He Heard Her Sing Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEECCFFGG CCHHCCCCCCIIJJKKHHDD HHCCLL MMHHCCHHNNOOPPQQHH RRSSTTUUKKEEVV HHWWNNTTLLXXYZ CCCCCCSSCCHHQQCCA2A2 NNB2B2C2C2 D2D2HHE2E2HHF2F2DDHH G2G2IIDDDDSSH2H2IIDD NNPPI2I2HH HHHH ZYDDGGPPJ2J2NNK2K2HH C2C2CCL2L2IICCM2M2HH L2L2IIPP HHHH

We were now in the midmost Maytime in the full green flood of the SpringA
When the air is sweet all the daytime with the blossoms and birds that singA
When the air is rich all the night and richest of all in its noonB
When the nightingales pant the delight and keen stress of their love to the moonB
When the almond and apple and pear spread wavering wavelets of snowC
In the light of the soft warm air far flushed with a delicate glowC
When the towering chestnuts uphold their masses of spires red or whiteD
And the pendulous tresses of gold of the slim laburnum burn brightD
And the lilac guardeth the bowers with the gleam of a lifted spearE
And the scent of the hawthorn flowers breathes all the new life of the yearE
And the linden's tender pink bud by the green of the leaf is o'errunC
And the bronze beech shines like blood in the light of the morning sunC
And the leaf buds seem spangling some network of gossamer flung on the elmF
And the hedges are filling their fretwork with every sweet green of Spring's realmF
And the flowers are everywhere budding and blowing about our feetG
The green of the meadows star studding and the bright green blades of the wheatG
-
An evening and night of song For first when I left the townC
And took the lane that is long and came out on the breeze swept downC
The sunset heavens were all ringing wide over the golden gorseH
With the skylarks' rapturous singing a revel of larks in full forceH
A revel of larks in the raptures surpassing all raptures of ManC
Who ponders the blessings he captures and finds in each blessing some banC
And then I went on down the dale in the light of the afterglowC
In that strange light green and pale and serene and pathetic and slowC
In its fading round to the north while the light of the unseen moonC
From the east comes brightening forth an ever increasing boonC
And there in the cottage my Alice through the hours so short and so longI
Kept filed to the brim love's chalice with the wine of music and songI
And first with colossal Beethoven the gentlest spirit sublimeJ
Of the harmonies interwoven Eternity woven with TimeJ
Of the melodies slowly and slowly dissolving away through the soulK
While it dissolves with them wholly and our being is lost in the WholeK
As gentle as Dante the Poet for only the lulls of the stressH
Of the mightiest spirits can know it this ineffable gentlenessH
And then with the delicate tender fantastic dreamer of nightD
Whose splendour is starlike splendour and his light a mystic moonlightD
Nocturn on nocturn dreaming while the mind floats far in the hazeH
And the dusk and the shadow and gleaming of a realm that has no daysH
And then she sang ballads olden ballads of love and of woeC
Love all burningly golden grief with heart's blood in its flowC
Those ballads of Scotland that thrill you keen from the heart to the heartL
Till their pathos is seeming to kill you with an exquisite bliss in the smartL
-
And then we went out of the valley and over the spur of the hillM
And down by a woodland alley where the sprinkled moonlight lay stillM
For the breeze in the boughs was still and the breeze was still in the spraysH
And the leaves had scarcely a thrill in the stream of the silver raysH
But looked as if drawn on the sky or etched with a graver keenC
Sharp shadows thrown from on high deep out of the azure sereneC
And a certain copse we knew where never in May time failsH
While the night distils sweet dew the song of the nightingalesH
And there together we heard the lyrical drama of loveN
Of the wonderful passionate bird which swelleth the heart so aboveN
All other thought of this life all other care of this earthO
Be it of pleasure or strife be it of sorrow or mirthO
Saving the one intense imperious passion supremeP
Kindling the soul and the sense making the world but a dreamP
The dream of an aching delight and a yearning afar and afarQ
While the music thrills all the void night to the loftiest pulsating starQ
Love love only for ever love with its torture and blissH
All the world's glories can never equal two souls in one kissH
-
And when I had bidden farewell to my Love at the cottage doorR
