The Burden Of Itys Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABACDD EFEFGG HIHIJJ BDBDKK LMLNBB OPOPBB QRQRRB STSURR HIHIMM PVPVRR BIBIBB RRRRRR BWBBRR XBXBRR YRYRRB ZRZRBB A2BA2BRR BZBZZZ BBBBZZ BZBZZZ B2RC2RZZ D2BE2BRR BF2BF2BB RG2RG2BB MZMMRR RBRBPP RRRBRR RRRRMM H2BH2BRR BBBBRR BC2BC2BB RZRZI2I2 RBRBRR ZWZF2RR RMRMZZ RBRBZZ MBMBRR RRRRRR RJ2RJ2RR K2C2K2C2RR BMRML2L2 RRRRRR MBMMM2M2 WRWRMM RRRRRR RRRL2N2N2 ZBZBMM RZRZRR MPMPBB ZRZRRR RRRRRR RZRZO2O2 H2RM2RZZ RP2RP2MM RZRZQ2R RMRMQ2R MPMPMM RBRBRR

This English Thames is holier far than Rome	A
Those harebells like a sudden flush of sea	B
Breaking across the woodland with the foam	A
Of meadow sweet and white anemone	C
To fleck their blue waves God is likelier there	D
Than hidden in that crystal hearted star the pale monks bear	D
	-
Those violet gleaming butterflies that take	E
Yon creamy lily for their pavilion	F
Are monsignores and where the rushes shake	E
A lazy pike lies basking in the sun	F
His eyes half shut he is some mitred old	G
Bishop in partibus look at those gaudy scales all green and gold	G
	-
The wind the restless prisoner of the trees	H
Does well for Palaestrina one would say	I
The mighty master's hands were on the keys	H
Of the Maria organ which they play	I
When early on some sapphire Easter morn	J
In a high litter red as blood or sin the Pope is borne	J
	-
From his dark House out to the Balcony	B
Above the bronze gates and the crowded square	D
Whose very fountains seem for ecstasy	B
To toss their silver lances in the air	D
And stretching out weak hands to East and West	K
In vain sends peace to peaceless lands to restless nations rest	K
	-
Is not yon lingering orange after glow	L
That stays to vex the moon more fair than all	M
Rome's lordliest pageants strange a year ago	L
I knelt before some crimson Cardinal	N
Who bare the Host across the Esquiline	B
And now those common poppies in the wheat seem twice as fine	B
	-
The blue green beanfields yonder tremulous	O
With the last shower sweeter perfume bring	P
Through this cool evening than the odorous	O
Flame jewelled censers the young deacons swing	P
When the grey priest unlocks the curtained shrine	B
And makes God's body from the common fruit of corn and vine	B
	-
Poor Fra Giovanni bawling at the mass	Q
Were out of tune now for a small brown bird	R
Sings overhead and through the long cool grass	Q
I see that throbbing throat which once I heard	R
On starlit hills of flower starred Arcady	R
Once where the white and crescent sand of Salamis meets sea	B
	-
Sweet is the swallow twittering on the eaves	S
At daybreak when the mower whets his scythe	T
And stock doves murmur and the milkmaid leaves	S
Her little lonely bed and carols blithe	U
To see the heavy lowing cattle wait	R
Stretching their huge and dripping mouths across the farmyard gate	R
	-
And sweet the hops upon the Kentish leas	H
And sweet the wind that lifts the new mown hay	I
And sweet the fretful swarms of grumbling bees	H
That round and round the linden blossoms play	I
And sweet the heifer breathing in the stall	M
And the green bursting figs that hang upon the red brick wall	M
	-
And sweet to hear the cuckoo mock the spring	P
While the last violet loiters by the well	V
And sweet to hear the shepherd Daphnis sing	P
The song of Linus through a sunny dell	V
Of warm Arcadia where the corn is gold	R
And the slight lithe limbed reapers dance about the wattled fold	R
	-
And sweet with young Lycoris to recline	B
In some Illyrian valley far away	I
Where canopied on herbs amaracine	B
We too might waste the summer tranced day	I
Matching our reeds in sportive rivalry	B
While far beneath us frets the troubled purple of the sea	B
	-
But sweeter far if silver sandalled foot	R
Of some long hidden God should ever tread	R
The Nuneham meadows if with reeded flute	R
Pressed to his lips some Faun might raise his head	R
By the green water flags ah sweet indeed	R
To see the heavenly herdsman call his white fleeced flock to feed	R
	-
Then sing to me thou tuneful chorister	B
Though what thou sing'st be thine own requiem	W
Tell me thy tale thou hapless chronicler	B
Of thine own tragedies do not contemn	B
These unfamiliar haunts this English field	R
For many a lovely coronal our northern isle can yield	R
