The Wharf On Thames-side; Winter Dawn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST UVWXQYCZA2B2C2D2E2F2 IZG2YH2ZI2J2K2L2M2N2 O2 P2MXZQ2R2S2T2U2V2W2X 2Y2Z2A3B3 C3EZD3E3F3HA2B3G3FM2 H3I3LJ3E3Day begins cold and misty on soiled snow | A |
That frost has ridged and crusted Sound of steps | B |
Comes then a shape emerges from the mist | C |
Without haste trudging tracks the feet know well | D |
With his breath white upon the air before him | E |
To old work Over the river hangs a crane | F |
At the wharf's edge Scarved wheezing buttoned up | G |
The stubble bearded crane man eyes the tide | H |
Ruckling against moored barges under the bridge | I |
Considers the blank moon the obstinate frost | J |
Swings arms and beats them on his breast for warmth | K |
And to his engine cabin disappears | L |
Full fast impetuous the tide floods up Thames | M |
And the solitary morning steals abroad | N |
Over a million roofs intensely still | O |
And distant in a dark sleep For whose joy | P |
Was it the February moon all night | Q |
Beamed silence like the healing of all noise | R |
And beauty like compassion upon mean | S |
Litter of energy and trading toil | T |
Cinder heaps sacks tarpaulins and stale straw | U |
Empty and full trucks rails and rows of carts | V |
Shafts tilted backwards musty railway arch | W |
Dingy brick wall huddled slate roofs It shone | X |
On the clean snow and the fouled touches of light | Q |
Mysterious as a dreamer's smile For whom | Y |
Rose before dawn the spiritual pale mist | C |
When imperceptibly the hue of the air | Z |
Was altered and the dwindled beamless moon | A2 |
Looked like an exiled ghost till opposite | B2 |
The vapour flushed to airy rose and dawn | C2 |
Made the first long faint shadows Now the smoke | D2 |
Begins to go up from those chimnied roofs | E2 |
Across the water Trains with hissing speed | F2 |
And frosty flashes cross the shaken bridge | I |
Filled each with faces eager and uneager | Z |
Tired and fresh young and old bound for the desk | G2 |
The stool the counter threads in the roaring loom | Y |
Of London What thoughts have they in their eyes | H2 |
That idly fall on the familiar river | Z |
This passive moment before toil usurps | I2 |
Hand and brain Each a separate memoried world | J2 |
Of scheme and fancy of dreads and urgent hopes | K2 |
Hungers and solaces But which keeps not | L2 |
A private corner deep in heart or mind | M2 |
Where dwells what no one else knows And they pass | N2 |
Nameless in thousands with their mysteries by us | O2 |
- | |
Slowly the city is waking in all its streets | P2 |
But dark impetuous silent full up Thames | M |
The tide comes like a lover to his own | X |
Comes like a lover as if it sought to pour | Z |
Secrets to its listener of vast night and the old | Q2 |
Bright moon lit oceans of wild breaths of brine | R2 |
Of tall ships that it swung to an anchorage | S2 |
In the misty dawn and wanderers far away | T2 |
On the outer seas among adventurous isles | U2 |
Whose names are homely here As if the blood | V2 |
Of this our race poured back upon its heart | W2 |
Drawn by that moon of pale farewell it comes | X2 |
Brimming and buoyant with an eager ripple | Y2 |
Against the black stemmed barges and swift swirl | Z2 |
Of sucking eddies by stone piers and sound | A3 |
Like laughter along the grimed wall of the wharf | B3 |
- | |
A great horse tugging at a truck stamps hoofs | C3 |
Upon the frozen ground A man beside him | E |
Shouts or is silent Labourers here and there | Z |
Deliberately in habit's motion take | D3 |
Each his work from the barges lighter men | E3 |
Call and the crane moves rattling in its iron | F3 |
It is plain day Still the up streaming tide | H |
Pours its swift secret and the fading moon | A2 |
Lingers aloft But now the wakened wharf | B3 |
Stirred from its numbness the bright rails the trucks | G3 |
With snow upon them and the hoisting crane | F |
Are touched with all the difference of mankind | M2 |
And the river whispering out of the travelled seas | H3 |
Of foreign ships and countries comes to them | I3 |
With a familiar usage each appears | L |
As a faculty of the morning that begins | J3 |
Once more the inter threaded toil of men | E3 |
Robert Laurence Binyon
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