Ravenna Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CD EEFF GGAAHHCCGGHHIICCJJGG IIG GKKLMGG DDGGNKCCGGG GGGGGCCII OOPQCCGGGGG GIIHHORCC IIOOEESSCCGGTTUU OOQQVVIIWWM MXY Z A2A2PPMMIIGGB2B2 IGGGGGGOOICGGL MGGII C2C2PQII B2B2ICB2B2 I D2D2GGGGCCIIZZB2B2II GGIIGGI ICCIIIB2 GGIICCB2B2IIGGGGCC GGGGB2B2HH B2B2 GEEPP CCIIB2B2GGGGGG GGB2B2B2B2QPE2E2B2B2 II CCEEZZGGGGGGCCGGGGII IIHHIIGGQ QIIGGB2B2GGZZ B2B2B2B2GG CCGGHH Z CCB2B2B2B2EEG GGGIICCAAIIAACCIIGG AAGGIIB2B2 B2B2CCNewdigate prize poem recited in the Sheldonian Theatre | A |
Oxford June th | B |
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To my friend George Fleming author of 'The Nile Novel' | C |
and 'Mirage' | D |
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I | - |
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A year ago I breathed the Italian air | E |
And yet methinks this northern Spring is fair | E |
These fields made golden with the flower of March | F |
The throstle singing on the feathered larch | F |
The cawing rooks the wood doves fluttering by | - |
The little clouds that race across the sky | - |
And fair the violet's gentle drooping head | G |
The primrose pale for love uncomforted | G |
The rose that burgeons on the climbing briar | A |
The crocus bed that seems a moon of fire | A |
Round girdled with a purple marriage ring | H |
And all the flowers of our English Spring | H |
Fond snowdrops and the bright starred daffodil | C |
Up starts the lark beside the murmuring mill | C |
And breaks the gossamer threads of early dew | G |
And down the river like a flame of blue | G |
Keen as an arrow flies the water king | H |
While the brown linnets in the greenwood sing | H |
A year ago it seems a little time | I |
Since last I saw that lordly southern clime | I |
Where flower and fruit to purple radiance blow | C |
And like bright lamps the fabled apples glow | C |
Full Spring it was and by rich flowering vines | J |
Dark olive groves and noble forest pines | J |
I rode at will the moist glad air was sweet | G |
The white road rang beneath my horse's feet | G |
And musing on Ravenna's ancient name | I |
I watched the day till marked with wounds of flame | I |
The turquoise sky to burnished gold was turned | G |
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O how my heart with boyish passion burned | G |
When far away across the sedge and mere | K |
I saw that Holy City rising clear | K |
Crowned with her crown of towers On and on | L |
I galloped racing with the setting sun | M |
And ere the crimson after glow was passed | G |
I stood within Ravenna's walls at last | G |
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II | - |
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How strangely still no sound of life or joy | D |
Startles the air no laughing shepherd boy | D |
Pipes on his reed nor ever through the day | G |
Comes the glad sound of children at their play | G |
O sad and sweet and silent surely here | N |
A man might dwell apart from troublous fear | K |
Watching the tide of seasons as they flow | C |
From amorous Spring to Winter's rain and snow | C |
And have no thought of sorrow here indeed | G |
Are Lethe's waters and that fatal weed | G |
Which makes a man forget his fatherland | G |
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Ay amid lotus meadows dost thou stand | G |
Like Proserpine with poppy laden head | G |
Guarding the holy ashes of the dead | G |
For though thy brood of warrior sons hath ceased | G |
Thy noble dead are with thee they at least | G |
Are faithful to thine honour guard them well | C |
O childless city for a mighty spell | C |
To wake men's hearts to dreams of things sublime | I |
Are the lone tombs where rest the Great of Time | I |
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III | - |
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Yon lonely pillar rising on the plain | O |
Marks where the bravest knight of France was slain | O |
The Prince of chivalry the Lord of war | P |
Gaston de Foix for some untimely star | Q |
Led him against thy city and he fell | C |
As falls some forest lion fighting well | C |
Taken from life while life and love were new | G |
He lies beneath God's seamless veil of blue | G |
Tall lance like reeds wave sadly o'er his head | G |
And oleanders bloom to deeper red | G |
Where his bright youth flowed crimson on the ground | G |
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Look farther north unto that broken mound | G |
There prisoned now within a lordly tomb | I |
Raised by a daughter's hand in lonely gloom | I |
Huge limbed Theodoric the Gothic king | H |
