The Ancient Speech Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDECFGHCI JKKGLMNOP| A Gaelic bard they praise who in fourteen adjectives | A |
| Named the one indivisible soul of his glen | B |
| For what are the bens and the glens but manifold qualities | C |
| Immeasurable complexities of soul | D |
| What are these isles but a song sung by island voices | E |
| The herdsman sings ancestral memories | C |
| And the song makes the singer wise | F |
| But only while he sings | G |
| Songs that were old when the old themselves were young | H |
| Songs of these hills only and of no isles but these | C |
| For other hills and isles this language has no words | I |
| - | |
| The mountains are like manna for one day given | J |
| To each his own | K |
| Strangers have crossed the sound but not the sound of the dark oarsmen | K |
| Or the golden haired sons of kings | G |
| Strangers whose thought is not formed to the cadence of waves | L |
| Rhythm of the sickle oar and milking pail | M |
| Whose words make loved things strange and small | N |
| Emptied of all that made them heart felt or bright | O |
| Our words keep no faith with the soul of the world | P |
Kathleen Jessie Raine
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