Tide-water Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCDCEDE EEFEEGFFEF GFEE FEEEEFEEEH FEEHIIJJEFEEEKE LFLKMKMNNThrough many winding valleys far inland | A |
A maze among the convoluted hills | B |
Of rocks up piled and pines on either hand | A |
And meadows ribbanded with silver rills | B |
Faint mingled up composite sweetnesses | B |
Of scented grass and clover and the blue | C |
Wild violet hid in muffling moss and fern | D |
Keen and diverse another breath cleaves through | C |
Familiar as the taste of tears to me | E |
As on my lips insistent I discern | D |
The salt and bitter kisses of the sea | E |
- | |
The tide sets up the river mimic fleetnesses | E |
Of little wavelets fretted by the shells | E |
And shingle of the beach circle and eddy round | F |
And smooth themselves perpetually there dwells | E |
A spirit of peace in their low murmuring noise | E |
Subsiding into quiet as if life were such | G |
A struggle with inexorable bound | F |
Brief bright despairing never over lept | F |
Dying in such wise with a sighing voice | E |
Breathed out and after silence absolute | F |
- | |
Faith eager hope toil tears despair so much | G |
The common lot together over swept | F |
Into the pitiless unreturning sea | E |
The vast immitigable sea | E |
- | |
I walk beside the river and am mute | F |
Under the burden o fits mystery | E |
The cricket pipes among the meadow grass | E |
His shrill small trumpet of long summer nights | E |
Sole minstrel and the lonely heron makes | E |
Voyaging slow toward her reedy nest | F |
A moving shadow among sunset lights | E |
Upon the river's darkening wave which breaks | E |
Into a thousand circling shapes that pass | E |
Into the one black shadow of the shore | H |
- | |
O tranquil spirit of the pervading test | F |
Brooding along the valleys with shut wings | E |
That fold all sentient and inanimate things | E |
In their entrenched calm for evermore | H |
Save only the unquiet human soul | I |
Hear'st thou the far off sound of waves that roll | I |
In sighing cadence like a soul in pain | J |
Hopeless of heaven or peace beating in vain | J |
The shores implacable for some replies | E |
To the dumb anguish of eternal doubt | F |
As I for the sad thoughts that rise in me | E |
Feel'st thou upon thy heavy lidded eyes | E |
The salt and bitter kisses of the sea | E |
And dost thou draw like me a shuddering breath | K |
Among dusk shadows brooding silently | E |
- | |
Ah me thou hear'st me not I walk alone | L |
The doubt within me and the dark without | F |
In my sad ears the waves' recurrent moan | L |
Sounds like the surges of the sea of death | K |
Beating for evermore the shores of time | M |
With muttered prophecies which sorrow saith | K |
Over and over like a set slow chime | M |
Of funeral bells tolling remote forlorn | N |
Dirge like the burden Man was made to mourn | N |
Kate Seymour Maclean
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Tide-water poem by Kate Seymour Maclean
Best Poems of Kate Seymour Maclean