Sleeps after all his weary conquering | H |
Time hath not spared his ruin wind and rain | O |
Have broken down his stronghold and again | R |
We see that Death is mighty lord of all | C |
And king and clown to ashen dust must fall | C |
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Mighty indeed their glory yet to me | I |
Barbaric king or knight of chivalry | I |
Or the great queen herself were poor and vain | O |
Beside the grave where Dante rests from pain | O |
His gilded shrine lies open to the air | E |
And cunning sculptor's hands have carven there | E |
The calm white brow as calm as earliest morn | S |
The eyes that flashed with passionate love and scorn | S |
The lips that sang of Heaven and of Hell | C |
The almond face which Giotto drew so well | C |
The weary face of Dante to this day | G |
Here in his place of resting far away | G |
From Arno's yellow waters rushing down | T |
Through the wide bridges of that fairy town | T |
Where the tall tower of Giotto seems to rise | U |
A marble lily under sapphire skies | U |
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Alas my Dante thou hast known the pain | O |
Of meaner lives the exile's galling chain | O |
How steep the stairs within kings' houses are | Q |
And all the petty miseries which mar | Q |
Man's nobler nature with the sense of wrong | V |
Yet this dull world is grateful for thy song | V |
Our nations do thee homage even she | I |
That cruel queen of vine clad Tuscany | I |
Who bound with crown of thorns thy living brow | W |
Hath decked thine empty tomb with laurels now | W |
And begs in vain the ashes of her son | M |
- | |
O mightiest exile all thy grief is done | M |
Thy soul walks now beside thy Beatrice | X |
Ravenna guards thine ashes sleep in peace | Y |
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IV | Z |
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How lone this palace is how grey the walls | A2 |
No minstrel now wakes echoes in these halls | A2 |
The broken chain lies rusting on the door | P |
And noisome weeds have split the marble floor | P |
Here lurks the snake and here the lizards run | M |
By the stone lions blinking in the sun | M |
Byron dwelt here in love and revelry | I |
For two long years a second Anthony | I |
Who of the world another Actium made | G |
Yet suffered not his royal soul to fade | G |
Or lyre to break or lance to grow less keen | B2 |
'Neath any wiles of an Egyptian queen | B2 |
For from the East there came a mighty cry | - |
And Greece stood up to fight for Liberty | I |
And called him from Ravenna never knight | G |
Rode forth more nobly to wild scenes of fight | G |
None fell more bravely on ensanguined field | G |
Borne like a Spartan back upon his shield | G |
O Hellas Hellas in thine hour of pride | G |
Thy day of might remember him who died | G |
To wrest from off thy limbs the trammelling chain | O |
O Salamis O lone Plataean plain | O |
O tossing waves of wild Euboean sea | I |
O wind swept heights of lone Thermopylae | C |
He loved you well ay not alone in word | G |
Who freely gave to thee his lyre and sword | G |
Like AEschylos at well fought Marathon | L |
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And England too shall glory in her son | M |
Her warrior poet first in song and fight | G |
No longer now shall Slander's venomed spite | G |
Crawl like a snake across his perfect name | I |
Or mar the lordly scutcheon of his fame | I |
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For as the olive garland of the race | C2 |
Which lights with joy each eager runner's face | C2 |
As the red cross which saveth men in war | P |
As a flame bearded beacon seen from far | Q |
By mariners upon a storm tossed sea | I |
Such was his love for Greece and Liberty | I |
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Byron thy crowns are ever fresh and green | B2 |
Red leaves of rose from Sapphic Mitylene | B2 |
Shall bind thy brows the myrtle blooms for thee | I |
In hidden glades by lonely Castaly | C |
The laurels wait thy coming all are thine | B2 |
And round thy head one perfect wreath will twine | B2 |
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V | I |
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The pine tops rocked before the evening breeze | D2 |
With the hoarse murmur of the wintry seas | D2 |
And the tall stems were streaked with amber bright | G |
I wandered through the wood in wild delight | G |
Some startled bird with fluttering wings and fleet | G |
Made snow of all the blossoms at my feet | G |
Like silver crowns the pale narcissi lay | C |
And small birds sang on every twining spray | C |
