Three Friends Of Mine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BCCBBCCBDEFDEF GHIIJJIIJKCLKCL GMCCMMCCMJNOJNO PQRRQQRRQOSJOSJ PTSSTTSSTMUPMUP| A | |
| A | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| When I remember them those friends of mine | B |
| Who are no longer here the noble three | C |
| Who half my life were more than friends to me | C |
| And whose discourse was like a generous wine | B |
| I most of all remember the divine | B |
| Something that shone in them and made us see | C |
| The archetypal man and what might be | C |
| The amplitude of Nature's first design | B |
| In vain I stretch my hands to clasp their hands | D |
| I cannot find them Nothing now is left | E |
| But a majestic memory They meanwhile | F |
| Wander together in Elysian lands | D |
| Perchance remembering me who am bereft | E |
| Of their dear presence and remembering smile | F |
| - | |
| II | G |
| In Attica thy birthplace should have been | H |
| Or the Ionian Isles or where the seas | I |
| Encircle in their arms the Cyclades | I |
| So wholly Greek wast thou in thy serene | J |
| And childlike joy of life O Philhellene | J |
| Around thee would have swarmed the Attic bees | I |
| Homer had been thy friend or Socrates | I |
| And Plato welcomed thee to his demesne | J |
| For thee old legends breathed historic breath | K |
| Thou sawest Poseidon in the purple sea | C |
| And in the sunset Jason's fleece of gold | L |
| O what hadst thou to do with cruel Death | K |
| Who wast so full of life or Death with thee | C |
| That thou shouldst die before thou hadst grown old | L |
| - | |
| III | G |
| I stand again on the familiar shore | M |
| And hear the waves of the distracted sea | C |
| Piteously calling and lamenting thee | C |
| And waiting restless at thy cottage door | M |
| The rocks the sea weed on the ocean floor | M |
| The willows in the meadow and the free | C |
| Wild winds of the Atlantic welcome me | C |
| Then why shouldst thou be dead and come no more | M |
| Ah why shouldst thou be dead when common men | J |
| Are busy with their trivial affairs | N |
| Having and holding Why when thou hadst read | O |
| Nature's mysterious manuscript and then | J |
| Wast ready to reveal the truth it bears | N |
| Why art thou silent Why shouldst thou be dead | O |
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| IV | P |
| River that stealest with such silent pace | Q |
| Around the City of the Dead where lies | R |
| A friend who bore thy name and whom these eyes | R |
| Shall see no more in his accustomed place | Q |
| Linger and fold him in thy soft embrace | Q |
| And say good night for now the western skies | R |
| Are red with sunset and gray mists arise | R |
| Like damps that gather on a dead man's face | Q |
| Good night good night as we so oft have said | O |
| Beneath this roof at midnight in the days | S |
| That are no more and shall no more return | J |
| Thou hast but taken thy lamp and gone to bed | O |
| I stay a little longer as one stays | S |
| To cover up the embers that still burn | J |
| - | |
| V | P |
| The doors are all wide open at the gate | T |
| The blossomed lilacs counterfeit a blaze | S |
| And seem to warm the air a dreamy haze | S |
| Hangs o'er the Brighton meadows like a fate | T |
| And on their margin with sea tides elate | T |
| The flooded Charles as in the happier days | S |
| Writes the last letter of his name and stays | S |
| His restless steps as if compelled to wait | T |
| I also wait but they will come no more | M |
| Those friends of mine whose presence satisfied | U |
| The thirst and hunger of my heart Ah me | P |
| They have forgotten the pathway to my door | M |
| Something is gone from nature since they died | U |
| And summer is not summer nor can be | P |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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