Presage Of Victory Poem Rhyme Scheme

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I	A
	-
Then first I knew seeing that bent grey head	B
How England honours all her thousand dead	B
Then first I knew how faith through black grief burns	C
Until the ruined heart glows while it yearns	C
For one that never more returns	C
Glows in the spent embers of its pride	D
For one that careless lived and fearless died	D
And then I knew then first	E
How everywhere Hope from her prison had burst	E
On every hill wide dale soft valley's lap	F
In lonely cottage clutch'd between huge downs	G
And streets confused with streets in clanging towns	G
Like spring from winter's jail pouring her sap	F
Into the idle wood of last year's trees	H
Then first I knew how the vast world disease	H
Would die away and England upon her seas	H
Shake every scab of sickness toward new skies	I
Lifting a little holier her head	B
With honesty the brighter in her eyes	I
And all that urgent horror well forgot	J
The dark remembered not	J
Only remembered then with bosom yet hot	J
The blood that on how many a far field lies	I
The bones enriching not our English earth	K
That brought them to such splendid birth	K
And the last sacrifice	L
	-
II	A
	-
Then first I knew seeing that head bent low	M
How gravely all her days she needs must go	M
Bearing an image in her faded breast	N
	-
O the dark unrest	N
Of thoughts that never cease their flight	O
Never vanishing yet never still	P
Like birds that wail round the bewildering nest	N
But other nestlings never shall be hers	Q
Only a painful image his place fill	P
Only a memory remain for her thin bosom to nurse	R
In all that dark unrest	N
Of sleepless and tormented night	O
	-
III	A
	-
Yet from her eyes presage of victory	S
Looked steadfast out at mine	T
It is not to be thought of said her eyes	I
That only a foul blotch the sun may shine	T
On England through low poisonous thick skies	I
Never O never again	U
This pain this pain	V
Else from that foreign earth his bones would rise	I
And thrust in anger at the bitter skies	I
It is not to be thought of that such prayer	W
Should fall unheeded back through heavy air	W
But I have heard in the night I have heard	X
When not a leaf in all the orchard stirred	X
And even the water of the bourne hung still	P
And the old twitching creaking house was still	P
And all was still	P
What was it I heard	X
It could not be his voice come from so far	Y
I know 'twas not a bird	X
It was his voice or that lone watchful star	Y
Creeping above the casement bar	Y
Saying Fear thou no ill	P
No ill	P
Then all the silence was an echoing round	Z
The water and dumb trees their antique murmur found	Z
And clear as music came the repeated Sound	Z
Fear thou no ill no ill	P
	-
Was it her eyes or her tongue told me this	A2
	-
IV	-
	-
Yet but sad comfort from such pain is caught	J
I went out from the house and climbed the coombe	B2
And where the first light of sweet morning hung	C2
I found the light I sought	D2
From somewhere south a bugle's note was flung	C2
From somewhere north a sombre boom	E2
On the opposing hills white flecks and grey	F2
Spotted the misty green	G2
And blue smoke wraiths around the tall trees clung	C2
Presently rose thick dust clouds from the green	G2
Came up or seemed to come the instant beat	H2
Of marching feet	H2
Then with the clouds the beating died away	F2
And nothing was seen	G2
But broken hills and the new flush of day	F2
	-
V	-
	-
All round the folding hills were like green waves	I2
Tossing awhile together ere they fall	J2
And fling their salt on the steep stony beach	K2
The sound I heard was sound of Roman feet	H2
I saw the sparkling light on Roman glaives	I2
I heard the Roman speech	K2
Answering the wild Iberian battle call	J2
They passed from sight on the long street	H2
And I saw then the Mercian Kings that strode	L2
Proudly from the small city of grey stone	M2
And climbed the folding hills	I2
Past the full springs that bubbled and flowed	L2
Through the soft valley and on to Avon stream	N2
They passed as all things pass and seem	N2
No other than a dream	N2
All but the shining and the echo gone	O2
But still I listened and looked Their voice it was	I2
Blown through the valley grass	I2
Their dust it was that sprang from the hard road	L2
Where now these English legions flowed	L2
Waking the quiet like a steady wind	P2
That ancient soldiery before me passed	Q2
With all that followed them and these the last	Q2
Of my own generation my own mind	P2
Their strength and courage rooted deep in the earth	K
That brings men to such splendid birth	K
And no vain sacrifice	I2
It was as when the land all darkness lies	I2
And shades nor only shades move freely out	R2
And through the trees are heard and all about	R2
Their ancient ways 'neath the old stars and skies	I2
So now in morning's light I knew them there	W
Leading the men that marched and marched away	F2
And mounted up the hill and down the hill	P
Passed from my eyes and ears and left the air	W
Trembling everywhere	W
And then how still	P
	-
VI	-
	-
Then first I knew the joy that yet should be	-
Ringing from camped hill and guarded sea	-
With England's victory	-
The dust had stirred the infinite dust had stirred	X
It was the courage of the past I heard	X
The virtue of those buried bones again	U
Animate in these marching Englishmen	S2
And nothing wanted if the dead but nerved	X
The living hands that the same England served	X
With new washed eyes I saw as I went down	T2
On the hill crest the oak grove's crown	T2
With new delighted ear heard the lark sing	U2
That mad delighted thing	U2
The very smoke that rose was strangely blue	V2
But most the orchard brightened wonderfully new	V2
Where the wild spring ere winter snow well gone	O2
Scattered her whiter briefer snow cloud down	T2
And England lovelier looked than when	U
Her dead roused not her living men	U
	-
	-
May	F2

John Freeman

Presage Of Victory Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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