Thunder On The Downs Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEFGHHHHHHHII JJKKLMNN OOPPQQRRSSSSTTUUHHVV WWSSXXYXSSZZHHA2B2SS HHSSSSXXSSXXHH C2C2D2D2E2E2 F2F2HHHHG2G2B2H2F2F2 SSSSH SSHHSSI2I2SSS SSZG2SSSSF2F2F2F2J2J 2K2K2L2L2HHHHC2C2F2F 2B2B2UUHHF2F2D2A2SSI 2I2F2F2SSM2M2HHI2I2H HHHSSD2D2F2F2Wide earth wide heaven and in the summer air | A |
Silence The summit of the Down is bare | A |
Between the climbing crests of wood but those | B |
Great sea winds wont when the wet South West blows | B |
To rock tall beeches and strong oaks aloud | C |
And strew torn leaves upon the streaming cloud | C |
To day are idle slumbering far aloof | D |
Under the solemn height and gorgeous roof | D |
Of cloud built sky all earth is indolent | E |
Wandering hum of bees and thymy scent | F |
Of the short turf enrich pure loneliness | G |
Scarcely an airy topmost twining tress | H |
Of bryony quivers where the thorn it wreathes | H |
Hot fragrance from the honeysuckle breathes | H |
And sweet the rose floats on the arching briar's | H |
Green fountain sprayed with delicate frail fires | H |
For clumps of thicket dark beneath the blaze | H |
Of the high westering sun beset the ways | H |
Of smooth grass narrowing where the slope runs steep | I |
Down to green woods and glowing shadows keep | I |
A freshness round the mossy roots and cool | J |
The light that sleeps as in a chequered pool | J |
Of golden air O woods I love you well | K |
I love the flowers you hide your ferny smell | K |
But here is sweeter solitude for here | L |
My heart breathes heavenly space the sky is near | M |
To thought with heights that fathomlessly glow | N |
And the eye wanders the wide land below | N |
- | |
And this is England June's undarkened green | O |
Gleams on far woods and in the vales between | O |
Gray hamlets older than the trees that shade | P |
Their ripening meadows are in quiet laid | P |
Themselves a part of the warm fruitful ground | Q |
The little hills of England rise around | Q |
The little streams that wander from them shine | R |
And with their names remembered names entwine | R |
Of old renown and honour fields of blood | S |
High causes fought on stubborn hardihood | S |
For freedom spent and songs our noblest pride | S |
That in the heart of England never died | S |
And burning still make splendour of our tongue | T |
Glories enacted spoken suffered sung | T |
You lie emblazoned on this land now sleeping | U |
And southward over leagues of forest sweeping | U |
White on the verge glistens the famous sea | H |
That English wave on which so haughtily | H |
Towered her sails and one sail homeward bore | V |
Past capes of silently lamenting shore | V |
Victory's dearest dead O shores of home | W |
Since by the vanished watch fire shields of Rome | W |
Dinted this upland turf what hearts have ached | S |
To see you far away what eyes have waked | S |
Ere dawn to watch those cliffs of long desire | X |
One after one rise in their voiceless choir | X |
Out of the twilight over the rough blue | Y |
Like music But now heavy gleams imbrue | X |
The inland air Breathless the valleys hold | S |
Their colours in a veil of sultry gold | S |
With mingled shadows that have ceased to crawl | Z |
For far in heaven is thunder Over all | Z |
A single cloud in slow magnificence | H |
Climbs like a mountain gradual and immense | H |
With awful head unstirring and moved on | A2 |
Against the zenith towers above the sun | B2 |
And still it thickens luminous fold on fold | S |
Of fatal colour ominously scrolled | S |
And fleeced with fire above the sun it towers | H |
Like some vast thought quickening a world not ours | H |
Remote in the waste blue as if behind | S |
Its rim were splendour that could smite us blind | S |
So doom piled and intense it crests heaven's height | S |
And mounting makes a menace of the light | S |
A menace Yes for when light comes we fear | X |
Light that may touch as the pure angel spear | X |
Us to ourselves make visible make start | S |
The apparition of the very heart | S |
And mystery of our thoughts awaked from under | X |
The mask of cheating habit and to thunder | X |
Bare in a moment of white fire what we | H |
Have feared and fled our own reality | H |
- | |
And if a lightning now were loosed in flame | C2 |
Out of the darkness of the cloud to claim | C2 |
Thy heart O England how wouldst thou be known | D2 |
In that hour How to the quick core be shown | D2 |
And seen What cry should from thy very soul | E2 |
