The Threshold Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDBDEFEG HIIJHKLMLM NBBONOPQPQ RRRSRSTUTU RRRRRRRVRV WRRXWYRFRF RRRZRZA2RA2R RRRB2RB2C2D2E2D2 RF2F2RRRRG2RG2 A2RRCA2H2I2FI2F J2FFK2J2K2L2M2L2M2 RRRFRFFRFR A2G2G2TA2TN2M2N2M2 O2P2P2Q2O2R2RRRR K2FFFK2FRRRRAn Ode | A |
I walked beside full flooding Thames to night | B |
Westward upon my face the sunset fell | C |
The hour the spacious evening pleased me well | C |
Buoyant the air breathed after rain and kind | D |
To senses flattered with soft sound and light | B |
Of merry waves that leapt against the wind | D |
Where broadly heaving barge and boat at rest | E |
The River came at flood from golden skies | F |
Issuing through arches black upon the West | E |
To flame before the sunset's mysteries | G |
- | |
Far off to night as a remembered dream | H |
That different Thames familiar as a friend | I |
That youthful Thames to whom his willows bend | I |
With private whisper where my boat would come | J |
Heaped with fresh flowers and down the cool smooth stream | H |
Follow his green banks through the twilight home | K |
Far from these paven shores these haughty towers | L |
Where wave and beam glorying together run | M |
As though they would disown those cradling bowers | L |
And gushed immediate from the molten sun | M |
- | |
Dazzled I turn and lo the solemn East | N |
Before me comes Soft to my eyes yet bright | B |
London her vastness stretches in hushed light | B |
Murmuring wharf and terrace curve afar | O |
Past bridge and steeple thronging great with least | N |
To Paul's high cross that sparkles like a star | O |
The distant windows glitter and high o'er them | P |
Clouds unapproachable illumined snows | Q |
Tinged with calm fire that blushes like a gem | P |
As though themselves burned inwardly repose | Q |
- | |
All things methought that inward glory shared | R |
A radiant strangeness nothing I beheld | R |
But spoke in a new tongue to me or spelled | R |
New meanings and within me a deep sense | S |
Of portals opening of an hour prepared | R |
Prophesied and a light transported thence | S |
Of expectation on me also came | T |
Glowing the city waits what shall arrive | U |
The steep clouds smoulder as to sudden flame | T |
They would burst forth and the wave leaps alive | U |
- | |
Immediately stole over me the thought | R |
Of this age ending painful and oppressed | R |
Its cry entreating still rejected rest | R |
Echoed behind me But I seemed to stand | R |
Beyond and over the near threshold brought | R |
Of days to be the air blew strong and bland | R |
I listened and a voice wherein bore part | R |
Cloud light and wind and water thus began | V |
Aerial tones a voice from the deep heart | R |
Of all things speaking to the heart of man | V |
- | |
Say troubled one what sorrow is it keeps | W |
Thy spirit Because thy latest dream is shed | R |
Is the root sapped and the strong branches dead | R |
Forget'st thou that thy generations have | X |
Their seasons and for them her due term sleeps | W |
Spring with her buds dreaming in Autumn's grave | Y |
Because 'twas Autumn with thee thou sit'st mute | R |
To the fall of the leaf consenting yet thine eyes | F |
Cast round thee and consider what fair fruit | R |
The full seeds bear in charge Wake and arise | F |
- | |
Wake and for blither energy remit | R |
This tedious questing in the inscrutable past | R |
This pondering the before and after vast | R |
O couldst thou take like us Time's quiet bloom | Z |
On life alone expend thy freshened wit | R |
The burden and the joy alone resume | Z |
The mountains groan not that the streams devour | A2 |
With thievish tongue their ancient high estate | R |
Nor of her pining leaf complains the flower | A2 |
But thou enjoy'st not nor reject'st thy fate | R |
- | |
Pitying thee the Powers that on thee cast | R |
Thy destiny 'mid labour solace sent | R |
