The Gentle Water Bird (for Mary Gilmore) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE FFF GGG BBB AAA EEE HHH III HHH BBB JJJ GGG| In the far days when every day was long | A |
| Fear was upon me and the fear was strong | A |
| Ere I had learned the recompense of song | A |
| - | |
| In the dim days I trembled for I knew | B |
| God was above me always frowning through | B |
| And God was terrible and thunder blue | B |
| - | |
| Creeds the discoloured awed my opening mind | C |
| Perils perplexities what could I find | C |
| All the old terror waiting on mankind | C |
| - | |
| Even the gentle flowers of white and cream | D |
| The rainbow with its treasury of dream | D |
| Trembled because of God's ungracious scheme | D |
| - | |
| And in the night the many stars would say | E |
| Dark things unaltered in the light of day | E |
| Fear was upon me even in my play | E |
| - | |
| There was a lake I loved in gentle rain | F |
| One day there fell a bird a courtly crane | F |
| Wisely he walked as one who knows of pain | F |
| - | |
| Gracious he was and lofty as a king | G |
| Silent he was and yet he seemed to sing | G |
| Always of little children and the Spring | G |
| - | |
| God Did he know him It was far he flew | B |
| God was not terrible and thunder blue | B |
| It was a gentle water bird I knew | B |
| - | |
| Pity was in him for the weak and strong | A |
| All who have suffered when the days were long | A |
| And he was deep and gentle as a song | A |
| - | |
| As a calm soldier in a cloak of grey | E |
| He did commune with me for many a day | E |
| Till the dark fear was lifted far away | E |
| - | |
| Sober apparelled yet he caught the glow | H |
| Always of Heaven would he speak and low | H |
| And he did tell me where the wishes go | H |
| - | |
| Kinsfolk of his it was who long before | I |
| Came from the mist and no one knows the shore | I |
| Came with the little children to the door | I |
| - | |
| Was he less wise than those birds long ago | H |
| Who flew from God He surely willed it so | H |
| Bearing great happiness to all below | H |
| - | |
| Long have I learned that all his speech was true | B |
| I cannot reason it how far he flew | B |
| God is not terrible nor thunder blue | B |
| - | |
| Sometimes when watching in the white sunshine | J |
| Someone approaches I can half define | J |
| All the calm beauty of that friend of mine | J |
| - | |
| Nothing of hatred will about him cling | G |
| Silent how silent but his heart will sing | G |
| Always of little children and the Spring | G |
John Shaw Neilson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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