The Two Rivers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBAABBACDECDE FGDDGGDDGHIJHIJ FCKKCCKKCLMNLMN OKPPKKPPKQRKQRK| Slowly the hour hand of the clock moves round | A |
| So slowly that no human eye hath power | B |
| To see it move Slowly in shine or shower | B |
| The painted ship above it homeward bound | A |
| Sails but seems motionless as if aground | A |
| Yet both arrive at last and in his tower | B |
| The slumberous watchman wakes and strikes the hour | B |
| A mellow measured melancholy sound | A |
| Midnight the outpost of advancing day | C |
| The frontier town and citadel of night | D |
| The watershed of Time from which the streams | E |
| Of Yesterday and To morrow take their way | C |
| One to the land of promise and of light | D |
| One to the land of darkness and of dreams | E |
| - | |
| II | F |
| O River of Yesterday with current swift | G |
| Through chasms descending and soon lost to sight | D |
| I do not care to follow in their flight | D |
| The faded leaves that on thy bosom drift | G |
| O River of To morrow I uplift | G |
| Mine eyes and thee I follow as the night | D |
| Wanes into morning and the dawning light | D |
| Broadens and all the shadows fade and shift | G |
| I follow follow where thy waters run | H |
| Through unfrequented unfamiliar fields | I |
| Fragrant with flowers and musical with song | J |
| Still follow follow sure to meet the sun | H |
| And confident that what the future yields | I |
| Will be the right unless myself be wrong | J |
| - | |
| III | F |
| Yet not in vain O River of Yesterday | C |
| Through chasms of darkness to the deep descending | K |
| I heard thee sobbing in the rain and blending | K |
| Thy voice with other voices far away | C |
| I called to thee and yet thou wouldst not stay | C |
| But turbulent and with thyself contending | K |
| And torrent like thy force on pebbles spending | K |
| Thou wouldst not listen to a poet's lay | C |
| Thoughts like a loud and sudden rush of wings | L |
| Regrets and recollections of things past | M |
| With hints and prophecies of things to be | N |
| And inspirations which could they be things | L |
| And stay with us and we could hold them fast | M |
| Were our good angels these I owe to thee | N |
| - | |
| IV | O |
| And thou O River of To morrow flowing | K |
| Between thy narrow adamantine walls | P |
| But beautiful and white with waterfalls | P |
| And wreaths of mist like hands the pathway showing | K |
| I hear the trumpets of the morning blowing | K |
| I hear thy mighty voice that calls and calls | P |
| And see as Ossian saw in Morven's halls | P |
| Mysterious phantoms coming beckoning going | K |
| It is the mystery of the unknown | Q |
| That fascinates us we are children still | R |
| Wayward and wistful with one hand we cling | K |
| To the familiar things we call our own | Q |
| And with the other resolute of will | R |
| Grope in the dark for what the day will bring | K |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The Two Rivers
The Two Rivers is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Two Rivers poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Best Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow