My coming and the swarming of the bees | Q |
These are my heralds and behold my name | P |
Is written in blossoms on the hawthorn trees | Q |
I tell the mariner when to sail the seas | Q |
I waft o'er all the land from far away | O |
The breath and bloom of the Hesperides | Q |
My birthplace I am Maia I am May | O |
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JUNE | R |
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Mine is the Month of Roses yes and mine | E |
The Month of Marriages All pleasant sights | Q |
And scents the fragrance of the blossoming vine | E |
The foliage of the valleys and the heights | Q |
Mine are the longest days the loveliest nights | Q |
The mower's scythe makes music to my ear | S |
I am the mother of all dear delights | Q |
I am the fairest daughter of the year | T |
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JULY | U |
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My emblem is the Lion and I breathe | V |
The breath of Libyan deserts o'er the land | W |
My sickle as a sabre I unsheathe | V |
And bent before me the pale harvests stand | W |
The lakes and rivers shrink at my command | W |
And there is thirst and fever in the air | X |
The sky is changed to brass the earth to sand | W |
I am the Emperor whose name I bear | X |
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AUGUST | Y |
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The Emperor Octavian called the August | Y |
I being his favorite bestowed his name | P |
Upon me and I hold it still in trust | Y |
In memory of him and of his fame | P |
I am the Virgin and my vestal flame | P |
Burns less intensely than the Lion's rage | Z |
Sheaves are my only garlands and I claim | P |
The golden Harvests as my heritage | A2 |
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SEPTEMBER | B2 |
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I bear the Scales where hang in equipoise | Q |
The night and day and when unto my lips | Q |
I put my trumpet with its stress and noise | Q |
Fly the white clouds like tattered sails of ships | Q |
The tree tops lash the air with sounding whips | Q |
Southward the clamorous sea fowl wing their flight | C2 |
The hedges are all red with haws and hips | Q |
The Hunter's Moon reigns empress of the night | C2 |
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OCTOBER | B2 |
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My ornaments are fruits my garments leaves | Q |
Woven like cloth of gold and crimson dyed | F |
I do not boast the harvesting of sheaves | Q |
O'er orchards and o'er vineyards I preside | F |
Though on the frigid Scorpion I ride | F |
The dreamy air is full and overflows | Q |
With tender memories of the summer tide | F |
And mingled voices of the doves and crows | Q |
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NOVEMBER | B2 |
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The Centaur Sagittarius am I | U |
Born of Ixion's and the cloud's embrace | Q |
With sounding hoofs across the earth I fly | U |
A steed Thessalian with a human face | Q |
Sharp winds the arrows are with which I chase | Q |
The leaves half dead already with affright | F |
I shroud myself in gloom and to the race | Q |
Of mortals bring nor comfort nor delight | F |
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DECEMBER | B2 |
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Riding upon the Goat with snow white hair | X |
I come the last of all This crown of mine | E |
Is of the holly in my hand I bear | X |
The thyrsus tipped with fragrant cones of pine | E |
I celebrate the birth of the Divine | E |
And the return of the Saturnian reign | G |
My songs are carols sung at every shrine | E |
Proclaiming 'Peace on earth good will to men ' | - |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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