Seven Poems From 'lollingdon Downs' Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCDEDEFEFEGG AHIHIEJEJKLKLAA AAMAMNONOPQPQRR LESESTUTUVWVWX LLELERYRYZEZEDA2 LB2C2C2C D2E2D2E2 F2LLF2 TEET G2 H2G2 LI2I2CCEE EEJ2J2 K2K2SS| I | A |
| Here in the self is all that man can know | B |
| Of Beauty all the wonder all the power | C |
| All the unearthly colour all the glow | B |
| Here in the self which withers like a flower | C |
| Here in the self which fades as hours pass | D |
| And droops and dies and rots and is forgotten | E |
| Sooner by ages than the mirroring glass | D |
| In which it sees its glory still unrotten | E |
| Here in the flesh within the flesh behind | F |
| Swift in the blood and throbbing on the bone | E |
| Beauty herself the universal mind | F |
| Eternal April wandering alone | E |
| The God the holy Ghost the atoning Lord | G |
| Here in the flesh the never yet explored | G |
| - | |
| II | A |
| What am I Life A thing of watery salt | H |
| Held in cohesion by unresting cells | I |
| Which work they know not why which never halt | H |
| Myself unwitting where their master dwells | I |
| I do not bid them yet they toil they spin | E |
| A world which uses me as I use them | J |
| Nor do I know which end or which begin | E |
| Nor which to praise which pamper which condemn | J |
| So like a marvel in a marvel set | K |
| I answer to the vast as wave by wave | L |
| The sea of air goes over dry or wet | K |
| Or the full moon comes swimming from her cave | L |
| Or the great sun comes north this myriad I | A |
| Tingles not knowing how yet wondering why | A |
| - | |
| III | A |
| If I could get within this changing I | A |
| This ever altering thing which yet persists | M |
| Keeping the features it is reckoned by | A |
| While each component atom breaks or twists | M |
| If wandering past strange groups of shifting forms | N |
| Cells at their hidden marvels hard at work | O |
| Pale from much toil or red from sudden storms | N |
| I might attain to where the Rulers lurk | O |
| If pressing past the guards in those grey gates | P |
| The brain's most folded intertwisted shell | Q |
| I might attain to that which alters fates | P |
| The King the supreme self the Master Cell | Q |
| Then on Man's earthly peak I might behold | R |
| The unearthly self beyond unguessed untold | R |
| - | |
| IV | L |
| Ah we are neither heaven nor earth but men | E |
| Something that uses and despises both | S |
| That takes its earth's contentment in the pen | E |
| Then sees the world's injustice and is wroth | S |
| And flinging off youth's happy promise flies | T |
| Up to some breach despising earthly things | U |
| And in contempt of hell and heaven dies | T |
| Rather than bear some yoke of priests or kings | U |
| Our joys are not of heaven nor earth but man's | V |
| A woman's beauty or a child's delight | W |
| The trembling blood when the discoverer scans | V |
| The sought for world the gussed at satellite | W |
| The ringing scene the stone at point to blush | X |
| For unborn men to look at and say 'Hush ' | - |
| - | |
| V | L |
| Roses are beauty but I never see | L |
| Those blood drops from the burning heart of June | E |
| Glowing like thought upon the living tree | L |
| Without a pity that they die so soon | E |
| Die into petals like those roses old | R |
| Those women who were summer in men's hearts | Y |
| Before the smile upon the Sphinx was cold | R |
| Or sand had hid the Syrian and his arts | Y |
| O myriad dust of beauty that lies thick | Z |
| Under our feet that not a single grain | E |
| But stirred and moved in beauty and was quick | Z |
| For one brief moon and died nor lived again | E |
| But when the moon rose lay upon the grass | D |
| Pasture to living beauty life that was | A2 |
| - | |
| VI | L |
| I went into the fields but you were there | B2 |
| Waiting for me so all the summer flowers | C2 |
| Were only glimpses of your starry powers | C2 |
| Beautiful and inspired dust they were | C |
| - | |
| I went down by the waters and a bird | D2 |
| Sang with your voice in all the unknown tones | E2 |
| Of all that self of you I have not heard | D2 |
| So that my being felt you to the bones | E2 |
| - | |
| I went into the house and shut the door | F2 |
| To be alone but you were there with me | L |
| All beauty in a little room may be | L |
| Though the roof lean and muddy be the floor | F2 |
| - | |
| Then in my bed I bound my tired eyes | T |
| To make a darkness for my weary brain | E |
| But like a presence you were there again | E |
| Being and real beautiful and wise | T |
| - | |
| So that I could not sleep and cried aloud | G2 |
| ' You strange grave thing what is it you would say ' | - |
| The redness of your dear lips dimmed to grey | H2 |
| The waters ebbed the moon hid in a cloud | G2 |
| - | |
| VII | L |
| Death lies in wait for you you wild thing in the wood | I2 |
| Shy footed beauty dear half seen half understood | I2 |
| Glimpsed in the beech wood dim and in the dropping fir | C |
| Shy like a fawn and sweet and beauty's minister | C |
| Glimpsed as in flying clouds by night the little moon | E |
| A wonder a delight a paleness passing soon | E |
| - | |
| Only a moment held only an hour seen | E |
| Only an instant known in all that life has been | E |
| One instant in the sand to drink that gush of grace | J2 |
| The beauty of your way the marvel of your face | J2 |
| - | |
| Death lies in wait for you but few short hours he gives | K2 |
| I perish even as you by whom all spirit lives | K2 |
| Come to me spirit come and fill my hour of breath | S |
| With hours of life in life that pay no toll to death | S |
John Masefield
(1)
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