For a night and a day farewell for a night and a day and no moreR
I went down to the shining strand of our own belov d bayS
To the shore of soft white sand caressed by the pure white sprayS
In the arms of the hills serene clothed from the base to the crestT
With garments of manifold green curving to east and to westT
And high in the pale blue south where the clouds were white as woolU
Over the little bay mouth the moon shone near the fullU
And I walked by the waves' soft moan for my heart was beyond controlK
And I needed to be alone with the night and my love and my soulK
And I could not think of sleep in the moonlight broad and clearE
For a music solemn and deep filled all my spirit's sphereE
A music interwoven of all that night I had heardV
From the music of mighty Beethoven to the song of the little brown birdV
-
And thus as I paced the shore beneath the azure abyssH
And my soul thrilled more and more with a yearning and sadness of blissH
A voice came over the water from over the eastern capeW
Like the voice of some ocean daughter wailing a lover's escapeW
A voice so plaintive and distant as faint as a wounded doveN
Whose wings are scarcely resistant to the air beneath and aboveN
Wavering panting urging from the farthest east to the westT
Over some wild sea surging in the hope forlorn of its nestT
A voice that quivered and trembled with falls of a broken heartL
And then like that dove reassembled its forces to play out its partL
Till it came to a fall that was dying the end of an infinite griefX
A sobbing and throbbing and sighing that death was a welcome reliefX
And so there was silence once more and the moonlight looked sad as a pallY
And I stood entranced on the shore and marvelled what next would befallZ
-
And thus all expectant abiding I waited not long for soonC
A boat came gliding and gliding out in the light of the moonC
Gliding with muffled oars slowly a thin dark lineC
Round from the shadowing shores into the silver shineC
Of the clear moon westering now and still drew on and onC
While the water before its prow breaking and glistering shoneC
Slowly in silence strange and the rower rowed till it layS
Afloat within easy range deep in the curve of the bayS
And besides the rower were two a Woman who sat in the sternC
And Her by her fame I knew one of those fames that burnC
Startling and kindling the world one whose likeness we everywhere seeH
And a man reclining half curled with an indolent grace at her kneeH
The Signor lord of her choice and he lightly touched a guitarQ
A guitar for that glorious voice Illumine the sun with a starQ
She sat superb and erect stately all happy sereneC
Her right hand toying unchecked with the hair of that page of a QueenC
With her head and her throat and her bust like the bust and the throat and the headA2
Of Her who has long been dust of Her who shall never be deadA2
Preserved by the potent art made trebly potent by loveN
While the transient ages depart from under the heavens aboveN
Preserved in the colour and line on the canvas fulgently flungB2
By Him the Artist divine who triumphed and vanished so youngB2
Surely there rarely hath been a lot more to be envied in lifeC2
Than thy lot O FORNARINA whom RAPHAEL's heart took to wifeC2
-
There was silence yet for a time save the tinkling capricious and quaintD2
Then She lifted her voice sublime no longer tender and faintD2
Pathetic and tremulous no but firm as a column it roseH
Rising solemn and slow with a full rich swell to the closeH
Firm as a marble column soaring with noble prideE2
In a triumph of rapture solemn to some Hero deifiedE2
In a rapture of exultation made calm by its stress intenseH
In a triumph of consecration and a jubilation immenseH
And the Voice flowed on and on and ever it swelled as it pouredF2
Till the stars that throbbed as they shone seemed throbbing with it in accordF2
Till the moon herself in my dream still Empress of all the nightD
Was only that voice supreme translated into pure lightD
And I lost all sense of the earth though I still had sense of the seaH
And I saw the stupendous girth of a tree like the Norse World TreeH
And its branches filled all the sky and the deep sea watered its rootG2
And the clouds were its leaves on high and the stars were its silver fruitG2
Yet the stars were the notes of the singing and the moon was the voice of the songI
Through the vault of the firmament ringing and swelling resistlessly strongI
