Monte Cassino - Terra Di Lavoro Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD AEAE FGFG HIHI AFAF J KJK LMLN OPOP AQAQ RPRP STST UVUV WAWA PPPP XPXP YWYW QPQP ZAZA PA2PA2 B2C2B2C2

Beautiful valley through whose verdant meadsA
Unheard the Garigliano glides alongB
The Liris nurse of rushes and of reedsA
The river taciturn of classic songB
-
The Land of Labor and the Land of RestC
Where mediaeval towns are white on allD
The hillsides and where every mountain's crestC
Is an Etrurian or a Roman wallD
-
There is Alagna where Pope BonifaceA
Was dragged with contumely from his throneE
Sciarra Colonna was that day's disgraceA
The Pontiff's only or in part thine ownE
-
There is Ceprano where a renegadeF
Was each Apulian as great Dante saithG
When Manfred by his men at arms betrayedF
Spurred on to Benevento and to deathG
-
There is Aquinum the old Volscian townH
Where Juvenal was born whose lurid lightI
Still hovers o'er his birthplace like the crownH
Of splendor seen o'er cities in the nightI
-
Doubled the splendor is that in its streetsA
The Angelic Doctor as a school boy playedF
And dreamed perhaps the dreams that he repeatsA
In ponderous folios for scholastics madeF
-
And there uplifted like a passing cloudJ
-
That pauses on a mountain summit highK
Monte Cassino's convent rears its proudJ
And venerable walls against the skyK
-
Well I remember how on foot I climbedL
The stony pathway leading to its gateM
Above the convent bells for vespers chimedL
Below the darkening town grew desolateN
-
Well I remember the low arch and darkO
The court yard with its well the terrace wideP
From which far down the valley like a parkO
Veiled in the evening mists was dim descriedP
-
The day was dying and with feeble handsA
Caressed the mountain tops the vales betweenQ
Darkened the river in the meadowlandsA
Sheathed itself as a sword and was not seenQ
-
The silence of the place was like a sleepR
So full of rest it seemed each passing treadP
Was a reverberation from the deepR
Recesses of the ages that are deadP
-
For more than thirteen centuries agoS
Benedict fleeing from the gates of RomeT
A youth disgusted with its vice and woeS
Sought in these mountain solitudes a homeT
-
He founded here his Convent and his RuleU
Of prayer and work and counted work as prayerV
The pen became a clarion and his schoolU
Flamed like a beacon in the midnight airV
-
What though Boccaccio in his reckless wayW
Mocking the lazy brotherhood deploresA
The illuminated manuscripts that layW
Torn and neglected on the dusty floorsA
-
Boccaccio was a novelist a childP
Of fancy and of fiction at the bestP
This the urbane librarian said and smiledP
Incredulous as at some idle jestP
-
Upon such themes as these with one young friarX
I sat conversing late into the nightP
Till in its cavernous chimney the woodfireX
Had burnt its heart out like an anchoriteP
-
And then translated in my convent cellY
Myself yet not myself in dreams I layW
And as a monk who hears the matin bellY
Started from sleep already it was dayW
-
From the high window I beheld the sceneQ
On which Saint Benedict so oft had gazedP
The mountains and the valley in the sheenQ
Of the bright sun and stood as one amazedP
-
Gray mists were rolling rising vanishingZ
The woodlands glistened with their jewelled crownsA
Far off the mellow bells began to ringZ
For matins in the half awakened townsA
-
The conflict of the Present and the PastP
The ideal and the actual in our lifeA2
As on a field of battle held me fastP
Where this world and the next world were at strifeA2
-
For as the valley from its sleep awokeB2
I saw the iron horses of the steamC2
Toss to the morning air their plumes of smokeB2
And woke as one awaketh from a dreamC2

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



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