Geist's Grave Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MBMB NOPO QGQG RSRT UVUV WOXO YQYQ ZA2OA2 OB2OB2 C2D2C2D2 E2F2E2F2 G2H2ZH2 I2JI2J QJ2QJ2| Four years and didst thou stay above | A |
| The ground which hides thee now but four | B |
| And all that life and all that love | A |
| Were crowded Geist into no more | B |
| - | |
| Only four years those winning ways | C |
| Which make me for thy presence yearn | D |
| Call'd us to pet thee or to praise | C |
| Dear little friend at every turn | D |
| - | |
| That loving heart that patient soul | E |
| Had they indeed no longer span | F |
| To run their course and reach their goal | E |
| And read their homily to man | F |
| - | |
| That liquid melancholy eye | G |
| From whose pathetic soul fed springs | H |
| Seem'd surging the Virgilian cry | G |
| The sense of tears in mortal things | H |
| - | |
| That steadfast mournful strain consoled | I |
| By spirits gloriously gay | J |
| And temper of heroic mould | I |
| What was four years their whole short day | J |
| - | |
| Yes only four and not the course | K |
| Of all the centuries yet to come | L |
| And not the infinite resource | K |
| Of Nature with her countless sum | L |
| - | |
| Of figures with her fulness vast | M |
| Of new creation evermore | B |
| Can ever quite repeat the past | M |
| Or just thy little self restore | B |
| - | |
| Stern law of every mortal lot | N |
| Which man proud man finds hard to bear | O |
| And builds himself I know not what | P |
| Of second life I know not where | O |
| - | |
| But thou when struck thine hour to go | Q |
| On us who stood despondent by | G |
| A meek last glance of love didst throw | Q |
| And humbly lay thee down to die | G |
| - | |
| Yet would we keep thee in our heart | R |
| Would fix our favourite on the scene | S |
| Nor let thee utterly depart | R |
| And be as if thou ne'er hadst been | T |
| - | |
| And so there rise these lines of verse | U |
| On lips that rarely form them now | V |
| While to each other we rehearse | U |
| Such ways such arts such looks hadst thou | V |
| - | |
| We stroke thy broad brown paws again | W |
| We bid thee to thy vacant chair | O |
| We greet thee by the window pane | X |
| We hear thy scuffle on the stair | O |
| - | |
| We see the flaps of thy large ears | Y |
| Quick raised to ask which way we go | Q |
| Crossing the frozen lake appears | Y |
| Thy small black figure on the snow | Q |
| - | |
| Nor to us only art thou dear | Z |
| Who mourn thee in thine English home | A2 |
| Thou hast thine absent master's tear | O |
| Dropt by the far Australian foam | A2 |
| - | |
| Thy memory lasts both here and there | O |
| And thou shalt live as long as we | B2 |
| And after that thou dost not care | O |
| In us was all the world to thee | B2 |
| - | |
| Yet fondly zealous for thy fame | C2 |
| Even to a date beyond our own | D2 |
| We strive to carry down thy name | C2 |
| By mounded turf and graven stone | D2 |
| - | |
| We lay thee close within our reach | E2 |
| Here where the grass is smooth and warm | F2 |
| Between the holly and the beech | E2 |
| Where oft we watch'd thy couchant form | F2 |
| - | |
| Asleep yet lending half an ear | G2 |
| To travellers on the Portsmouth road | H2 |
| There build we thee O guardian dear | Z |
| Mark'd with a stone thy last abode | H2 |
| - | |
| Then some who through this garden pass | I2 |
| When we too like thyself are clay | J |
| Shall see thy grave upon the grass | I2 |
| And stop before the stone and say | J |
| - | |
| People who lived here long ago | Q |
| Did by this stone it seems intend | J2 |
| To name for future times to know | Q |
| The dachs hound Geist their little friend | J2 |
Matthew Arnold
(1)
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About Geist's Grave
Geist's Grave is a poem by Matthew Arnold. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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