The Mirror Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCEFDC GHHGIHHHIHHJJH KLMLNNOOPQHHK HMHMHRHRH SSTHTHHUHV WWHWHXKCCYYZZHA2HA2Y B2HASB2HS FHHC2BHC2C2D2D2HHHHM MHMH YHYHE2F2F2G2G2F2F2HH HHHHNNH2H2DDI2I2YY AHJ2HHJ2HHJ2 HF2HF2F2F2HMMF2 K2C2K2C2K2L2L2HHL2HH YYYM2HHN2HHN2HO2O2DH DHHO2HN2 P2HP2HSSHHHQ2HQ2Q2YH R2YHR2HS2F2T2T2T2F2T 2T2HHT2S HHHHT2T2HT2HT2U2HHU2 HT2HHT2HT2T2HKQV2V2L LJ2J2V2T2T2T2SSST2T2 T2T2 YYW2U2DW2DU2DX2X2T2T 2T2T2LLHHHHSI | A |
Where is all the beauty that hath been | B |
Where the bloom | C |
Dust on boundless wind Grass dropt into fire | D |
Shall Earth boast at last of all her teeming womb | C |
All that suffered all that triumphed to inspire | E |
Life in perfect mould and speech the proud mind's lamp serene | F |
Nothing Space be starry in tremendous choir | D |
For whom | C |
- | |
In this deserted chamber as the evening falls | G |
Silent curtains move no fold | H |
Long has ebbed the floor's pale gold | H |
Shadows deepen down the silent walls | G |
The air is mute as dreams beneath a sleeper's face | I |
Distant undivined | H |
But every hovering shadow seems to hold | H |
Want untold | H |
The look of things forsaken each in its own place | I |
Memories without home in any mind | H |
Idle rich neglect and perfume old | H |
Over these the glimmer of the twilight fades | J |
Infinite human solitude invades | J |
Forms relinquished hues resigned | H |
- | |
O little mirror round and clear | K |
In solemn coloured shadow lying | L |
Cold as the moon pale as a tear | M |
With spiritual silver beam replying | L |
Indifferently to all things as to one | N |
Beauty's relic and oblivion | N |
But void void void Desolate as a cave | O |
Abandoned even of the breaking wave | O |
A home of youth and mirth when all its guests are gone | P |
As I touch thee in the silence here | Q |
Where thou liest alone apart | H |
Through the silence of my heart | H |
Thou flashest elfin flames of fear | K |
- | |
Like a thought of lost delight | H |
Like love sweetness like despair | M |
Come faint spices of the night | H |
Floating on the darkened air | M |
The air is tender with the sense of dew | H |
Is tranced is dim is heavy as if there hung | R |
Within the tinges of its shadowy hue | H |
Ghosts of lost flowers with all their petals young | R |
And the young beauty they made incense to | H |
- | |
O forlorn mirror is there nothing thine | S |
The cup is emptied of its fragrant wine | S |
The dress is vacant of the breathing form | T |
And thou that gleam'st | H |
All absence of what once moved gracious white and warm | T |
In thy clear wells or luminously mused | H |
O little mirror long disused | H |
Laid in this empty bower's recess | U |
Thou thyself seem'st | H |
The soul and mystery of emptiness | V |
- | |
Yet if I should raise thee now | W |
As once and oft thou knowest how | W |
Hand and slim wrist smooth as a flower stem raised | H |
Thy silent radiance and with intent brow | W |
Eyes within thee gazed | H |
Seeking thine oracle | X |
Shall not from these pellucid secrecies appear | K |
Not I nor any shape of this dim room | C |
But all that in thy cave of lambent gloom | C |
Hath dwelt and still may dwell | Y |
Ambushed like visions bound in sleeping memory's cell | Y |
All that thy brightness buries as the sea | Z |
Tossed bones and crusted gold had I the key | Z |
Might'st thou not open depths might'st thou not yield | H |
Wonder of wonders what since time began | A2 |
Was never yet revealed | H |
The unmapped unmeasured secret heart of man | A2 |
Half shut eyes voluptuously | Y |
Lightening as the bosom swells and glows | B2 |
Smile to smile flowering from an ardent thought | H |
O what moments didst thou deify | A |
With the promise of life crushed to wine | S |
Redder than the cheek's triumphant rose | B2 |
But from deeper places hast thou brought | H |
Nothing Are not other answers thine | S |
- | |
Hast thou not heard hast thou not seen | F |
Hast thou not shown hast thou not found | H |
Shames unwhispered terrors bound | H |
Earthquake pangs of aghast surmise | C2 |
When with itself the heart has been | B |
Face to face in an hour profound | H |
Out of thee what ghosts shall rise | C2 |
