The Englishman In Italy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BAAACDEDFGAGHIJIKACA FLCLMAAAFNCNCOPOAMQM RSTSUCFCCVCVVVWVAXFX AXAXYCACZA2XA2AXCXAF FFCFCFZAYACXFXZABAZX XXB2XC2XXCD2CFE2FE2F 2XSXXCTCFD2XD2AG2FG2 CXFXXAXAXXXXAVLH2FAZ AXAAAXSASAI2CI2AJ2XK 2XXBXAAZAXAXAYXAXAB2 TB2AL2TL2FAXAAVAVAFA FFH2XH2VAFAFXXXFM2FM 2FOAOXN2XO2XZAZ ZP2AP2XQ2R2Q2S2VCVFC XCT2ZFZCAXAXAXAAXFXA AXAFXCXU2V2BV2XAXAZC XCBD2FD2X XW2XXXEX

PIANO DI SORRENTOA
-
Fortu Frotu my beloved oneB
Sit here by my sideA
On my knees put up both little feetA
I was sure if I triedA
I could make you laugh spite of SciroccoC
Now open your eyesD
Let me keep you amused till he vanishE
In black from the skiesD
With telling my memories overF
As you tell your beadsG
All the memories plucked at SorrentoA
The flowers or the weedsG
Time for rain for your long hot dry AutumnH
Had net worked with brownI
The white skin of each grape on the bunchesJ
Marked like a quail's crownI
Those creatures you make such account ofK
Whose heads specked with whiteA
Over brown like a great spider's backC
As I told you last nightA
Your mother bites off for her supperF
Red ripe as could beL
Pomegranates were chapping and splittingC
In halves on the treeL
And betwixt the loose walls of great flintstoneM
Or in the thick dustA
On the path or straight out of the rock sideA
Wherever could thrustA
Some burnt sprig of bold hardy rock flowerF
Its yellow face upN
For the prize were great butterflies fightingC
Some five for one cupN
So I guessed ere I got up this morningC
What change was in storeO
By the quick rustle down of the quail netsP
Which woke me beforeO
I could open my shutter made fastA
With a bough and a stoneM
And look through the twisted dead vine twigsQ
Sole lattice that's knownM
Quick and sharp rang the rings down the net polesR
While busy beneathS
Your priest and his brother tugged at themT
The rain in their teethS
And out upon all the flat house roofsU
Where split figs lay dryingC
The girls took the frails under coverF
Nor use seemed in tryingC
To get out the boats and go fishingC
For under the cliffV
Fierce the black water frothed o'er the blind rockC
No seeing our skiffV
Arrive about noon from AmalfiV
Our fisher arriveV
And pitch down his basket before usW
All trembling aliveV
With pink and grey jellies your sea fruitA
You touch the strange lumpsX
And mouths gape there eyes open all mannerF
Of horns and of humpsX
Which only the fisher looks grave atA
While round him like impsX
Cling screaming the children as nakedA
And brown as his shrimpsX
Himself too as bare to the middleY
You see round his neckC
The string and its brass coin suspendedA
That saves him from wreckC
But today not a boat reached SalernoZ
So back to a manA2
Came our friends with whose help in the vineyardsX
Grape harvest beganA2
In the vat half way up in our house sideA
Like blood the juice spinsX
While your brother all bare legged is dancingC
Till breathless he grinsX
Dead beaten in effort on effortA
To keep the grapes underF
Since still when he seems all but masterF
In pours the fresh plunderF
From girls who keep coming and goingC
With basket on shoulderF
And eyes shut against the rain's drivingC
Your girls that are olderF
For under the hedges of aloeZ
And where on its bedA
Of the orchard's black mould the love appleY
Lies pulpy and redA
All the young ones are kneeling and fillingC
Their laps with the snailsX
Tempted out by this first rainy weatherF
Your best of regalesX
As tonight will be proved to my sorrowZ
When supping in stateA
We shall feast our grape gleaners two dozenB
Three over one plateA
With lasagne so tempting to swallowZ
In slippery ropesX
And gourds fried in great purple slicesX
That colour of popesX
Meantime see the grape bunch they've brought youB2
The rain water slipsX
O'er the heavy blue bloom on each globeC2
Which the wasp to your lipsX
Still follows with fretful persistenceX
Nay taste while awakeC
This half of a curd white smooth cheese ballD2
That peels flake by flakeC
Like an onion's each smoother and whiterF
Next sip this weak wineE2
From the thin green glass flask with its stopperF
A leaf of the vineE2
And end with the prickly pear's red fleshF2
That leaves through its juiceX
The stony black seeds on your pearl teethS
Scirocco is looseX
Hark the quick whistling pelt of the olivesX
Which thick in one's trackC
Tempt the stranger to pick up and bite themT
Though not yet half blackC
How the old twisted olive trunks shudderF
The medlars let fallD2
Their hard fruit and the brittle great fig treesX
Snap off figs and allD2
For here comes the whole of the tempestA
No refuge but creepG2
Back again to my side and my shoulderF
And listen or sleepG2
-
O how will your country show next weekC
When all the vine boughsX
Have been stripped of their foliage to pastureF
The mules and the cowsX
Last eve I rode over the mountainsX
Your brother my guideA
Soon left me to feast on the myrtlesX
That offered each sideA
Their fruit balls black glossy and lusciousX
Or strip from the sorbsX
A treasure so rosy and wondrousX
