Tree-worship - (to John Lane) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN OPOP QRSR ITIT UVUV WXWX IIII YIYI ZIZI IVIV IA2IA2

Vast and mysterious brother ere was yet of meA
So much as men may poise upon a needle's endB
Still shook with laughter all this monstrous might of theeA
And still with haughty crest it called the morning friendB
-
Thy latticed column jetted up the bright blue airC
Tall as a mast it was and stronger than a towerD
Three hundred winters had beheld thee mighty thereC
Before my little life had lived one little hourD
-
With rocky foot stern set like iron in the landE
With leafy rustling crest the morning sows with pearlsF
Huge as a minster half in heaven men saw thee standE
Thy rugged girth the waists of fifty Eastern girlsF
-
Knotted and warted slabbed and armoured like the hideG
Of tropic elephant unstormable and steepH
As some grim fortress with a princess pearl insideG
Where savage guardian faces beard the bastioned keepH
-
So hard a rind old tree shielding so soft a heartI
A woman's heart of tender little nestling leavesJ
Nor rind so hard but that a touch so soft can partI
And Spring's first baby bud an easy passage cleavesJ
-
I picture thee within with dainty satin sidesK
Where all the long day through the sleeping dryad dreamsL
But when the moon bends low and taps thee thrice she glidesK
Knowing the fairy knock to bask within her beamsL
-
And all the long night through for him with eyes and earsM
She sways within thine arms and sings a fairy tuneN
Till startled with the dawn she softly disappearsM
And sleeps and dreams again until the rising moonN
-
But with the peep of day great bands of heavenly birdsO
Fill all thy branchy chambers with a thousand flutesP
And with the torrid noon stroll up the weary herdsO
To seek thy friendly shade and doze about thy rootsP
-
Till with the setting sun they turn them once more homeQ
And ere the moon dawns for a brief enchanted spaceR
Weary with million miles the sore spent star beams comeS
And moths and bats hold witches' sabbath in the placeR
-
And then I picture thee some bloodstained HolyroodI
Dread haunted palace of the bat and owl whence stealT
Shrouded all day lost murdered spirits of the woodI
And fright young happy nests with homeless hoot and squealT
-
Then maybe dangling from thy gloomy gallows boughsU
A human corpse swings mournful rattling bones and chainsV
His eighteenth century flesh hath fattened nineteenth century cowsU
Ghastly Aeolian harp fingered of winds and rainsV
-
Poor Rizpah comes to reap each newly fallen boneW
That once thrilled soft a little limb within her wombX
And mark yon alchemist with zodiac spangled zoneW
Wrenching the mandrake root that fattens in the gloomX
-
So rounds thy day from maiden morn to haunted nightI
From larks and sunlit dreams to owl and gibbering ghostI
A catacomb of dark a maze of living lightI
To the wide sea of air a green and welcome coastI
-
I seek a god old tree accept my worship thouY
All other gods have failed me always in my needI
I hang my votive song beneath thy temple boughY
Unto thy strength I cry Old monster be my creedI
-
Give me to clasp this earth with feeding roots like thineZ
To mount yon heaven with such star aspiring headI
Fill full with sap and buds this shrunken life of mineZ
And from my boughs oh might such stalwart sons be shedI
-
With loving cheek pressed close against thy horny breastI
I hear the roar of sap mounting within thy veinsV
Tingling with buds thy great hands open towards the westI
To catch the sweetheart winds that bring the sister rainsV
-
O winds that blow from out the fruitful mouth of GodI
O rains that softly fall from His all loving eyesA2
You that bring buds to trees and daisies to the sodI
O God's best Angel of the Spring in me ariseA2

Richard Le Gallienne



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