O waving trees O forest liberty | I |
Within your haunts at least a man is free | I |
And half forgets the weary world of strife | Z |
The blood flows hotter and a sense of life | Z |
Wakes i' the quickening veins while once again | B2 |
The woods are filled with gods we fancied slain | B2 |
Long time I watched and surely hoped to see | I |
Some goat foot Pan make merry minstrelsy | I |
Amid the reeds some startled Dryad maid | G |
In girlish flight or lurking in the glade | G |
The soft brown limbs the wanton treacherous face | I |
Of woodland god Queen Dian in the chase | I |
White limbed and terrible with look of pride | G |
And leash of boar hounds leaping at her side | G |
Or Hylas mirrored in the perfect stream | I |
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O idle heart O fond Hellenic dream | I |
Ere long with melancholy rise and swell | C |
The evening chimes the convent's vesper bell | C |
Struck on mine ears amid the amorous flowers | I |
Alas alas these sweet and honied hours | I |
Had whelmed my heart like some encroaching sea | I |
And drowned all thoughts of black Gethsemane | B2 |
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VI | - |
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O lone Ravenna many a tale is told | G |
Of thy great glories in the days of old | G |
Two thousand years have passed since thou didst see | I |
Caesar ride forth to royal victory | I |
Mighty thy name when Rome's lean eagles flew | C |
From Britain's isles to far Euphrates blue | C |
And of the peoples thou wast noble queen | B2 |
Till in thy streets the Goth and Hun were seen | B2 |
Discrowned by man deserted by the sea | I |
Thou sleepest rocked in lonely misery | I |
No longer now upon thy swelling tide | G |
Pine forest like thy myriad galleys ride | G |
For where the brass beaked ships were wont to float | G |
The weary shepherd pipes his mournful note | G |
And the white sheep are free to come and go | C |
Where Adria's purple waters used to flow | C |
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O fair O sad O Queen uncomforted | G |
In ruined loveliness thou liest dead | G |
Alone of all thy sisters for at last | G |
Italia's royal warrior hath passed | G |
Rome's lordliest entrance and hath worn his crown | B2 |
In the high temples of the Eternal Town | B2 |
The Palatine hath welcomed back her king | H |
And with his name the seven mountains ring | H |
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And Naples hath outlived her dream of pain | B2 |
And mocks her tyrant Venice lives again | B2 |
New risen from the waters and the cry | - |
Of Light and Truth of Love and Liberty | G |
Is heard in lordly Genoa and where | E |
The marble spires of Milan wound the air | E |
Rings from the Alps to the Sicilian shore | P |
And Dante's dream is now a dream no more | P |
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But thou Ravenna better loved than all | C |
Thy ruined palaces are but a pall | C |
That hides thy fallen greatness and thy name | I |
Burns like a grey and flickering candle flame | I |
Beneath the noonday splendour of the sun | B2 |
Of new Italia for the night is done | B2 |
The night of dark oppression and the day | G |
Hath dawned in passionate splendour far away | G |
The Austrian hounds are hunted from the land | G |
Beyond those ice crowned citadels which stand | G |
Girdling the plain of royal Lombardy | G |
From the far West unto the Eastern sea | G |
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I know indeed that sons of thine have died | G |
In Lissa's waters by the mountain side | G |
Of Aspromonte on Novara's plain | B2 |
Nor have thy children died for thee in vain | B2 |
And yet methinks thou hast not drunk this wine | B2 |
From grapes new crushed of Liberty divine | B2 |
Thou hast not followed that immortal Star | Q |
Which leads the people forth to deeds of war | P |
Weary of life thou liest in silent sleep | E2 |
As one who marks the lengthening shadows creep | E2 |
Careless of all the hurrying hours that run | B2 |
Mourning some day of glory for the sun | B2 |
Of Freedom hath not shewn to thee his face | I |
And thou hast caught no flambeau in the race | I |
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Yet wake not from thy slumbers rest thee well | C |
Amidst thy fields of amber asphodel | C |
Thy lily sprinkled meadows rest thee there | E |
To mock all human greatness who would dare | E |
To vent the paltry sorrows of his life | Z |
Before thy ruins or to praise the strife | Z |
Of kings' ambition and the barren pride | G |
Of warring nations wert not thou the Bride | G |
