Rivers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABBCBBBC DBEEFGBE HBIJGFBJ BKKLBMBN BNJJJBBJ BBBBBEMB OPBNBFBN BJMNJBFN EBEEBBQE NJJCBEMC NRBBBAEB FBECNBFC BBBEBSEE BFBNJJEN EFENBBJN NTBBBBBB BBEBJBUB CVJWJBMW EJEEJEKE JBBXAJYX NJBEBJZE JBNWBAJW NBBBFABB WAFBEBEB BBBA2NEB2A2 EBEJOEZJ

Rivers I have seen which were beautifulA
Slow rivers winding in the flat fensB
With bands of reeds like thronged green swordsB
Guarding the mirrored skyC
And streams down tumbling from the chalk hillsB
To valleys of meadows and watercress bedsB
And bridges whereunder dark weed coloured shadowsB
Trout flit or lieC
-
I know those rivers that peacefully glideD
Past old towers and shaven gardensB
Where mottled walls rise from the waterE
And mills all streaked with flourE
And rivers with wharves and rusty shippingF
That flow with a stately tidal motionG
Towards their destined estuariesB
Full of the pride of powerE
-
Noble great rivers Thames and SevernH
Tweed with his gateway of many grey archesB
Clyde dying at sunset westwardI
In a sea as red as bloodJ
Rhine and his hills in close processionG
Placid Elbe Seine slaty and swirlingF
And Isar son of the Alpine snowsB
A furious turquoise floodJ
-
All these I have known and with slow eyesB
I have walked on their shores and watched themK
And softened to their beauty and loved themK
Wherever my feet have beenL
And a hundred others alsoB
Whose names long since grew into meM
That dreaming in light or darknessB
I have seen though I have not seenN
-
Those rivers of thought cold EbroB
And blue racing GuadianaN
Passing white houses high balconiedJ
That ache in a sun baked landJ
Congo and Nile and ColoradoJ
Niger Indus ZambesiB
And the Yellow River and the OxusB
And the river that dies in sandJ
-
What splendours are theirs what continentsB
What tribes of men what basking plainsB
Forests and lion hided desertsB
Marshes ravines and fallsB
All hues and shapes and tempersB
Wandering they take as they wanderE
From those far springs that endlesslyM
The far sea callsB
-
O in reverie I know the VolgaO
That turns his back upon EuropeP
And the two great cities on his banksB
Novgorod and AstrakhanN
Where the world is a few soft coloursB
And under the dove like eveningF
The boatmen chant ancient songsB
The tenderest known to manN
-
And the holy river GangesB
His fretted cities veiled in moonlightJ
Arches and buttresses silver shadowyM
In the high moonN
And palms grouped in the moonlightJ
And fanes girdled with cypressesB
Their domes of marble softly shiningF
To the high silver moonN
-
And that aged BrahmapootraE
Who beyond the white HimalayasB
Passes many a lamasseryE
On rocks forlorn and froreE
A block of gaunt grey stone wallsB
With rows of little barred windowsB
Where shrivelled young monks in yellow silkQ
Are hidden for evermoreE
-
But O that great river the AmazonN
I have sailed up its gulf with eyelids closedJ
And the yellow waters tumbled roundJ
And all was rimmed with skyC
Till the banks drew in and the trees' headsB
And the lines of green grew higherE
And I breathed deep and there above meM
The forest wall stood highC
-
Those forest walls of the AmazonN
Are level under the blazing blueR
And yield no sound save the whistles and shrieksB
Of the swarming bright macawsB
And under their lowest drooping boughsB
Mud banks torpidly bubbleA
And the water drifts and logs in the waterE
Drift and twist and pauseB
-
And everywhere tacitly joiningF
Float noiseless tributariesB
Tall avenues paved with waterE
And as I silent flyC
The vegetation like a painted sceneN
Spars and spikes and monstrous fansB
And ferns from hairy sheaths up springingF
Evenly passes byC
-
And stealthier stagnant channelsB
Under low niches of drooping leavesB
Coil into deep recessesB
And there have I entered thereE
To heavy hot dense dim placesB
Where creepers climb and sweat and climbS
And the drip and splash of oozing waterE
Loads the stifling airE
-