	-
Which Grecian meadows know not many a rose	X
Which all day long in vales AEolian	B
A lad might seek in vain for over grows	X
Our hedges like a wanton courtesan	B
Unthrifty of its beauty lilies too	R
Ilissos never mirrored star our streams and cockles blue	R
	-
Dot the green wheat which though they are the signs	Y
For swallows going south would never spread	R
Their azure tents between the Attic vines	Y
Even that little weed of ragged red	R
Which bids the robin pipe in Arcady	R
Would be a trespasser and many an unsung elegy	B
	-
Sleeps in the reeds that fringe our winding Thames	Z
Which to awake were sweeter ravishment	R
Than ever Syrinx wept for diadems	Z
Of brown bee studded orchids which were meant	R
For Cytheraea's brows are hidden here	B
Unknown to Cytheraea and by yonder pasturing steer	B
	-
There is a tiny yellow daffodil	A2
The butterfly can see it from afar	B
Although one summer evening's dew could fill	A2
Its little cup twice over ere the star	B
Had called the lazy shepherd to his fold	R
And be no prodigal each leaf is flecked with spotted gold	R
	-
As if Jove's gorgeous leman Danae	B
Hot from his gilded arms had stooped to kiss	Z
The trembling petals or young Mercury	B
Low flying to the dusky ford of Dis	Z
Had with one feather of his pinions	Z
Just brushed them the slight stem which bears the burden of its suns	Z
	-
Is hardly thicker than the gossamer	B
Or poor Arachne's silver tapestry	B
Men say it bloomed upon the sepulchre	B
Of One I sometime worshipped but to me	B
It seems to bring diviner memories	Z
Of faun loved Heliconian glades and blue nymph haunted seas	Z
	-
Of an untrodden vale at Tempe where	B
On the clear river's marge Narcissus lies	Z
The tangle of the forest in his hair	B
The silence of the woodland in his eyes	Z
Wooing that drifting imagery which is	Z
No sooner kissed than broken memories of Salmacis	Z
	-
Who is not boy nor girl and yet is both	B2
Fed by two fires and unsatisfied	R
Through their excess each passion being loth	C2
For love's own sake to leave the other's side	R
Yet killing love by staying memories	Z
Of Oreads peeping through the leaves of silent moonlit trees	Z
	-
Of lonely Ariadne on the wharf	D2
At Naxos when she saw the treacherous crew	B
Far out at sea and waved her crimson scarf	E2
And called false Theseus back again nor knew	B
That Dionysos on an amber pard	R
Was close behind her memories of what Maeonia's bard	R
	-
With sightless eyes beheld the wall of Troy	B
Queen Helen lying in the ivory room	F2
And at her side an amorous red lipped boy	B
Trimming with dainty hand his helmet's plume	F2
And far away the moil the shout the groan	B
As Hector shielded off the spear and Ajax hurled the stone	B
	-
Of winged Perseus with his flawless sword	R
Cleaving the snaky tresses of the witch	G2
And all those tales imperishably stored	R
In little Grecian urns freightage more rich	G2
Than any gaudy galleon of Spain	B
Bare from the Indies ever these at least bring back again	B
	-
For well I know they are not dead at all	M
The ancient Gods of Grecian poesy	Z
They are asleep and when they hear thee call	M
Will wake and think 't is very Thessaly	M
This Thames the Daulian waters this cool glade	R
The yellow irised mead where once young Itys laughed and played	R
	-
If it was thou dear jasmine cradled bird	R
Who from the leafy stillness of thy throne	B
Sang to the wondrous boy until he heard	R
The horn of Atalanta faintly blown	B
Across the Cumnor hills and wandering	P
Through Bagley wood at evening found the Attic poets' spring	P
	-
Ah tiny sober suited advocate	R
That pleadest for the moon against the day	R
If thou didst make the shepherd seek his mate	R
On that sweet questing when Proserpina	B
Forgot it was not Sicily and leant	R
Across the mossy Sandford stile in ravished wonderment	R
	-
Light winged and bright eyed miracle of the wood	R
If ever thou didst soothe with melody	R
One of that little clan that brotherhood	R
Which loved the morning star of Tuscany	R
More than the perfect sun of Raphael	M
And is immortal sing to me for I too love thee well	M
	-
Sing on sing on let the dull world grow young	H2
Let elemental things take form again	B
And the old shapes of Beauty walk among	H2