Of the wild Lord of Adria's stormy sea | G |
The Queen of double Empires and to thee | G |
Were not the nations given as thy prey | G |
And now thy gates lie open night and day | G |
The grass grows green on every tower and hall | C |
The ghastly fig hath cleft thy bastioned wall | C |
And where thy mailed warriors stood at rest | G |
The midnight owl hath made her secret nest | G |
O fallen fallen from thy high estate | G |
O city trammelled in the toils of Fate | G |
Doth nought remain of all thy glorious days | I |
But a dull shield a crown of withered bays | I |
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Yet who beneath this night of wars and fears | I |
From tranquil tower can watch the coming years | I |
Who can foretell what joys the day shall bring | H |
Or why before the dawn the linnets sing | H |
Thou even thou mayst wake as wakes the rose | I |
To crimson splendour from its grave of snows | I |
As the rich corn fields rise to red and gold | G |
From these brown lands now stiff with Winter's cold | G |
As from the storm rack comes a perfect star | Q |
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O much loved city I have wandered far | Q |
From the wave circled islands of my home | I |
Have seen the gloomy mystery of the Dome | I |
Rise slowly from the drear Campagna's way | G |
Clothed in the royal purple of the day | G |
I from the city of the violet crown | B2 |
Have watched the sun by Corinth's hill go down | B2 |
And marked the 'myriad laughter' of the sea | G |
From starlit hills of flower starred Arcady | G |
Yet back to thee returns my perfect love | Z |
As to its forest nest the evening dove | Z |
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O poet's city one who scarce has seen | B2 |
Some twenty summers cast their doublets green | B2 |
For Autumn's livery would seek in vain | B2 |
To wake his lyre to sing a louder strain | B2 |
Or tell thy days of glory poor indeed | G |
Is the low murmur of the shepherd's reed | G |
Where the loud clarion's blast should shake the sky | - |
And flame across the heavens and to try | - |
Such lofty themes were folly yet I know | C |
That never felt my heart a nobler glow | C |
Than when I woke the silence of thy street | G |
With clamorous trampling of my horse's feet | G |
And saw the city which now I try to sing | H |
After long days of weary travelling | H |
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VII | Z |
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Adieu Ravenna but a year ago | C |
I stood and watched the crimson sunset glow | C |
From the lone chapel on thy marshy plain | B2 |
The sky was as a shield that caught the stain | B2 |
Of blood and battle from the dying sun | B2 |
And in the west the circling clouds had spun | B2 |
A royal robe which some great God might wear | E |
While into ocean seas of purple air | E |
Sank the gold galley of the Lord of Light | G |
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Yet here the gentle stillness of the night | G |
Brings back the swelling tide of memory | G |
And wakes again my passionate love for thee | G |
Now is the Spring of Love yet soon will come | I |
On meadow and tree the Summer's lordly bloom | I |
And soon the grass with brighter flowers will blow | C |
And send up lilies for some boy to mow | C |
Then before long the Summer's conqueror | A |
Rich Autumn time the season's usurer | A |
Will lend his hoarded gold to all the trees | I |
And see it scattered by the spendthrift breeze | I |
And after that the Winter cold and drear | A |
So runs the perfect cycle of the year | A |
And so from youth to manhood do we go | C |
And fall to weary days and locks of snow | C |
Love only knows no winter never dies | I |
Nor cares for frowning storms or leaden skies | I |
And mine for thee shall never pass away | G |
Though my weak lips may falter in my lay | G |
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Adieu Adieu yon silent evening star | A |
The night's ambassador doth gleam afar | A |
And bid the shepherd bring his flocks to fold | G |
Perchance before our inland seas of gold | G |
Are garnered by the reapers into sheaves | I |
Perchance before I see the Autumn leaves | I |
I may behold thy city and lay down | B2 |
Low at thy feet the poet's laurel crown | B2 |
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Adieu Adieu yon silver lamp the moon | B2 |
Which turns our midnight into perfect noon | B2 |
Doth surely light thy towers guarding well | C |
Where Dante sleeps where Byron loved to dwell | C |
Oscar Wilde
(1)
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