Robert Louis Stevenson - An Elegy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDBD EFGFHIHIHI JBJBEKKLEMNMEOPOEPE QRQRHNSTESEEEUVSVBBS WSWUXSSX BBBBBBBBYYZZWWA2EEA2 B2SQVBBBBBSSSS B2B2C2C2SS D2A2XXA2D2SSVVSSBBBB BB SIS SB2SB2SSBBS E2XCCXHigh on his Patmos of the Southern Seas | A |
Our northern dreamer sleeps | B |
Strange stars above him and above his grave | C |
Strange leaves and wings their tropic splendours wave | C |
While far beneath mile after shimmering mile | D |
The great Pacific with its faery deeps | B |
Smiles all day long its silken secret smile | D |
- | |
Son of a race nomadic finding still | E |
Its home in regions furthest from its home | F |
Ranging untired the borders of the world | G |
And resting but to roam | F |
Loved of his land and making all his boast | H |
The birthright of the blood from which he came | I |
Heir to those lights that guard the Scottish coast | H |
And caring only for a filial fame | I |
Proud if a poet he was Scotsman most | H |
And bore a Scottish name | I |
- | |
Death that long sought our poet finds at last | J |
Death that pursued him over land and sea | B |
Not his the flight of fear the heart aghast | J |
With stony dread of immortality | B |
He fled 'not cowardly' | E |
Fled as some captain in whose shaping hand | K |
Lie the momentous fortunes of his land | K |
Sheds not vainglorious blood upon the field | L |
Death why at last he finds his treasure isle | E |
And he the pirate of its hidden hoard | M |
Life 'twas the ship he sailed to seek it in | N |
And Death is but the pilot come aboard | M |
Methinks I see him smile a boy's glad smile | E |
On maddened winds and waters reefs unknown | O |
As thunders in the sail the dread typhoon | P |
And in the surf the shuddering timbers groan | O |
Horror ahead and Death beside the wheel | E |
Then spreading stillness of the broad lagoon | P |
And lap of waters round the resting keel | E |
- | |
Strange Isle of Voices must we ask in vain | Q |
In vain beseech and win no answering word | R |
Save mocking echoes of our lonely pain | Q |
From lonely hill and bird | R |
Island beneath whose unrelenting coast | H |
As though it never in the sun had been | N |
The whole world's treasure lieth sunk and lost | S |
Unsunned unseen | T |
For either sunk beyond the diver's skill | E |
There fathoms deep our gold is all arust | S |
Or in that island it is hoarded still | E |
Yea some have said within thy dreadful wall | E |
There is a folk that know not death at all | E |
The loved we lost the lost we love are there | U |
Will no kind voice make answer to our cry | V |
Give to our aching hearts some little trust | S |
Show how 'tis good to live but best to die | V |
Some voice that knows | B |
Whither the dead man goes | B |
We hear his music from the other side | S |
Maybe a little tapping on the door | W |
A something called a something sighed | S |
No more | W |
O for some voice to valiantly declare | U |
The best news true | X |
Then Happy Island of the Happy Dead | S |
How gladly would we spread | S |
Impatient sail for you | X |
- | |
O vanished loveliness of flowers and faces | B |
Treasure of hair and great immortal eyes | B |
Are there for these no safe and secret places | B |
And is it true that beauty never dies | B |
Soldiers and saints haughty and lovely names | B |
Women who set the whole wide world in flames | B |
Poets who sang their passion to the skies | B |
And lovers wild and wise | B |
Fought they and prayed for some poor flitting gleam | Y |
Was all they loved and worshipped but a dream | Y |
Is Love a lie and fame indeed a breath | Z |
And is there no sure thing in life but death | Z |
Or may it be within that guarded shore | W |
He meets Her now whom I shall meet no more | W |
Till kind Death fold me 'neath his shadowy wing | A2 |
She whom within my heart I softly tell | E |
That he is dead whom once we loved so well | E |
He the immortal master whom I sing | A2 |
- | |
Immortal yea dare we the word again | B2 |
If aught remaineth of our mortal day | S |
That which is written shall it not remain | Q |
That which is sung is it not built for aye | V |
Faces must fade for all their golden looks | B |
Unless some poet them eternalise | B |
Make live those golden looks in golden books | B |
Death soon or late will quench the brightest eyes | B |
'Tis only what is written never dies | B |
Yea memories that guard like sacred gold | S |
Some sainted face they also must grow old | S |
Pass and forget and think or darest thou not | S |
On all the beauty that is quite forgot | S |
- | |
Strange craft of words strange magic of the pen | B2 |
Whereby the dead still talk with living men | B2 |
Whereby a sentence in its trivial scope | C2 |
May centre all we love and all we hope | C2 |
And in a couplet like a rosebud furled | S |
Lie all the wistful wonder of the world | S |
- | |
Old are the stars and yet they still endure | D2 |
Old are the flowers yet never fail the spring | A2 |
Why is the song that is so old so new | X |
Known and yet strange each sweet small shape and hue | X |
How may a poet thus for ever sing | A2 |
Thus build his climbing music sweet and sure | D2 |
As builds in stars and flowers the Eternal mind | S |
Ah Poet that is yours to seek and find | S |
Yea yours that magisterial skill whereby | V |
God put all Heaven in a woman's eye | V |
Nature's own mighty and mysterious art | S |
That knows to pack the whole within the part | S |
The shell that hums the music of the sea | B |
The little word big with Eternity | B |
The cosmic rhythm in microcosmic things | B |
One song the lark and one the planet sings | B |
One kind heart beating warm in bird and tree | B |
To hear it beat who knew so well as he | B |
- | |
Virgil of prose far distant is the day | S |
When at the mention of your heartfelt name | I |
Shall shake the head and men oblivious say | S |
'We know him not this master nor his fame ' | - |
Not for so swift forgetfulness you wrought | S |
Day upon day with rapt fastidious pen | B2 |
Turning like precious stones with anxious thought | S |
This word and that again and yet again | B2 |
Seeking to match its meaning with the world | S |
Nor to the morning stars gave ears attent | S |
That you indeed might ever dare to be | B |
With other praise than immortality | B |
Unworthily content | S |
- | |
Not while a boy still whistles on the earth | E2 |
Not while a single human heart beats true | X |
Not while Love lasts and Honour and the Brave | C |
Has earth a grave | C |
O well beloved for you | X |
Richard Le Gallienne
(1)
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