The simple garths and open crofts as when	B
The son of Leto bare the willow rod	R
And the soft sheep and shaggy goats followed the boyish God	R
	-
Sing on sing on and Bacchus will be here	B
Astride upon his gorgeous Indian throne	B
And over whimpering tigers shake the spear	B
With yellow ivy crowned and gummy cone	B
While at his side the wanton Bassarid	R
Will throw the lion by the mane and catch the mountain kid	R
	-
Sing on and I will wear the leopard skin	B
And steal the mooned wings of Ashtaroth	C2
Upon whose icy chariot we could win	B
Cithaeron in an hour ere the froth	C2
Has over brimmed the wine vat or the Faun	B
Ceased from the treading ay before the flickering lamp of dawn	B
	-
Has scared the hooting owlet to its nest	R
And warned the bat to close its filmy vans	Z
Some Maenad girl with vine leaves on her breast	R
Will filch their beech nuts from the sleeping Pans	Z
So softly that the little nested thrush	I2
Will never wake and then with shrilly laugh and leap will rush	I2
	-
Down the green valley where the fallen dew	R
Lies thick beneath the elm and count her store	B
Till the brown Satyrs in a jolly crew	R
Trample the loosestrife down along the shore	B
And where their horned master sits in state	R
Bring strawberries and bloomy plums upon a wicker crate	R
	-
Sing on and soon with passion wearied face	Z
Through the cool leaves Apollo's lad will come	W
The Tyrian prince his bristled boar will chase	Z
Adown the chestnut copses all a bloom	F2
And ivory limbed grey eyed with look of pride	R
After yon velvet coated deer the virgin maid will ride	R
	-
Sing on and I the dying boy will see	R
Stain with his purple blood the waxen bell	M
That overweighs the jacinth and to me	R
The wretched Cyprian her woe will tell	M
And I will kiss her mouth and streaming eyes	Z
And lead her to the myrtle hidden grove where Adon lies	Z
	-
Cry out aloud on Itys memory	R
That foster brother of remorse and pain	B
Drops poison in mine ear O to be free	R
To burn one's old ships and to launch again	B
Into the white plumed battle of the waves	Z
And fight old Proteus for the spoil of coral flowered caves	Z
	-
O for Medea with her poppied spell	M
O for the secret of the Colchian shrine	B
O for one leaf of that pale asphodel	M
Which binds the tired brows of Proserpine	B
And sheds such wondrous dews at eve that she	R
Dreams of the fields of Enna by the far Sicilian sea	R
	-
Where oft the golden girdled bee she chased	R
From lily to lily on the level mead	R
Ere yet her sombre Lord had bid her taste	R
The deadly fruit of that pomegranate seed	R
Ere the black steeds had harried her away	R
Down to the faint and flowerless land the sick and sunless day	R
	-
O for one midnight and as paramour	R
The Venus of the little Melian farm	J2
O that some antique statue for one hour	R
Might wake to passion and that I could charm	J2
The Dawn at Florence from its dumb despair	R
Mix with those mighty limbs and make that giant breast my lair	R
	-
Sing on sing on I would be drunk with life	K2
Drunk with the trampled vintage of my youth	C2
I would forget the wearying wasted strife	K2
The riven veil the Gorgon eyes of Truth	C2
The prayerless vigil and the cry for prayer	R
The barren gifts the lifted arms the dull insensate air	R
	-
Sing on sing on O feathered Niobe	B
Thou canst make sorrow beautiful and steal	M
From joy its sweetest music not as we	R
Who by dead voiceless silence strive to heal	M
Our too untented wounds and do but keep	L2
Pain barricadoed in our hearts and murder pillowed sleep	L2
	-
Sing louder yet why must I still behold	R
The wan white face of that deserted Christ	R
Whose bleeding hands my hands did once enfold	R
Whose smitten lips my lips so oft have kissed	R
And now in mute and marble misery	R
Sits in his lone dishonoured House and weeps perchance for me	R
	-
O Memory cast down thy wreathed shell	M
Break thy hoarse lute O sad Melpomene	B
O Sorrow Sorrow keep thy cloistered cell	M
Nor dim with tears this limpid Castaly	M
Cease Philomel thou dost the forest wrong	M2
To vex its sylvan quiet with such wild impassioned song	M2
	-
Cease cease or if 't is anguish to be dumb	W
Take from the pastoral thrush her simpler air	R
Whose jocund carelessness doth more become	W