For veiled they keep that infinite ascent | R |
Of years and by degrees the pathway show | B2 |
Up which thou mountest deemest still the last | R |
Step won and numbered all the stones of woe | B2 |
And easily triumphant thou lean'st forth | C2 |
To grasp the final palm when that eludes | D2 |
As easily dejected placid Earth | E2 |
Remains a mirror for thy hundred moods | D2 |
- | |
Dream builder for whose dreams thy lips invent | R |
Names of sweet sound freedom and peace and truth | F2 |
Upon the bright fermenting mists of youth | F2 |
Projecting a foredoomed reality | R |
Happy if gross joys could thy brain content | R |
Or could thy faith match thy credulity | R |
Ever inweaving Earth's plain warp with thread | R |
Of thy deep wishes thine own heart's strong hue | G2 |
The mind thy prison thought thy narrow bed | R |
With truth with freedom what hast thou to do | G2 |
- | |
O yet I answered not in vain desire | A2 |
Spurs us to gaze into the infinity | R |
To dip our hands in that wide whispering sea | R |
How shall one flower the whole wood's voices tell | C |
Or one small sphere interpret that full choir | A2 |
Of orb with orb music ineffable | H2 |
From all worlds mingled Yet since our best joy | I2 |
Not in possession but beyond us lies | F |
Our hearts at last weary of earth's annoy | I2 |
Only that far off music satisfies | F |
- | |
Name beyond names Heart of the Eternal Life | J2 |
Whom our faint thought hardly at times conceives | F |
Who hear'st but as the oak his fluttered leaves | F |
The cry of parting spirits who in the pang | K2 |
For children born rejoicest from whose strife | J2 |
And travail issuing the bright worlds outsprang | K2 |
If the wide thought of thee my childish grief | L2 |
Ever effaced accept my manhood's vow | M2 |
O sweet and insupportable O chief | L2 |
And first and last of all loves hear me now | M2 |
- | |
Me whom this living vastness once appalled | R |
And this uproar disheartened and oppressed | R |
Now larger thoughts enfranchise with sweet zest | R |
Nourish and this immensity sustains | F |
Buoyed as a swimmer upon ocean called | R |
From time to the eternal my due pains | F |
Accepting in thy bosom I repose | F |
Of joys and griefs together make my bed | R |
In longing to set sure against all foes | F |
My spirit freed and with thy spirit wed | R |
- | |
Thou thou remainest ever in lovely power | A2 |
Triumphant whom beginning never knew | G2 |
'Tis we alone that our own strength undo | G2 |
'Tis we alone that to thy ardour lame | T |
Often defeated miserably deflower | A2 |
The joy thou gavest quench the imparted flame | T |
And native sweet sourly to ashes turn | N2 |
O help inspire Us with thyself endow | M2 |
Through our brief actions let thy greatness burn | N2 |
As through the clouds the light is burning now | M2 |
- | |
For me since thou this hour to see thee whole | O2 |
Vouchsafest no more shall my heart deny | P2 |
That thou proceed'st because I fail and cry | P2 |
Henceforth will I endure to walk right on | Q2 |
Nor my bliss too much ponder nor my dole | O2 |
And since dear peace fortifies faith alone | R2 |
I trust thee and not loth resign my heart | R |
Nor though thou shouldst betray me wound and rend | R |
Would my course alter that the better part | R |
Have chosen enduring to the unknown end | R |
- | |
So inwardly my lifted spirit sang | K2 |
And lo that solemn joy to authorize | F |
With answering bloom before my lifted eyes | F |
The clouds moved softly the far western fires | F |
A moment o'er the steeples paused and sprang | K2 |
Now on the eye the fading light expires | F |
But 'tis to me as if Earth cast off Day | R |
Assuming her own glory and her flight | R |
Unwearied urging on the eternal way | R |
Already glowed among the lamps of Night | R |
Robert Laurence Binyon
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