Shapes and gestures and accusing eyes | C2 |
World flattered faces in midnights of pain | D2 |
Faces defaced by tiger lusts insane | D2 |
Faces appalled before a self unguessed | H |
Ashaming dawns on faces fallen and dispossessed | H |
O what glimpses hast thou flashed in dread | H |
With what hauntings wast thou visited | H |
Apparitions of a soul made bare | M |
Shuddering at the thing it looked on there | M |
But thou art stainless though the heart has bled | H |
Thou art silent as the air | M |
Or the wave that closes smooth above the drowner's head | H |
- | |
No man hath seen his soul | Y |
Save for a glimpse in the night | H |
Brief as an ember of coal | Y |
Blown for an instant bright | H |
To see his own soul as it is | E2 |
Eternity must enter him | F2 |
With the torches of Seraphim | F2 |
That have shone to the last abyss | G2 |
Mirror couldst thou show the spirit this | G2 |
Then within this narrow room | F2 |
Were the Judgment and the Doom | F2 |
For by so much as its own self it knew | H |
Searched by that burning vision through and through | H |
To the innermost of where it crouched and hid | H |
Amid the husks of the mean deeds it did | H |
Amid the shadow of all it shunned the quest | H |
It turned from and in palterings acquiesced | H |
To the uttermost of what its eager passion | N |
Caught of the glory springing to re fashion | N |
Hope and the world and great with pity saw | H2 |
Life darkly wrestling with the angel Law | H2 |
By such a measure molten in that fire | D |
Should the soul mete itself on God's desire | D |
Suffer at last all wisdom and endure | I2 |
The beam and vision of a thought all pure | I2 |
O were not this to taste Heaven's dawn or dwell | Y |
Because of knowledge in the pains of Hell | Y |
- | |
- | |
II | A |
Where is all the wailing all the want | H |
That sorrow tore | J2 |
From Love's bleeding breast Extinguished quite | H |
Shall the wide winged glory of hope extravagant | H |
Shall the laughter shall the song that sprang to soar | J2 |
Fall and no ear hearken and their falling flight | H |
Echoless waste walls of adamant | H |
Ignore | J2 |
- | |
Draw wide the curtain Fabulous remote | H |
Night is come | F2 |
Over Earth's lost bosom fragrant breathings float | H |
Into glimmering heights of gloom | F2 |
But upon the solitary verge extreme | F2 |
Steals a beam | F2 |
Hushed and sudden ere the eye could note | H |
Lo the moon is there | M |
Innocence of splendour gazing bare | M |
Drenches leaves in quiet thought in dream | F2 |
- | |
Is it Earth's pale mirror lifted lone | K2 |
For an answer to her million sighs | C2 |
Can that far Tranquillity atone | K2 |
In the gaze of those unnumbered eyes | C2 |
For the pang and for the moan | K2 |
For the heart's dim burial and long dirge | L2 |
Luring as she lures the mutinous sea surge | L2 |
To her will of peace this human tide | H |
From a charmed shadow on the shorn hill side | H |
Hand in hand lovers through the trees emerge | L2 |
And pause their very souls are glorified | H |
Their feet tread airy on immaterial ground | H |
With marvelling gaze they feel | Y |
That well of spiritual light o'erflow | Y |
The listening hush and steal | Y |
Fear and trouble as though | M2 |
The world were one vast music of ethereal sound | H |
And they a stillness in the midst of it | H |
Peace peace and pity pardon pity peace | N2 |
Passing all mortal wit | H |
O truth long sought and magically found | H |
O wonder and release | N2 |
O secret of the world long hidden in day's dust | H |
They bathe their hearts in that sweet dew their hands | O2 |
Thrill clasping in a touch that understands | O2 |
Nothing magnificent but a divine surrender | D |
Absolving and august | H |
To distances immersed and tender | D |
Unfolds this vale of struggle hard and pent | H |
Region of unwon ravishment | H |
In unadventured lands | O2 |
A place of leaves and lonely light and leafy scent | H |
Storied like that old forest of the perilous Fleece | N2 |
- | |
Sorceress of million nights | P2 |
Hast thou charmed indeed the brew | H |
When the stealth of perverse rites | P2 |
Mouths that mutter hands that strew | H |
Love tormented and malign | S |
