Listen, Beloved Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCCBB DEDEFFGG AHAHIIJJ DJDJJJKK JFJFJJLL JMJMNOPP ABABQQAA RSRTMMJJ BUBUVVWW MBMBJJXX MYMYZZA2A2Listen Beloved the Casurinas quiver | A |
Each tassel prays the wind to set it free | B |
Hark to the frantic sobbing of the river | A |
Wild to attain extinction in the sea | B |
All Nature blindly struggles to dissolve | C |
In other forms and forces thus to solve | C |
The painful riddle of identity | B |
Ah that my soul might lose itself in thee | B |
- | |
Yet my Beloved One wherefore seek I union | D |
Since there is no such thing in all the world | E |
Are not our spirits linked in close communion | D |
And on my lips thy clinging lips are curled | E |
Thy tender arms are round my shoulders thrown | F |
I hear thy heart more loudly than my own | F |
And yet to my despair I know thee far | G |
As in the stellar darkness star from star | G |
- | |
Even in times when love with bounteous measure | A |
A simultaneous joy on us has shed | H |
In the last moment of delirious pleasure | A |
Ere the sense fail or any force be fled | H |
My rapture has been even as a wall | I |
Shutting out any thought of thee at all | I |
My being by its own delight possessed | J |
Forgot that it was sleeping on thy breast | J |
- | |
Ay from his birth each man is vowed and given | D |
To a vast loneliness ungauged unspanned | J |
Whether by pain and woe his soul be riven | D |
Or all fair pleasures clustered 'neath his hand | J |
His gain by day his ecstasy by night | J |
His force his folly fierce or faint delight | J |
Suffering or sorrow fortune feud or care | K |
Whate'er he find or feel he may not share | K |
- | |
Lonely we join the world and we depart | J |
Even as lonely having lived alone | F |
The breast that feeds us the beloved one's heart | J |
The lips we kiss or curse alike unknown | F |
Ay even these lips of thine so often kissed | J |
What certitude have I that they exist | J |
Alas it is the truth though harsh it seems | L |
I have been loved as sweetly in my dreams | L |
- | |
Therefore if I should seem too fiercely fond | J |
Too swift to love too eager to attain | M |
Forgive the fervour that would forge beyond | J |
The limits set to mortal joy and pain | M |
Knowing the soul's unmeasured loneliness | N |
My passion must be mingled with distress | O |
As I despairing struggle to draw near | P |
What is as unattainable as dear | P |
- | |
Thirst may be quenched at any kindly river | A |
Rest may be found 'neath any arching tree | B |
No sleep allures no draughts of love deliver | A |
My spirit from its aching need of thee | B |
Thy sweet assentiveness to my demands | Q |
All the caressive touches of thy hands | Q |
These soft cool hands with fingers tipped with fire | A |
They can do nothing to assuage desire | A |
- | |
Sometimes I think my longing soul remembers | R |
A previous love to which it aims and strives | S |
As if this fire of ours were but the embers | R |
Of some wild flame burnt out in former lives | T |
Perchance in earlier days I did attain | M |
That which I seek for now so all in vain | M |
Maybe my soul with thine was fused and wed | J |
In some great night long since dissolved and dead | J |
- | |
We may progress but who shall answer clearly | B |
The riddle of the endless change of things | U |
Perchance in other days men loved more dearly | B |
Or Love himself had wider ways and wings | U |
Maybe we gave ourselves with less control | V |
Or simpler living left more free the soul | V |
So that with ease the flesh aside was flung | W |
Or was it merely that Mankind was young | W |
- | |
Or has my spirit a divine prevision | M |
Of vast vague passions stored in days to be | B |
When some strong souls shall conquer their division | M |
And two shall be as one eternally | B |
Finding at last upon each other's breast | J |
Unutterable calm and infinite rest | J |
While love shall burn with such intense a glow | X |
That both shall die and neither heed or know | X |
- | |
Why do I question thus and wake confusion | M |
In the soft thought that lights thy perfect face | Y |
Ah shed once more thy perfumed hair's profusion | M |
Open thine arms and make my resting place | Y |
Lay thy red lips on mine as heretofore | Z |
Grant me the treasure of thy beauty's store | Z |
Stifle all thought in one imperious kiss | A2 |
What shall I ask for more than this and this | A2 |
Laurence Hope (adela Florence Cory Nicolson)
(1)
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