Of hairy gold orbsX
But my mule picked his sure sober path outA
Just stopping to neighV
When he recognized down in the valleyL
His mates on their wayH2
With the faggots and barrels of waterF
And soon we emergedA
From the plain where the woods could scarce followZ
And still as we urgedA
Our way the woods wondered and left usX
As up still we trudgedA
Though the wild path grew wilder each instantA
And place was e'en grudgedA
'Mid the rock chasms and piles of loose stonesX
Like the loose broken teethS
Of some monster which climbed there to dieA
From the ocean beneathS
Place was grudged to the silver grey fume weedA
That clung to the pathI2
And dark rosemary ever a dyingC
That 'spite the wind's wrathI2
So loves the salt rock's face to seawardA
And lentisks as staunchJ2
To the stone where they root and bear berriesX
And what shows a branchK2
Coral coloured transparent with circletsX
Of pale seagreen leavesX
Over all trod my mule with the cautionB
Of gleaners o'er sheavesX
Still foot after foot like a ladyA
So round after roundA
He climbed to the top of CalvanoZ
And God's own profoundA
Was above me and round me the mountainsX
And under the seaA
And within me my heart to bear witnessX
What was and shall beA
Oh Heaven and the terrible crystalY
No rampart excludesX
Your eye from the life to be livedA
In the blue solitudesX
Oh those mountains their infinite movementA
Still moving with youB2
For ever some new head and breast of themT
Thrusts into viewB2
To observe the intruder you see itA
If quickly you turnL2
And before they escape you surprise themT
They grudge you should learnL2
How the soft plains they look on lean overF
And love they pretendA
Cower beneath them the flat sea pine crouchesX
The wild fruit trees bendA
E'en the myrtle leaves curl shrink and shutA
All is silent and graveV
'Tis a sensual and timorous beautyA
How fair but a slaveV
So I turned to the sea and there slumberedA
As greenly as everF
Those isles of the siren your GalliA
No ages can severF
The Three nor enable their sisterF
To join them half wayH2
On the voyage she looked at UlyssesX
No farther todayH2
Though the small one just launched in the waveV
Watches breast high and steadyA
From under the rock her bold sisterF
Swum half way alreadyA
Fortu shall we sail there togetherF
And see from the sidesX
Quite new rocks show their faces new hauntsX
Where the siren abidesX
Shall we sail round and round them close overF
The rocks though unseenM2
That ruffle the grey glassy waterF
To glorious greenM2
Then scramble from splinter to splinterF
Reach land and exploreO
On the largest the strange square black turretA
With never a doorO
Just a loop to admit the quick lizardsX
Then stand there and hearN2
The birds' quiet singing that tells usX
What life is so clearO2
The secret they sang to UlyssesX
When ages agoZ
He heard and he knew this life's secretA
I hear and I knowZ
-
Ah see The sun breaks o'er CalvanoZ
He strikes the great gloomP2
And flutters it o'er the mount's summitA
In airy gold fumeP2
All is over Look out see the gipsyX
Our tinker and smithQ2
Has arrived set up bellows and forgeR2
And down squatted forthwithQ2
To his hammering under the wall thereS2
One eye keeps aloofV
The urchins that itch to be puttingC
His jews' harps to proofV
While the other through locks of curled wireF
Is watching how sleekC
Shines the hog come to share in the windfallsX
An abbot's own cheekC
All is over Wake up and come out nowT2
And down let us goZ
And see the fine things got in orderF
At Church for the showZ
Of the Sacrament set forth this eveningC
Tomorrow's the FeastA
Of the Rosary's Virgin by no meansX
Of Virgins the leastA
As you'll hear in the off hand discourseX
Which all nature no artA
The Dominican brother these three weeksX
Was getting by heartA
Not a post nor a pillar but's dizenedA
With red and blue papersX
All the roof waves with ribbons each altarF
A blaze with long tapersX
But the great masterpiece is the scaffoldA
Rigged glorious to holdA
All the fiddlers and fifers and drummersX
And trumpeters boldA
Not afraid of Bellini nor AuberF
Who when the priest's hoarseX
Will strike us up something that's briskC
For the feast's second courseX
And then will the flaxen wigged ImageU2
Be carried in pompV2
Through the plain while in gallant processionB
The priests mean to stompV2
And all round the glad church lie old bottlesX
With gunpowder stoppedA
Which will be when the Image re entersX
Religiously poppedA
And at night from the crest of CalvanoZ
Great bonfires will hangC
On the plain will the trumpets join chorusX
And more poppers bangC
At all events come to the gardenB
As far as the wallD2
See me tap with a hoe on the plasterF
Till out there shall fallD2
A scorpion with wide angry nippersX
-
Such trifles you sayX
Fortu in my England at homeW2
Men meet gravely todayX
And debate if abolishing Corn lawsX
Is righteous and wiseX
If 'tis proper Scirocco should vanishE
In black from the skiesX

Robert Browning



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