Flushed with terror like a maddening wine | S |
Sought another's rue | H |
Hecate of the cross roads hast thou hearkened | H |
To the sailing witch's mew | H |
And the felon raven's croak | Q2 |
When the shuddering winds were darkened | H |
And the leaves rushed from the withered oak | Q2 |
Ah not these foul toys would I invoke | Q2 |
O for some supreme enchanting spell | Y |
Voice of a God crying aloud | H |
Felt and feared on Earth's heart strings | R2 |
To conjure and to compel | Y |
Like a spectre from the shroud | H |
Or like incense dust that springs | R2 |
Into fire and fragrant cloud | H |
Out of thy blind caves and cold recesses | S2 |
Out of that blank mirror's desert beam | F2 |
All the unnumbered longings and wild prayers | T2 |
Infinite heart broken tendernesses | T2 |
Indignations and despairs | T2 |
That from man's long wound of passion stream | F2 |
Sucked like vapour like a mist of tears | T2 |
Into that imagined peace that ecstasy | T2 |
O surely surely thou hast wrought thy part | H |
In every secret and tempestuous heart | H |
Thou that hast gleamed on thousand battle crimsoned spears | T2 |
Thou that wast radiant on Gethsemane | S |
- | |
She has seen not she has heard not | H |
Hearts have leapt for her but she has stirred not | H |
Pity she has made but none has had | H |
Though her magic mingles with Earth's want | H |
And the trouble of Earth's tender sons | T2 |
Thunder of the builded Babylons | T2 |
Music of the dreaming poet's chant | H |
Venture of the steering argosies | T2 |
With a light as of divine fulfilment clad | H |
Breathing in for ever syllables of peace | T2 |
Peace is it peace Yet Earth dark Earth | U2 |
Mother O Mother thou that nourishest | H |
In the blind patience of thy teeming breast | H |
Hope without end who drivest life to birth | U2 |
Yet numberest not our dear and sacred dead | H |
Unheeding of our anguish and lost cries | T2 |
So thou mayst build beyond us in our stead | H |
A race enriched with all for which we bled | H |
Of haughtier stature and of kinglier eyes | T2 |
Thou of whose vast desire strong realms of old | H |
The dynasty of empires were but waves | T2 |
That towered and crashed into their splendid graves | T2 |
For thine unresting hunger to remould | H |
Yet mightier O insatiable Doth fear | K |
Not shake thee Mother seest thou not ev'n here | Q |
In that cold mirror's answer what shall steep | V2 |
Thee also in oblivion Thou shalt keep | V2 |
Of all the fruit of thy most fiery spring | L |
Stored riches of thy sleepless trafficking | L |
And proud perfection thou hast travailed for | J2 |
Nothing The beauty that thy body bore | J2 |
Fresh and exulting Mother dost not weep | V2 |
Laughter of streams young flowers and starry seas | T2 |
Pillar and palace heaven faced images | T2 |
That man has wrought his tossing heart to ease | T2 |
Nothing To cloud shall vanish the deed done | S |
The bannered victory the wrong borne alone | S |
Nothing and thou be desolate and none | S |
To feel thy desolation emptiness | T2 |
Night within night immense and issueless | T2 |
Till as a breath upon the mirror dies | T2 |
Fades the last smoke of thy long sacrifice | T2 |
- | |
Out of the deeps trembling the soul | Y |
Cries through night to the silent pole | Y |
I that am want I that am grief | W2 |
I that am love I that am mirth | U2 |
I that am fear I that am fire | D |
Though thou clothe me in beauty brief | W2 |
Though I have worn thy sweet attire | D |
I thy endless sorrow Earth | U2 |
Dwell in the glory of God's desire | D |
That kneads for ever in the flesh | X2 |
Of man to make his spirit afresh | X2 |
A marvel more than all thy wandering seas | T2 |
And mightier than thy caverned mysteries | T2 |
Nor stays nor sleeps but world on world transfuses | T2 |
Melted ever to diviner uses | T2 |
Through infinite swift changes burning | L |
Itself the end no end discerning | L |
Till all the universe be wrought | H |
Into its far perfecting thought | H |
Then this mind of cloud and rue | H |
Shall in eternal mind be new | H |
Mirror of God pure and alone | S |
See and be seen know and be known '' | - |
Robert Laurence Binyon
(1)
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