And the whole vast night was a shell for that music of manifold mightD
And was strained by the stress of the swell of the music yet vaster than nightD
And I saw as a crystal fountain whose shaft was a column of lightD
More high than the loftiest mountain ascend the abyss of the nightD
And its spray filled all the sky and the clouds were the clouds of its sprayS
Which glittered in star points on high and filled with pure silver the bayS
And ever in rising and falling it sang as it rose and it fellH2
And the heavens with their pure azure walling all pulsed with the pulse of its swellH2
For the stars were the notes of the singing and the moon was the voice of the songI
Through the vault of the firmament ringing and swelling ineffably strongI
And the whole vast night was a shell for that music of manifold mightD
And was strained by the stress of the swell of the music yet vaster than nightD
And the fountain in swelling and soaring and filling beneath and aboveN
Grew flushed with red fire in outpouring transmuting great power into loveN
Great power with a greater love flushing immense and intense and supremeP
As if all the World's heart blood outgushing ensanguined the trance of my dreamP
And the waves of its blood seemed to dash on the shore of the sky to the copeI2
With the stress of the fire of a passion and yearning of limitless scopeI2
Vast fire of a passion and yearning keen torture of rapture intenseH
A most unendurable burning consuming the soul with the senseH
-
Love love only for ever love with its torture of blissH
All the world's glories can never equal two souls in one kissH
Love and ever love wholly love in all time and all spaceH
Life is consummate then solely in the death of a burning embraceH
-
And at length when that Voice sank mute and silence fell over allZ
Save the tinkling thin of that lute the deep heavens rushed down like a pallY
The stars and the moon for a time with all their splendours of lightD
Were quenched with that Voice sublime and great darkness filled the nightD
When I felt again the scent of the night flowers rich and sweetG
As ere my senses went and knew where I stood on my feetG
And saw the yet bright bay and the moon gone low in my dreamP
The boat had passed away with Her the Singer supremeP
She was gone the marvellous Singer whose wonderful world wide fameJ2
Could never possibly bring her a tithe of her just acclaimJ2
And I wandered all night in a trance of rapture and yearning and loveN
And saw the dim grey expanse flush far with the dawning aboveN
And I passed that copse in the night but the nightingales all were dumbK2
From their passionate aching delight and perhaps whoever should comeK2
On the morrow would find I have read under its bush or its treeH
Some poor little brown bird dead dead of its melodyH
Slain by the agitation by the stress and the strain of the strifeC2
And the pang of the vain emulation in the music yet dearer than lifeC2
And I heard the skylarks singing high in the morning sunC
All the sunrise heavens ringing as the sunset heavens had doneC
And ever I dreamed and pondered while over the fragrant soilL2
My happy footsteps wandered before I resumed my toilL2
Truly my darling my Alice truly the whole night longI
Have I filled to the brim love's chalice with the wine of music and songI
I have passed and repassed your door from the singing until the dawnC
A dozen times and more and ever the curtains drawnC
And now that the morn is breaking out of the stillness deepM2
Sweet as my visions of waking be all your visions of sleepM2
Could you but wake O my dearest a moment and give one glanceH
Just a furtive peep the merest to learn the day's advanceH
For I must away up the dale and over the hill to my toilL2
And the night's rich dreams grow pale in the working day's turmoilL2
But tonight O my darling my Alice till night it will not be longI
We will fill to the brim love's chalice with the wine of music and songI
And never the memory fails of what I have learnt in my dreamP
From the song of the nightingales and the song of the Singer supremeP
-
Love love only for ever love with its torture of blissH
All the world's glories can never equal two souls in one kissH
Love love ever and wholly love in all time and all spaceH
Life is consummate then solely in the death of a burning embraceH

James Thomson - (bysshe Vanolis)



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