Burning Bush Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ EEEEAA KKEELLMMEENNMMOPQQEE EEMMKKRRSRMMEERREETT UVRREERRKKWWEEEEVVRR KK EE KKEEMM WWMMKK EEMMEE MMKKTT MMSKEE MMMMAA KKKKXX

From babyhood I have known the beauty of earthA
I learnt it I think in the strange months before birthA
I learnt it passing and passing by each moonB
From the harvest month into my natal JuneB
My mother the dear the lovely I hardly knewC
Bearing me must have walked and wandered throughC
Stubble of silver or gold as moon or sunD
Lit earth in the days when my body was begunD
And then October with leaves splendid and blownE
She watched with my little body a little grownE
And winter fell and into our being passedF
Firm frost and icy rivers and the blastF
Of winds that on the iron clods of ploughG
Beat with an unseen charging Then the boughG
Of spring came green and her glad body stirredH
With a son's wombed leaping and she heardH
Songs of the air and woods and waterwaysI
And with them singing the coming of my daysI
And nesting time drew on to summer flowersJ
And me unborn she taught through patient hoursJ
Then on that first June day with spices blownE
Of roses over clover crops unmownE
And grey wind lifted leaves and blossom of beanE
She gave her dear white beauty to the keenE
Anguish of women and brought my body to birthA
Already skilled in the sculptures of the earthA
-
Then in the days when her breasts nourished meK
Daily she walked that happy girl to seeK
How summer prospered to bring the harvest onE
And how the gardens and how the orchards shoneE
With scarlet and blue and yellow flowers and fruitL
And hear with equal love the lonely fluteL
Of legendary satyrs in the woodM
Or the still voice of Christ in bachelorhoodM
And she would come I know to me her sonE
With lovely secret gossip of journeys doneE
In fields where some day my own feet should goN
It was not gossip in words that I could not knowN
Mere ease and pleasure for her mother witM
But such as I could feel the joy of itM
Beating about my baby blood and senseO
Maternal tending of intelligenceP
In the unwhispered rites of bosom and lipQ
Divinings worded in bodily fellowshipQ
And every shape and colour and scent she knewE
Were intimations winding folding throughE
My infancies of flesh and thought each oneE
To find its unblemished record and copy doneE
In little moods drawn from the suckling breastM
That now in manhood when I find the nestM
Of the chaffinch moulded in the elder treeK
And looking on that lichen cup can seeK
The images of eternity and spaceR
Lavished upon a small bird's dwelling placeR
Or when from some blue passage of the skyS
I know that also colour can prophesyR
Or ghosted on the brushing tides of wheatM
The gossip of a Galilean streetM
So many Sabbaths gone I hear againE
And his hands plucking that immortal grainE
Or when by spectral ancestries I passR
Again to Eden as the orchard grassR
Gives out the scent of mellow apples blownE
From windy boughs all these I know were knownE
By that dear mother when the boy to comeT
Was the zeal and gospel of her martyrdomT
-
Then came the time when I could walk with herU
We pilgrims of the fields with everywhereV
Strange leaves and spreading of earth and hedgerow themesR
And mossy walls and bubbling of the streamsR
And the way of clouds and the full moon to waneE
The bird song in the lilacs after rainE
And month by month the coming of the flowersR
for me to learn in speech as had been oursR
Knowledge unspoken while she fashioned meK
And then she died and I went on to beK
Through lonely boyhood her disciple stillW
A wanderer by many a Berkshire hillW
By water meadows of the Oxford plainE
By the thick oaks of Avon with the strainE
Of an old yeoman wisdom dreaming onE
New beauty ever following beauty goneE
Until I knew my earth and her raiment fairV
In every difference of the seasons' wearV
Long years her scholar with learning of her waysR
To slip unleasht all singing into praiseR
Should learning yet by some enchantment beK
Bidden to passion's better husbandryK
-
And the enchanted bidding fell And youE
O Love it was that spelt the earth anewE
-
O Love you silent wayfarerK
How many years all unawareK
By blackthorn hedge and spinney greenE
With larch I wandered while unseenE
You in my shadow walked nor madeM
Even a whisper in the shadeM
-
O Love on many an evening hillW
I watched the day go down the stillW
Dark woods the far great rivers windM
Thin threads of light And I was blindM
Or seeing knew not for you wereK
Beside me still yet hidden thereK
-
O Love as year by year went onE
And budding primroses were goneE
And berries fell and still the brightM
Crocuses came in the nightM
You left me to my task aloneE
O Love so near me and unknownE
-
O Love though she who bore me setM
Earth's love for ever on me yetM
Some word withheld still troubled meK
Some presence that I could not seeK
Till you dear alien should comeT
And doctrine be no longer dumbT
-
O Love one April night I heardM
The doctrine's everlasting wordM
And you beneath that starry skyS
Unknown were with me suddenlyK
Yet there was no new meeting thenE
But some old marriage come againE
-
O Love and now is earth my friendM
Telling me all until the endM
When I shall in the earth be laidM
With all my maps and fancies madeM
And you Love were the secret earthA
Of my blind following from birthA
-
O Love you happy wayfarerK
Be still my fond interpreterK
Of all the glory that can beK
As once on starlit WinchelseaK
Finding upon my pilgrim wayX
A burning bush for every dayX

John Drinkwater



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