Answer the judgment of that thunder roll | E2 |
- | |
I hear a voice arraign thee Where is now | F2 |
The exaltation that once lit thy brow | F2 |
Thou countest all thy ocean sundered lands | H |
Thou heapest up the labours of thy hands | H |
Thou seest all thy ships upon the seas | H |
But in thine own heart mean idolatries | H |
Usurp devotion choke thee and annul | G2 |
Noble excess of spirit and make dull | G2 |
Thine eyes enfleshed with much dominion | B2 |
Art thou so great and is the glory gone | H2 |
Do these bespeak thy freedom who deflower | F2 |
Time and make barren every senseless hour | F2 |
Who from themselves hurry like men afraid | S |
Lest what they are be to themselves betrayed | S |
Or those who in their huddled thousands sweat | S |
To buy the sleep that helps them to forget | S |
Life lies unused life with its loveliness | H |
While the cry ravens still Possess Possess '' | - |
And there is no possession All the lust | S |
Of gainful man is quieted in dust | S |
His faith his fear his joy his doom he owns | H |
No more the rest is parcelled with his bones | H |
Save what the imagination of his heart | S |
Can to the labour of his hands impart | S |
Making stones serve his spirit's desire and breathe | I2 |
But thou what dost thou to the world bequeathe | I2 |
Who gatherest riches in a waste of mind | S |
Unto what end O confidently blind | S |
Forgetful of the things that grow not old | S |
And alone live and are not bought or sold '' | - |
- | |
Speaks that voice truth Is it for this that great | S |
And tender spirits suffered scorn and hate | S |
Loved to the utmost poured themselves gave all | Z |
Nor counted cost spirits imperial | G2 |
Where are they now they that our memory guard | S |
Among the nations Shall I say enstarred | S |
And throned aloof No not from heavens of thought | S |
Watching our muddied brief procession not | S |
Judges sublime above us without share | F2 |
In our thronged ways of struggle hope despair | F2 |
But in our blood our dreams our deeds they stir | F2 |
Strive on our lips for language shame and spur | F2 |
The sluggard in us out of darkness come | J2 |
Like summoned champions when the world is dumb | J2 |
Within our hearts they wait with all they gave | K2 |
Woe to us woe if we become their grave | K2 |
It shall not be Darken thy pall and trail | L2 |
Thunder of heaven above the valleys pale | L2 |
Another England in my vision glows | H |
And she is armed within at last she knows | H |
Herself and what to her own soul belongs | H |
Mid the world's irremediable wrongs | H |
She keeps her faith and nothing of her name | C2 |
Or of her handiwork but doth proclaim | C2 |
Her purpose Her own soul hath made her free | F2 |
Not circumstance she knows no victory | F2 |
Save of the mind in her is nothing done | B2 |
No wrong no shame no glory of any one | B2 |
But is the cause of all and each a thing | U |
Felt like a fire to kindle and to sting | U |
The proud blood of a nation On her brows | H |
Is hope her body doth her spirit house | H |
Express and eloquent not dumb and frore | F2 |
And her voice echoes over sea and shore | F2 |
And all the lands and isles that are her own | D2 |
In choric interchange and antiphon | A2 |
Answer as fancy hears in yonder cloud | S |
From vale to vale repeated low and loud | S |
The still suspended thunder Hearts of Youth | I2 |
High beating ardent quick in hope and ruth | I2 |
And noble anger O wherever now | F2 |
You dedicate your uncorrupted vow | F2 |
To be an energy of Light a sword | S |
Of the ever living Will amid abhorred | S |
Din of the reeking street and populous den | M2 |
Where under the great stars blind lusts of men | M2 |
War on each other or escaped to hills | H |
Where peace the solitary evening fills | H |
Or far remote on other soils of earth | I2 |
Keeping the dearness of your fathers' hearth | I2 |
On vast plains of the West or Austral strands | H |
Of the warm under world or storied lands | H |
Of the orient sun or over ocean ways | H |
Stemming the wave through blue or stormy days | H |
Wherever as the circling light slopes round | S |
On human lips is heard an English sound | S |
O scattered silent hidden and unknown | D2 |
Be lifted up for you are not alone | D2 |
High beating hearts to your deep vows be true | F2 |
Live out your dreams for England lives in you | F2 |
Robert Laurence Binyon
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Thunder On The Downs poem by Robert Laurence Binyon
Best Poems of Robert Laurence Binyon