This English woodland than thy keen despair	R
Ah cease and let the north wind bear thy lay	M
Back to the rocky hills of Thrace the stormy Daulian bay	M
	-
A moment more the startled leaves had stirred	R
Endymion would have passed across the mead	R
Moonstruck with love and this still Thames had heard	R
Pan plash and paddle groping for some reed	R
To lure from her blue cave that Naiad maid	R
Who for such piping listens half in joy and half afraid	R
	-
A moment more the waking dove had cooed	R
The silver daughter of the silver sea	R
With the fond gyves of clinging hands had wooed	R
Her wanton from the chase and Dryope	L2
Had thrust aside the branches of her oak	N2
To see the lusty gold haired lad rein in his snorting yoke	N2
	-
A moment more the trees had stooped to kiss	Z
Pale Daphne just awakening from the swoon	B
Of tremulous laurels lonely Salmacis	Z
Had bared his barren beauty to the moon	B
And through the vale with sad voluptuous smile	M
Antinous had wandered the red lotus of the Nile	M
	-
Down leaning from his black and clustering hair	R
To shade those slumberous eyelids' caverned bliss	Z
Or else on yonder grassy slope with bare	R
High tuniced limbs unravished Artemis	Z
Had bade her hounds give tongue and roused the deer	R
From his green ambuscade with shrill halloo and pricking spear	R
	-
Lie still lie still O passionate heart lie still	M
O Melancholy fold thy raven wing	P
O sobbing Dryad from thy hollow hill	M
Come not with such despondent answering	P
No more thou winged Marsyas complain	B
Apollo loveth not to hear such troubled songs of pain	B
	-
It was a dream the glade is tenantless	Z
No soft Ionian laughter moves the air	R
The Thames creeps on in sluggish leadenness	Z
And from the copse left desolate and bare	R
Fled is young Bacchus with his revelry	R
Yet still from Nuneham wood there comes that thrilling melody	R
	-
So sad that one might think a human heart	R
Brake in each separate note a quality	R
Which music sometimes has being the Art	R
Which is most nigh to tears and memory	R
Poor mourning Philomel what dost thou fear	R
Thy sister doth not haunt these fields Pandion is not here	R
	-
Here is no cruel Lord with murderous blade	R
No woven web of bloody heraldries	Z
But mossy dells for roving comrades made	R
Warm valleys where the tired student lies	Z
With half shut book and many a winding walk	O2
Where rustic lovers stray at eve in happy simple talk	O2
	-
The harmless rabbit gambols with its young	H2
Across the trampled towing path where late	R
A troop of laughing boys in jostling throng	M2
Cheered with their noisy cries the racing eight	R
The gossamer with ravelled silver threads	Z
Works at its little loom and from the dusky red eaved sheds	Z
	-
Of the lone Farm a flickering light shines out	R
Where the swinked shepherd drives his bleating flock	P2
Back to their wattled sheep cotes a faint shout	R
Comes from some Oxford boat at Sandford lock	P2
And starts the moor hen from the sedgy rill	M
And the dim lengthening shadows flit like swallows up the hill	M
	-
The heron passes homeward to the mere	R
The blue mist creeps among the shivering trees	Z
Gold world by world the silent stars appear	R
And like a blossom blown before the breeze	Z
A white moon drifts across the shimmering sky	Q2
Mute arbitress of all thy sad thy rapturous threnody	R
	-
She does not heed thee wherefore should she heed	R
She knows Endymion is not far away	M
'Tis I 'tis I whose soul is as the reed	R
Which has no message of its own to play	M
So pipes another's bidding it is I	Q2
Drifting with every wind on the wide sea of misery	R
	-
Ah the brown bird has ceased one exquisite trill	M
About the sombre woodland seems to cling	P
Dying in music else the air is still	M
So still that one might hear the bat's small wing	P
Wander and wheel above the pines or tell	M
Each tiny dew drop dripping from the bluebell's brimming cell	M
	-
And far away across the lengthening wold	R
Across the willowy flats and thickets brown	B
Magdalen's tall tower tipped with tremulous gold	R
Marks the long High Street of the little town	B
And warns me to return I must not wait	R
Hark 'Tis the curfew booming from the bell at Christ Church gate	R

Oscar Wilde

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