Norembega Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFGF HIHI JJJJ KLM NON P P Q Q R R STST RURV OQOQ JIJI WQW HLHL QRQR XJXJ YJZ A2JA2J JDJD B2C2B2C2 QRQR RA2R D2JD2J TLTL VB2UB2 TJTJ JJJJTHE winding way the serpent takes | A |
The mystic water took | B |
From where to count its beaded lakes | A |
The forest sped its brook | B |
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A narrow space 'twixt shore and shore | C |
For sun or stars to fall | D |
While evermore behind before | C |
Closed in the forest wall | D |
- | |
The dim wood hiding underneath | E |
Wan flowers without a name | F |
Life tangled with decay and death | G |
League after league the same | F |
- | |
Unbroken over swamp and hill | H |
The rounding shadow lay | I |
Save where the river cut at will | H |
A pathway to the day | I |
- | |
Beside that track of air and light | J |
Weak as a child unweaned | J |
At shut of day a Christian knight | J |
Upon his henchman leaned | J |
- | |
The embers of the sunset's fires | K |
Along the clouds burned down | L |
'I see ' he said 'the domes and spires | M |
Of Norembega town ' | - |
- | |
'Alack the domes O master mine | N |
Are golden clouds on high | O |
Yon spire is but the branchless pine | N |
That cuts the evening sky ' | - |
- | |
'Oh hush and hark What sounds are these | P |
But chants and holy hymns ' | - |
'Thou hear'st the breeze that stirs the trees | P |
Though all their leafy limbs ' | - |
- | |
'Is it a chapel bell that fills | Q |
The air with its low tone ' | - |
'Thou hear'st the tinkle of the rills | Q |
The insect's vesper drone ' | - |
- | |
'The Christ be praised He sets for me | R |
A blessed cross in sight ' | - |
'Now nay 't is but yon blasted tree | R |
With two gaunt arms outright ' | - |
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'Be it wind so sad or tree so stark | S |
It mattereth not my knave | T |
Methinks to funeral hymns I hark | S |
The cross is for my grave | T |
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'My life is sped I shall not see | R |
My home set sails again | U |
The sweetest eyes of Normandie | R |
Shall watch for me in vain | V |
- | |
'Yet onward still to ear and eye | O |
The baffling marvel calls | Q |
I fain would look before I die | O |
On Norembega's walls | Q |
- | |
'So haply it shall be thy part | J |
At Christian feet to lay | I |
The mystery of the desert's heart | J |
My dead hand plucked away | I |
- | |
'Leave me an hour of rest go thou | W |
And look from yonder heights | Q |
Perchance the valley even now | W |
Is starred with city lights ' | - |
- | |
The henchman climbed the nearest hill | H |
He saw nor tower nor town | L |
But through the drear woods lone and still | H |
The river rolling down | L |
- | |
He heard the stealthy feet of things | Q |
Whose shapes he could not see | R |
A flutter as of evil wings | Q |
The fall of a dead tree | R |
- | |
The pines stood black against the moon | X |
A sword of fire beyond | J |
He heard the wolf howl and the loon | X |
Laugh from his reedy pond | J |
- | |
He turned him back 'O master dear | Y |
We are but men misled | J |
And thou hast sought a city here | Z |
To find a grave instead ' | - |
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'As God shall will what matters where | A2 |
A true man's cross may stand | J |
So Heaven be o'er it here as there | A2 |
In pleasant Norman land | J |
- | |
'These woods perchance no secret hide | J |
Of lordly tower and hall | D |
Yon river in its wanderings wide | J |
Has washed no city wall | D |
- | |
'Yet mirrored in the sullen stream | B2 |
The holy stars are given | C2 |
Is Norembega then a dream | B2 |
Whose waking is in Heaven | C2 |
- | |
'No builded wonder of these lands | Q |
My weary eyes shall see | R |
A city never made with hands | Q |
Alone awaiteth me | R |
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'' Urbs Syon mystica ' I see | R |
Its mansions passing fair | A2 |
' Condita caelo ' let me be | R |
Dear Lord a dweller there ' | - |
- | |
Above the dying exile hung | D2 |
The vision of the bard | J |
As faltered on his failing tongue | D2 |
The song of good Bernard | J |
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The henchman dug at dawn a grave | T |
Beneath the hemlocks brown | L |
And to the desert's keeping gave | T |
The lord of fief and town | L |
- | |
Years after when the Sieur Champlain | V |
Sailed up the unknown stream | B2 |
And Norembega proved again | U |
A shadow and a dream | B2 |
- | |
He found the Norman's nameless grave | T |
Within the hemlock's shade | J |
And stretching wide its arms to save | T |
The sign that God had made | J |
- | |
The cross boughed tree that marked the spot | J |
And made it holy ground | J |
He needs the earthly city not | J |
Who hath the heavenly found | J |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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