Rotting scrofulous steaming trunksB
Great horned emerald beetles crawlingF
Ants and huge slow butterfliesB
That had strayed and lost the sunN
Ah sick I have swooned as the air thickenedJ
To a pallid brown ecliptic glowJ
And on the forest fallen with languorE
Thunder has begunN
-
Thunder in the dun dusk thunderE
Rolling and battering and crackingF
The caverns shudder with a terrible glareE
Again and again and againN
Till the land bows in the darknessB
Utterly lost and defencelessB
Smitten and blinded and overwhelmedJ
By the crashing rods of rainN
-
And then in the forests of the AmazonN
When the rain has ended and silence comeT
What dark luxuriance unfoldsB
From behind the night's drawn barsB
The wreathing odours of a thousand treesB
And the flowers' faint gleaming presencesB
And over the clearings and the still watersB
Soft indigo and hanging starsB
-
-
-
O many and many are riversB
And beautiful are all riversB
And lovely is water everywhereE
That leaps or glides or staysB
Yet by starlight moonlight or sunlightJ
Long long though they look these wandering eyesB
Even on the fairest waters of dreamU
Never untroubled gazeB
-
For whatever stream I stand byC
And whatever river I dream ofV
There is something still in the back of my mindJ
From very far awayW
There is something I saw and see notJ
A country full of riversB
That stirs in my heart and speaks to meM
More sure more dear than theyW
-
And always I ask and wonderE
Though often I do not know itJ
Why does this water not smell like waterE
Where is the moss that grewE
Wet and dry on the slabs of graniteJ
And the round stones in clear brown waterE
And a pale film rises before themK
Of the rivers that first I knewE
-
Though famous are the rivers of the great worldJ
Though my heart from those alien waters drinksB
Delight however pure from their lovelinessB
And awe however deepX
Would I wish for a moment the miracleA
That those waters should come to ChagfordJ
Or gather and swell in Tavy CleaveY
Where the stones cling to the steepX
-
No even were they Ganges and AmazonN
In all their great might and majestyJ
League upon league of wondersB
I would lose them all and moreE
For a light chiming of small bellsB
A twisting flash in the graniteJ
The tiny thread of a pixie waterfallZ
That lives by Vixen TorE
-
Those rivers in that lost countryJ
They were brown as a clear brown bead isB
Or red with the earth that rain washed downN
Or white with china clayW
And some tossed foaming over bouldersB
And some curved mild and tranquilA
In wooded vales securely setJ
Under the fond warm dayW
-
Okement and Erme and AvonN
Exe and his ruffled shallowsB
I could cry as I think of those riversB
That knew my morning dreamsB
The weir by Tavistock at eveningF
When the circling woods were purpleA
And the Lowman in spring with the lent liliesB
And the little moorland streamsB
-
For many a hillside streamletW
There falls with a broken tinkleA
Falling and dying falling and dyingF
In little cascades and poolsB
Where the world is furze and heatherE
And flashing plovers and fixed larksB
And an empty sky whitish blueE
That small world rulesB
-
There there where the high waste bog landsB
And the drooping slopes and the spreading valleysB
The orchards and the cattle sprinkled pasturesB
Those travelling musics fillA2
There is my lost AbanaN
And there is my nameless PharpharE
That mixed with my heart when I was a boyB2
And time stood stillA2
-
And I say I will go there and die thereE
But I do not go there and sometimesB
I think that the train could not carry me thereE
And it's possible maybeJ
That it's farther than Asia or AfricaO
Or any voyager's harbourE
Farther farther beyond recallZ
O even in memoryJ

John Collings Squire, Sir



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Rivers is a poem by John Collings Squire, Sir. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.



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